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Panasonic, Scrum Ventures announce BeeEdge joint venture to foster innovation

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This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. Panasonic (TSE:6752) held a press conference as MC’d by Panasonic Senior Managing Executive Officer Tetsuro Homma on Thursday, announcing in Tokyo that it is forming a joint venture with a 49% share called BeeEdge together with Scrum Ventures, a San Francisco-based early-stage venture capital firm. Aimed at enabling a new generation of products, BeeEdge will identify technologies within Panasonic that are not fully utilized and create independent startups to develop them commercially. BeeEdge will act as an accelerator, with Panasonic and Scrum pooling their experience upon collaboration and supporting entrepreneurs. Scrum Ventures said in their release on the U.S. side. We know how to identify and support startups that are working on ground‐breaking new technologies. We are very hands‐on with founders and make sure they have what is needed to succeed. Sharing our expertise with Panasonic is a great opportunity to bring underutilized innovations to market. Tak Miyata heads the U.S. outfit as Founding Partner of Scrum Ventures, a seed-stage venture firm investing across a range of industries in the U.S. and Asia. With extensive experience plus networks in both…

This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.


Scrum Ventures’ partner Makoto Haruta speaks at a press conference in Tokyo.
Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

Panasonic (TSE:6752) held a press conference as MC’d by Panasonic Senior Managing Executive Officer Tetsuro Homma on Thursday, announcing in Tokyo that it is forming a joint venture with a 49% share called BeeEdge together with Scrum Ventures, a San Francisco-based early-stage venture capital firm.

Aimed at enabling a new generation of products, BeeEdge will identify technologies within Panasonic that are not fully utilized and create independent startups to develop them commercially. BeeEdge will act as an accelerator, with Panasonic and Scrum pooling their experience upon collaboration and supporting entrepreneurs.

Scrum Ventures said in their release on the U.S. side.

We know how to identify and support startups that are working on ground‐breaking new technologies. We are very hands‐on with founders and make sure they have what is needed to succeed. Sharing our expertise with Panasonic is a great opportunity to bring underutilized innovations to market.

Tak Miyata heads the U.S. outfit as Founding Partner of Scrum Ventures, a seed-stage venture firm investing across a range of industries in the U.S. and Asia. With extensive experience plus networks in both Silicon Valley and Japan, Scrum Ventures accelerates their portfolio companies for global opportunities and helps corporations innovate. Scrum Ventures partner Makoto Haruta will become BeeEdge President. It was recently announced that Scrum Studio to connect global corporations in Japan with startups in Silicon Valley through investing and collaboration have been set up.

Scrum Ventures’ partner Makoto Haruta (right) shakes hands with Panasonic’s Tetsuro Homma (left).
Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

Meanwhile Panasonic, known for creating consumer electronics that enhance customer lifestyles, has been increasing its investment to create new consumer experiences and businesses for the next generation. In April, it will look to focus their design efforts in Kyoto, among other changes. Haruta took the stage to underscore Scrum Ventures’ track record identifying new trends and technologies, in addition to strong understanding of the Silicon Valley startup ecosystem, noting that Scrum Ventures is well‐positioned to bring expertise to BeeEdge upon advising the startups.

Homma, in charge of the Appliance Company at Panasonic, said:

We are looking forward to working with Scrum Ventures because of their expertise in supporting startups. From analyzing opportunities and bringing products to market, to sharing best practices in operations, Scrum Ventures will be a valuable partner in maximizing how we develop our technologies with new innovative companies.

The Osaka manufacturing giant spokesman added as well that Panasonic is mulling investment into the Scrum Ventures Fund III along with the joint venture set-up.

