Masaru started his career as a programmer/engineer, and previously co-founded several system integration companies and consulting firms. He’s been traveling around Silicon Valley and Asia exploring the IT industry, and he also curates event updates for the Tokyo edition of Startup Digest.
Yokohama-based startup Gamba announced today that its business reporting tool has been integrated with four code- and task-tracking tools: GitHub, BitBucket, Pivotal Tracker and Google Tasks. Some of our readers may recall that we featured Gamba in our coverage of Samurai Venture Summit. Their app app was launched back last December by Masahiro Morita who previously work with Rakuten as a business development producer. To date it has acquired more than 1,000 corporate accounts in Japan ranging from listed companies to SMEs. For sales representatives or engineers, the app provides an easy way to share your updates with colleagues or management, at the beginning and the end of business hours. For management who has difficulty finding time to speak with employees face-to-face, it provides information on the progression of tasks and what are employees focusing on. In terms of differentiation from similar services, the app lets users post just an excerpt of their daily updates, which keeps things from being too troublesome. If you there are any additional details that you want to share with colleagues, that information will be submitted to the integrated third-party services mentioned above. In this way, coworkers get a brief update first can later explore…
Yokohama-based startup Gamba announced today that its business reporting tool has been integrated with four code- and task-tracking tools: GitHub, BitBucket, Pivotal Tracker and Google Tasks.
Some of our readers may recall that we featured Gamba in our coverage of Samurai Venture Summit. Their app app was launched back last December by Masahiro Morita who previously work with Rakuten as a business development producer. To date it has acquired more than 1,000 corporate accounts in Japan ranging from listed companies to SMEs.
For sales representatives or engineers, the app provides an easy way to share your updates with colleagues or management, at the beginning and the end of business hours. For management who has difficulty finding time to speak with employees face-to-face, it provides information on the progression of tasks and what are employees focusing on.
In terms of differentiation from similar services, the app lets users post just an excerpt of their daily updates, which keeps things from being too troublesome. If you there are any additional details that you want to share with colleagues, that information will be submitted to the integrated third-party services mentioned above. In this way, coworkers get a brief update first can later explore more details if needed.
I had a chance to speak with Morita, and he explained how they plan to improve the business moving forward.
We actually received many requests from users who expected us to launch mobile apps. We’re currently working on those, and the iOS app will go live next month, with Android following later on. Subsequently we’ll to add a paid service and exploring series A funding in October.
Regarding possible overseas service expansion, he believes there is a need for this kind of task tracking and reporting beyond Japan too. And in that case, possible competitors would include IDoneThis.com, a notable task tracking tool based in San Francisco.
The company aspires to acquire 5,000 corporate accounts. Here in Japan, we have seen more than a few possible competitors including Chatwork, Co-work, and Talknote.
Gamba is backed by Tokyo-based startup incubator Samurai Incubate.
Tokyo-based cloud startup Freee announced today that it has raised 270 million yen (approximately $2.7 million) in a series A funding from Infinity Venture Partners and DCM. This follows the previous seed round where the company secured seed funding of 50 million yen (about $523,000) from DCM back in December. Coinciding with this new funding, the startup rebranded its company name to Freee from CFO K.K., coinciding with the name of its accounting service. At the time of its launch back in March, CEO Daisuke Sasaki stated his goal of acquiring at least 10,000 users in its first year. Surprisingly it is way ahead of that pace, acquiring 6,500 users in the last four and half months, 1.7 times faster than expected. The startup originally planned series A funding for the end of this year but moved up its timeline to accelerate service expansion and user growth. With these new funds, the startup is expecting to hire additional staff and intensify its system development. According to Mr. Sasaki, their users have given them a lot of feedback, and they have been adding features and refining user interface based on those responses. He believes these efforts have helped them acquire many…
Tokyo-based cloud startup Freee announced today that it has raised 270 million yen (approximately $2.7 million) in a series A funding from Infinity Venture Partners and DCM. This follows the previous seed round where the company secured seed funding of 50 million yen (about $523,000) from DCM back in December. Coinciding with this new funding, the startup rebranded its company name to Freee from CFO K.K., coinciding with the name of its accounting service.