Japanese social recruiting firm Wantedly sets up shop in Hong Kong, Germany

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Wantedly (TSE:3991), a Japanese social recruiting company, announced today that it has established offices in Hong Kong and Germany to strengthen service offering in these markets. This is the first global expansion effort for the company after its IPO following its setting up shop in Singapore last year. The company appointed Bradford Chan as the country manager for the Hong Kong market, who is known for having worked for LinkedIn as the head of APAC sales development. The Hong Kong office is based in the Naked Hub co-working space which was launched in Sheung Wan last year. Details are yet unknown but it seems that the German operation will be headed by Lisa Wäntig, the company’s former head of international growth in Southeast Asia, and be based out of Berlin – the country’s largest startup hub. The firm’s entire global business expansion effort is led by Koichi Goto who was formerly at Google Japan and Twitter Japan. Alongside with the announcement, Wantedly revealed that more than 1,000 companies in Singapore have signed up for the platform as of today. This is equivalent to 4% of the total number of all companies registered as…

Wantedly’s international expansion team, Lisa Wäntig sitting in the center on the front row.
Image credit: Wantedly

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Wantedly (TSE:3991), a Japanese social recruiting company, announced today that it has established offices in Hong Kong and Germany to strengthen service offering in these markets. This is the first global expansion effort for the company after its IPO following its setting up shop in Singapore last year.

The company appointed Bradford Chan as the country manager for the Hong Kong market, who is known for having worked for LinkedIn as the head of APAC sales development. The Hong Kong office is based in the Naked Hub co-working space which was launched in Sheung Wan last year. Details are yet unknown but it seems that the German operation will be headed by Lisa Wäntig, the company’s former head of international growth in Southeast Asia, and be based out of Berlin – the country’s largest startup hub. The firm’s entire global business expansion effort is led by Koichi Goto who was formerly at Google Japan and Twitter Japan.

Alongside with the announcement, Wantedly revealed that more than 1,000 companies in Singapore have signed up for the platform as of today. This is equivalent to 4% of the total number of all companies registered as users on the platform. Launched back in March of last year in Spacemob – the co-working space located near Orchard Road – their Singapore office appointed Weiting Tan as the country manager, who previously worked for HotelQuickly as a marketing manager, and has increased the number of their staffers from four to seven over the past year.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Wantedly’s Hong Kong office resides in Naked Hub Sheung Wan, the island’s characteristic slendder building standing out for its eye-catching graffiti façade.
Image credit: Naked Hub

Japan’s medtech startup CureApp gets $14M to help reduce lifestyle diseases globally

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See the original story in Japanese. Japan’s digital health startup CureApp announced on Monday that it had fundraised 1.5 billion yen (about $14 million) in the latest round. This follows their previous $3.4 million funding from Beyond Next Ventures (BNV), Keio Innovation Initiative (KII) and SBI Investment back in February last year. In addition to existing investors BNV and KII, participating investors in this round are Itochu Corporation (TSE:8001), Itochu Technology Ventures, Cyberdine (TSE:7779), Dai-ichi Life (TSE:8750), Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, Iwagin Jigyo Souzou Capital, Saison Ventures, Chibagin Capital, and Mizuho Capital. The company was founded in July of 2014 by two medical doctors: Kohta Satake (CEO) and Shin Suzuki (CTO). The firm is one of the leading players in the medical app vertical under the theme of “app exhibits therapeutic effects against diseases” and launched a nicotine addiction treatment app in February 2015, which was jointly developed with Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Keio University’s School of Medicine. In addition, since October of 2016 the company has been conducting clinical research of a mobile app specifically focused on treating Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) patients in collaboration with the University of Tokyo Hospital. Last year, the company started developing lifestyle diseases and mental…

Image credit: CureApp

See the original story in Japanese.

Japan’s digital health startup CureApp announced on Monday that it had fundraised 1.5 billion yen (about $14 million) in the latest round. This follows their previous $3.4 million funding from Beyond Next Ventures (BNV), Keio Innovation Initiative (KII) and SBI Investment back in February last year.