At the time of its launch back in March, CEO Daisuke Sasaki stated his goal of acquiring at least 10,000 users in its first year. Surprisingly it is way ahead of that pace, acquiring 6,500 users in the last four and half months, 1.7 times faster than expected. The startup originally planned series A funding for the end of this year but moved up its timeline to accelerate service expansion and user growth.
With these new funds, the startup is expecting to hire additional staff and intensify its system development. According to Mr. Sasaki, their users have given them a lot of feedback, and they have been adding features and refining user interface based on those responses. He believes these efforts have helped them acquire many new users, and now his first priority is to form a responsive team.
Freee CEO Daisuke Sasaki
The company has three key topics that it will focus on moving forward: opening up to third-party services, easing collaborative work, and providing a better user experience. They plan to introduce an API that encourages third-party developers to connect with its platform, which should help the platform in terms of its collaborative capabilities. To improve user experience, they are expecting to introduce a native app for tablet devices to allow users to record and sort out their revenue and expenses regardless of where they are.
Some of our readers may recall that the company previously won the top prize at the Infinity Ventures Summit back in May, a conference hosted by Japan’s Infinity Ventures Partners. We’ve seen more than a few outstanding financial apps in the Japanese startup scene, and Freee can be considered to be among the best of them.
The Nikkei reported today that Japanese group-ware developer Cybozu is planning to launch an office in California next year, with the goal of globally launching its Kintone cloud service [1]. The service is a corporate communication tool comprising of multiple business applications, helping you share information smoothly with your colleagues. In terms of differentiation from conventional tools, this service lets you use a custom set of applications on the suite or even develop an application for it by yourself. There is also a marketplace where users can buy and add various apps from third-party developers, so you can create a knowledge-sharing environment that fits your business. According to the company’s CEO Yoshihisa Aono, the service has already acquired about 700 corporate users — ranging from big companies to SMEs — since its launch in the fall of 2011. The company was founded back in 1997 by Japanese software entrepreneur Toru Takasuka. It was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange within three years of its launch, which at the time was one of the fastest company in history to IPO. With the company’s product dominating the Japanese group-ware market, it set up a US subsidiary back in San Francisco in 2002…
The Nikkei reported today that Japanese group-ware developer Cybozu is planning to launch an office in California next year, with the goal of globally launching its Kintone cloud service [1]. The service is a corporate communication tool comprising of multiple business applications, helping you share information smoothly with your colleagues.
In terms of differentiation from conventional tools, this service lets you use a custom set of applications on the suite or even develop an application for it by yourself. There is also a marketplace where users can buy and add various apps from third-party developers, so you can create a knowledge-sharing environment that fits your business.
According to the company’s CEO Yoshihisa Aono, the service has already acquired about 700 corporate users — ranging from big companies to SMEs — since its launch in the fall of 2011.
The company was founded back in 1997 by Japanese software entrepreneur Toru Takasuka. It was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange within three years of its launch, which at the time was one of the fastest company in history to IPO. With the company’s product dominating the Japanese group-ware market, it set up a US subsidiary back in San Francisco in 2002 to intensify its global marketing efforts. But the office was subsequently shut down in 2005 due to somewhat sluggish performance.
Back in 2010, the company set up a subsidiary focused on accelerating startups, and more than a few web services have been born out of that initiative.
Tokyo-based translation startup Gengo has recently relocated its head office to Shibuya, a district where many Japanese startups are based. The company held a press conference today to unveil how they expect to evolve the platform one step further. CEO Robert Laing, CTO Matthew Romaine, and VP of product management Hiroto Tokusei were all present at the conference, where they proudly introduced their new office where 26 people from 12 countries are working to give their users a better experience. In the presentation, the startup revealed that they are currently working on launching a new interface, which will probably go live next month. For crowdsourced workers who typically translate large volume of texts, the startup will provide an interface that helps you use the same terminology in an entire document and check for spelling or grammatical errors. For clients who order translation requests, the platform will be able to accept business document file formats such as Microsoft Word, Excel, etc., as well as plain text formats. The startup’s competitor Conyac also recently rolled out this feature on its platform back in February. To date, the service has been used to hire more than 8,000 crowdsourced workers, serving translation needs in…
Tokyo-based translation startup Gengo has recently relocated its head office to Shibuya, a district where many Japanese startups are based. The company held a press conference today to unveil how they expect to evolve the platform one step further.
CEO Robert Laing, CTO Matthew Romaine, and VP of product management Hiroto Tokusei were all present at the conference, where they proudly introduced their new office where 26 people from 12 countries are working to give their users a better experience.
From the left: VP Hiroto Tokusei, CEO Robert Laing, CTO Matthew Romaine
In the presentation, the startup revealed that they are currently working on launching a new interface, which will probably go live next month. For crowdsourced workers who typically translate large volume of texts, the startup will provide an interface that helps you use the same terminology in an entire document and check for spelling or grammatical errors. For clients who order translation requests, the platform will be able to accept business document file formats such as Microsoft Word, Excel, etc., as well as plain text formats. The startup’s competitor Conyac also recently rolled out this feature on its platform back in February.
The Gengo team at its new office in Shibuya
To date, the service has been used to hire more than 8,000 crowdsourced workers, serving translation needs in 38 languages. In the last three months, they’ve transacted more than 22 million translation requests from clients in Japan and around the rest of the world. By refining the service’s interface, they hope to transact more translation orders and enhance their revenue stream.
Annual growth of translation orders using Gengo
Gengo originally launched back in late 2008, at that time under the name MyGengo. In 2010, the startup secured seed funding of $750,000 from 500 Startups, Last.fm co-founder Felix Miller, Delicious founder Joshua Schachter, and ex-Value Commerce CEO Brian Nelson. Subsequently, it received $5.25 million in a series A investment round from Atomico and 500 Startups. And then this year, it also received series B funding worth $12 million from Intel Capital (US), Atomico (UK), Iris Capital (France), Infocomm Investments (Singapore), STC Ventures (Saudi Arabia), and NTT Docomo Ventures (Japan).
Nanapi is a popular Japanese site where users can share their favorite lifehacks. The company announced today it has raised 270 million yen (approximately $2.7 million) from KDDI’s Open Innovation Fund [1]. and Globis Capital Partners. This follows a previous round of funding worth 330 million yen from Globis Capital Partners. The startup was founded back in 2007 by former Recruit staffer Kensuke Furukawa and former Rakuten engineer Shuichi Wada. The pair and their colleagues launched the lifehack sharing site back in 2009, and have acquired more than 12 million users to date. Users exchange practical how-tos and daily tips, such as how to better cut vegetables, how to better clean up toilets, or how to wash your neckties in the washing machine. A partnership with Japan’s leading web portal Yahoo Japan came in 2012, and subsequently startup has pulled lots traffic from there, accounting for 10% to 20% of its 60 million monthly page views. With these new funds, the startup plans to intensify development, especially for smartphone users. KDDI Open Innovation Fund is jointly managed by Japan’s second largest telco KDDI and VC firm Global Brain. ↩
Nanapi is a popular Japanese site where users can share their favorite lifehacks. The company announced today it has raised 270 million yen (approximately $2.7 million) from KDDI’s Open Innovation Fund [1]. and Globis Capital Partners. This follows a previous round of funding worth 330 million yen from Globis Capital Partners.
The startup was founded back in 2007 by former Recruit staffer Kensuke Furukawa and former Rakuten engineer Shuichi Wada. The pair and their colleagues launched the lifehack sharing site back in 2009, and have acquired more than 12 million users to date. Users exchange practical how-tos and daily tips, such as how to better cut vegetables, how to better clean up toilets, or how to wash your neckties in the washing machine. A partnership with Japan’s leading web portal Yahoo Japan came in 2012, and subsequently startup has pulled lots traffic from there, accounting for 10% to 20% of its 60 million monthly page views.
With these new funds, the startup plans to intensify development, especially for smartphone users.
KDDI Open Innovation Fund is jointly managed by Japan’s second largest telco KDDI and VC firm Global Brain. ↩
Tokyo-based startup Monoco announced today it has raised funds from Japan’s second largest telco KDDI and Japanese VC firm Global Brain. The specific amount was not disclosed but it’s thought to be several million US dollars. Monoco is a flash sales e-commerce site focused on selling fashion items of a limited quantity selected by curators and buyers worldwide. Since the company’s launch back in April of 2012, it has acquired more than 80,000 users, partnering with more than 900 fashion designers worldwide. As part of its business strategy, the company plans to add more designers to improve the variety of available items, which would likely result in more revenue. They expect to bring on 2,100 designers more by the end of this year. Coinciding with this funding, the startup will establish a navigation page on the web menu of KDDI’s smartphone subscribers, where it will introduce trending items and drive traffic to its e-commerce site. Furthermore it will also set up a physical store in Tokyo’s Omotesando district, in order to promote its brand offline as well. Monoco was previously known as Flutterscape, originally founded back in 2010 as an incubation project at Netprice.com. It had been running an e-commerce…
Tokyo-based startup Monoco announced today it has raised funds from Japan’s second largest telco KDDI and Japanese VC firm Global Brain. The specific amount was not disclosed but it’s thought to be several million US dollars.
Monoco is a flash sales e-commerce site focused on selling fashion items of a limited quantity selected by curators and buyers worldwide. Since the company’s launch back in April of 2012, it has acquired more than 80,000 users, partnering with more than 900 fashion designers worldwide.
As part of its business strategy, the company plans to add more designers to improve the variety of available items, which would likely result in more revenue. They expect to bring on 2,100 designers more by the end of this year.
Coinciding with this funding, the startup will establish a navigation page on the web menu of KDDI’s smartphone subscribers, where it will introduce trending items and drive traffic to its e-commerce site. Furthermore it will also set up a physical store in Tokyo’s Omotesando district, in order to promote its brand offline as well.
Monoco was previously known as Flutterscape, originally founded back in 2010 as an incubation project at Netprice.com. It had been running an e-commerce site selling Japanese products to the overseas markets but subsequently changed to its current business back in 2012. Prior to the funding, it received seed investment from CyberAgent, and investment worth 60 million yen ($600,000) from Nippon Venture Capital, United (ngi group at that time), and Innovation Engine in 2011.
See the original story in Japanese. The 3D printing business is pretty hot in Japan right now. Since the beginning of the year, we’ve heard lots of news in this space. Many co-working spaces providing 3D printing facilities were launched around the country, and Japanese movie rental service DMM recently launched an online 3D printing order service in partnership with local companies Nomad and TeamLab. As the market is still in the early stages, we still don’t know who will be the main players in this space. But recently I had have an opportunity to visit a company that has a very strong presence in the Japanese 3D printing industry. They are iJet corporation, based out of Yokohama. The company was founded back in May of 2009. And despite the fact that have yet to really make any marketing efforts, hundreds of notable Japanese companies are now included on its list of customers. I had a chance to hear from the company’s founder and president Masaru Kumehara about how the company plans to change the Japanese market. A small company with big potential If you haven’t yet heard of iJet, it is probably because they are cultivating marketing channels in…
The 3D printing business is pretty hot in Japan right now. Since the beginning of the year, we’ve heard lots of news in this space. Many co-working spaces providing 3D printing facilities were launched around the country, and Japanese movie rental service DMM recently launched an online 3D printing order service in partnership with local companies Nomad and TeamLab.
As the market is still in the early stages, we still don’t know who will be the main players in this space. But recently I had have an opportunity to visit a company that has a very strong presence in the Japanese 3D printing industry. They are iJet corporation, based out of Yokohama. The company was founded back in May of 2009. And despite the fact that have yet to really make any marketing efforts, hundreds of notable Japanese companies are now included on its list of customers.
I had a chance to hear from the company’s founder and president Masaru Kumehara about how the company plans to change the Japanese market.
A small company with big potential
If you haven’t yet heard of iJet, it is probably because they are cultivating marketing channels in partnership with retailing companies rather than actually marketing themselves. For example, 3D printing studios such as Aoyama 3D Salon, Omote 3D Shashin Kan, and Recs 3D in Hong Kong do not have their own 3D printing facility on site. But rather they outsource the printing process to iJet. Tokyo Otaku Mode is also preparing to launch an e-commerce channel pretty soon, where they will sell character figures manufactured by the company. Kumehara adds:
Have you ever watched Intel’s TV commercial? They use the tagline “Intel Inside”. That’s what we’re aiming at. Many makers produce personal computers, and they typically have Intel-made chips under the hood. They don’t brandish the name [overtly] but everyone knows that PC makers cannot produce computers without the chips. We want to be somewhat like Intel in the 3D printing business. ¶
iJet’s president Masaru Kumehara
In order to provide the entire 3D printing process as a service, studios must have three things: a 3D scanner, software for processing scanned data, and a 3D printer. But you will need even more than that. In contrast to 2D printing, you will be required to process scanned data to make it fit a 3D printing output, and you’ll also need some finishing touches afterwards. These processes cannot be automated, but rather it is totally artisanal. At the company, professionals called ‘modelers’ (who typically worked as clay-model sculptors or illustrators) are taking care of this difficult production process.
When I visited the company’s factory, they seemed busy finishing many client orders. The scene looked something like a team of animators working on a film, bringing very realistic sculptures into the world [1].
Will traditional print shops shift to 3D printing?
iJet can receive orders for all 3D printing tasks: scanning, data processing, printing and finishing. They also support the installation and operation of 3D scanners for their partner studios. For customers, when you order 3D printing at a studio, your original sculpture will be scanned at their storefronts, and that scanned 3D data will be transmitted to iJet, who takes care of the data processing, printing, finishing, and even delivery.
For 3D printing manufacturers, if you buy a printing device from major makers in the US (such as 3D systems or Strata) it will cost around 15 million yen ($150,000). But in order to make your business profitable after paying for the printer, you will need to receive many printing orders from customers. So Kumehara has a plan to partner with print shop chains in order to better meet consumer needs.
Print shop chains have been differentiating their businesses by providing in-shop photo-processing machines to serve customers better. But of course, with the rise of digital cameras and more advanced consumer printers, they’ve been forced to completely shift their business model. At these shops, 3D printing services may be provided as an additional service, making it more accessible to the every day consumers.
New opportunities in the entertainment industry
The rise of 3D printing is causing a drastic change in the Japanese manufacturing industry. In conventional manufacturing, mold making typically requires several months and cost a lot. But in some cases, iJet can deliver a 3D printed sculpture in as little as a few weeks after receiving an order.
If you create a human figure modeled from a real man, you can add texture so that it looks just like him. Because of its realistic detail and the short delivery time, the company been receiving non-stop orders from the music and animation industries for 3D printed figures. For the entertainment business, you don’t even need to order a large quantity, so customers can easily create and sell something by starting on a limited testing basis. And then based on the the market response, you can shift to mass-production.
The video below is a TV commercial from a Japanese plastic surgery clinic. At the end, you can see many performers wear masks. These were all made by iJet.
Can 3D printing be one of Japan’s core businesses
As some of our readers may know, the Japan Expo exhibition took place in Paris last week. We’re told that it was a big success, even better than previous events. But it’s a reminder that content development is one of Japan’s strong points. As I watched the folks at the iJet factory finishing their 3D sculptures, it reminded me that this will be another sort of animation industry for the country.
Prior to founding this company, Kumehara ran a digital printing company in Yokohama. But the 2011 earthquake severely impacted his business, eventually leading him to shift to 3D printing. As the time progresses, more players will jump into this space and gradually an ecosystem will form. .
iJet looks poised to lead the 3D printing business in Japan. It will be interesting to see how if their meteoric growth can continue.
The company secured funding from investors back in February, but no details about the amount have been disclosed yet.
For me this was a very impressive moment, and I wish I could share pictures or videos. But since most of the projects were related to popular characters or celebrities, it could result in possible rights issues if I do so. ↩
See the original story in Japanese. After Zaim officially released its household accounting app back in 2011, it has gone on to partner with Japan’s largest recipe sharing community Cookpad, raising 42 million yen (approximately $420,000) from the company. They’ve also added an OCR feature to the app back in April, so users can record their expenses by taking pictures of their receipts. The startup will continue to work closely with Cookpad, as it has recently announced the Zaim app will integrate app with a specific Cookpad service to provide users with bargain updates from their local supermarkets. This bargain search service was launched back in February on Cookpad, and is currently serving about 500,000 users. It allows supermarket clerks to feature certain merchandise in a more quick and efficient manner than traditional hand-delivered fliers. In addition to monetizable streams like analyzing user data, the startup is likely to expand business by driving user traffic towards real purchase opportunities. According to a survey that Cookpad conducted back in July of 2012, 37% of its user base no longer subscribes to any newspaper, meaning they won’t see such supermarket fliers. Also operating in this space is a service from Toppan Printing…
After Zaim officially released its household accounting app back in 2011, it has gone on to partner with Japan’s largest recipe sharing community Cookpad, raising 42 million yen (approximately $420,000) from the company. They’ve also added an OCR feature to the app back in April, so users can record their expenses by taking pictures of their receipts.
The startup will continue to work closely with Cookpad, as it has recently announced the Zaim app will integrate app with a specific Cookpad service to provide users with bargain updates from their local supermarkets. This bargain search service was launched back in February on Cookpad, and is currently serving about 500,000 users. It allows supermarket clerks to feature certain merchandise in a more quick and efficient manner than traditional hand-delivered fliers.
In addition to monetizable streams like analyzing user data, the startup is likely to expand business by driving user traffic towards real purchase opportunities. According to a survey that Cookpad conducted back in July of 2012, 37% of its user base no longer subscribes to any newspaper, meaning they won’t see such supermarket fliers.
Also operating in this space is a service from Toppan Printing called Shufoo, which allows households to check the latest supermarket discounts online. The service is provided in partnership with NTT Broadband Platform using their WiFi access points, typically located at railway stations in urban areas.
Tokyo-based stock brokerage company Crowd Securities Japan held a press briefing yesterday to announce that it will launch the country’s first investment crowdfunding platform in August. The service is called Crowd Bank. The company’s president Kaz Ohmae, explained a little about the upcoming service. People in Japan keep more than 839 trillion yen ($8.39 trillion) in their savings, more than any other country in the world. However, as little as 8.2 billion yen ($82 million) has been transacted in the Japanese crowdfunding market, less than 5% of the US [transaction volume]. So Japan has great potential for growth in the crowdfunding market. We plan to launch the country’s first investment crowdfunding platform and help SMEs raise funds easier with this service. According to Ohmae, crowdfunding services are categorized into five types corresponding to what you can get in return for investments: donations, rewards, loans, funds, and equity. Regarding the first two, these are relatively easy to launch since no license is required. But for the latter three types of crowdfunding services, operators are requested to get licenses from the Japanese monetary authority. Taking full advantage of its status as a stock brokerage company, they plan to launch a loan crowdfunding…
From the left: CSJ’s President Kaz Ohmae, Chairman Yoshito Denawa
Tokyo-based stock brokerage company Crowd Securities Japan held a press briefing yesterday to announce that it will launch the country’s first investment crowdfunding platform in August. The service is called Crowd Bank.
The company’s president Kaz Ohmae, explained a little about the upcoming service.
People in Japan keep more than 839 trillion yen ($8.39 trillion) in their savings, more than any other country in the world. However, as little as 8.2 billion yen ($82 million) has been transacted in the Japanese crowdfunding market, less than 5% of the US [transaction volume]. So Japan has great potential for growth in the crowdfunding market. We plan to launch the country’s first investment crowdfunding platform and help SMEs raise funds easier with this service.
According to Ohmae, crowdfunding services are categorized into five types corresponding to what you can get in return for investments: donations, rewards, loans, funds, and equity. Regarding the first two, these are relatively easy to launch since no license is required. But for the latter three types of crowdfunding services, operators are requested to get licenses from the Japanese monetary authority.
Taking full advantage of its status as a stock brokerage company, they plan to launch a loan crowdfunding service in August and an equity service next year. They aim to transact 10 billion yen ($100 million) among 10,000 customers using the platform by March of 2015.
The company was previously known as D-brain Securities, focused on dealing with unlisted stocks on Japanese stock exchanges (the Green Sheet Market). They have previously served more than 9,000 clients and managed underwriting for 140 companies. 16 companies of those have exited to an IPO or M&A, and to date the company has provided capital worth 10.7 billion yen ($107 million) to Japanese SMEs from the market.
Prior to joining this company, president Ohmae worked at E-Trade Japan, and was involved in an launching Exchange Corporation, the startup behind Japan’s leading social lending service Aqush.
The video below shows Ohmae giving a brief demo of how the new platform will work.
NYC-based Japanese startup and online ticketing service provider Peatix announced today it has secured series A funding worth $3 million from Fidelity Growth Partners Japan, the VC and private equity arm of Fidelity Worldwide Investment. Fidelity’s Japan representative David Milstein will join the management board. The other investors include 500 Startups, Draper Nexus Venture Partners, DG Incubation, Itochu Technology Ventures, Sunbridge Global Ventures, and Zenshin Capital [1]. Peatix was co-founded back in 2009 by four Amazon.com/Amazon Japan alumni: Naofumi Iwai, Taku Harada, Emi Takemura Miller, and Yuji Fujita. To date, it has been providing an online ticketing service, facilitating over 10,000 meet-ups, conferences and events. As part of its business strategy, the startup focuses on optimizing its interface for smartphone devices, and now more than 60% of user traffic is coming from mobile. With these new funds, the startup’s CEO Taku Harada explains that the company will intensify system development, improve user experience, and push for global business expansions. The startup has moved its headquarters to NYC early this year, and recently established a subsidiary, Peatix Asia, in Singapore. DG Incubation is the investment arm of Tokyo-based startup incubator Digital Garage. Zenshin Capital is an investment fund which was founded by Silicon…
Peatix Team at Echelon 2013, Singapore (Naofumi Iwai on the left, and Emi Takemura Miller on the right)
NYC-based Japanese startup and online ticketing service provider Peatix announced today it has secured series A funding worth $3 million from Fidelity Growth Partners Japan, the VC and private equity arm of Fidelity Worldwide Investment. Fidelity’s Japan representative David Milstein will join the management board.
Peatix was co-founded back in 2009 by four Amazon.com/Amazon Japan alumni: Naofumi Iwai, Taku Harada, Emi Takemura Miller, and Yuji Fujita. To date, it has been providing an online ticketing service, facilitating over 10,000 meet-ups, conferences and events.
As part of its business strategy, the startup focuses on optimizing its interface for smartphone devices, and now more than 60% of user traffic is coming from mobile. With these new funds, the startup’s CEO Taku Harada explains that the company will intensify system development, improve user experience, and push for global business expansions.
The startup has moved its headquarters to NYC early this year, and recently established a subsidiary, Peatix Asia, in Singapore.
The growth of events using Peatix for their ticketing
DG Incubation is the investment arm of Tokyo-based startup incubator Digital Garage. Zenshin Capital is an investment fund which was founded by Silicon Valley-based Japanese entrepreneur Takeshi Mori. ↩
Yokohama-based startup Gamba announced today that its business reporting tool has been integrated with four code- and task-tracking tools: GitHub, BitBucket, Pivotal Tracker and Google Tasks. 
Tokyo-based cloud startup 
The Nikkei 
Tokyo-based startup 
iJet can receive orders for all 3D printing tasks: scanning, data processing, printing and finishing. They also support the installation and operation of 3D scanners for their partner studios. For customers, when you order 3D printing at a studio, your original sculpture will be scanned at their storefronts, and that scanned 3D data will be transmitted to iJet, who takes care of the data processing, printing, finishing, and even delivery.
The rise of 3D printing is causing a drastic change in the Japanese manufacturing industry. In conventional manufacturing, mold making typically requires several months and cost a lot. But in some cases, iJet can deliver a 3D printed sculpture in as little as a few weeks after receiving an order.
As some of our readers may know, the 