In addition to existing investors BNV and KII, participating investors in this round are Itochu Corporation (TSE:8001), Itochu Technology Ventures, Cyberdine (TSE:7779), Dai-ichi Life (TSE:8750), Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, Iwagin Jigyo Souzou Capital, Saison Ventures, Chibagin Capital, and Mizuho Capital.

Image credit: CureApp

The company was founded in July of 2014 by two medical doctors: Kohta Satake (CEO) and Shin Suzuki (CTO). The firm is one of the leading players in the medical app vertical under the theme of “app exhibits therapeutic effects against diseases” and launched a nicotine addiction treatment app in February 2015, which was jointly developed with Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Keio University’s School of Medicine.

In addition, since October of 2016 the company has been conducting clinical research of a mobile app specifically focused on treating Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) patients in collaboration with the University of Tokyo Hospital. Last year, the company started developing lifestyle diseases and mental health treatment programs in addition to offering the Ascure smoking cessation program for private companies.

Based on the business model developed in Japan, the company is planning to expand their proprietary digital health solutions into the global market.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Linc raises $937K to help foreign students to Japan find education and employment

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Linc, offering education and employment support services for foreign students to Japan, announced on Wednesday that it had raised approximately 100 million yen (about $937K US) in funding from Genesia Ventures and Beenext. The share ratios and payment dates were not disclosed. Founder and CEO Shiyo Naka (or Siyao Zhong in Chinese pronunciation), Co-founder and COO Vincent Wang, and CMO Sophie Chow are all foreign nationals who have experienced working in major companies after studying in Japan. They founded the company after finding it easy to live in Japan as international students, but discovering that the system of studying abroad and working was lacking in efficiency and convenience. Naka said: There are more than 3.5 million Japanese learners alone in Asia, but the conversion rate of just 300,000 students studying abroad in Japan is very low. The company is also aiming to meet the demand for cultural assistance by using E-learning to educate about daily life and work manners. When I asked Naka about the flow of coming from China to Japan to study, he related that in most cases after arriving in Japan students study in a language school for 1 to…

Founder and CEO Shiyo Naka (Siyao Zhong/仲思遥)
Image credit: Linc

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Linc, offering education and employment support services for foreign students to Japan, announced on Wednesday that it had raised approximately 100 million yen (about $937K US) in funding from Genesia Ventures and Beenext. The share ratios and payment dates were not disclosed.

Founder and CEO Shiyo Naka (or Siyao Zhong in Chinese pronunciation), Co-founder and COO Vincent Wang, and CMO Sophie Chow are all foreign nationals who have experienced working in major companies after studying in Japan. They founded the company after finding it easy to live in Japan as international students, but discovering that the system of studying abroad and working was lacking in efficiency and convenience.

Naka said:

There are more than 3.5 million Japanese learners alone in Asia, but the conversion rate of just 300,000 students studying abroad in Japan is very low.

The company is also aiming to meet the demand for cultural assistance by using E-learning to educate about daily life and work manners. When I asked Naka about the flow of coming from China to Japan to study, he related that in most cases after arriving in Japan students study in a language school for 1 to 2 years and then go on to enter a Japanese university. However, in the 1 to 2 years at a language school classmates advance at different rates, and it is necessary to prepare independent measures, apart from the language school, for taking the university entrance exams in Japan.

To solve this, the company released “Ling ke (羚課) Nihon Ryugaku (日本留学)” for the Chinese market, where the ratio of foreign students arriving to study in Japan in January of 2017 was highest. With this service, students can deepen their understanding of the knowledge necessary for attending a university in Japan through video lectures, exercises, questions and answers, etc. In a year, the company has joined together with more than 50 language schools nationwide, and the cumulative audience number for the live lectures exceeded 100,000 people.

One lecture at its longest is 15 minutes and is divided into smaller lessons. By doing this, in addition to maintaining the ability to concentrate, it is possible to focus on points that are difficult for the user, and realize personalized learning plans and steps for advancement for each individual user. Additionally, the company is also looking into a mechanism to utilize learning attitudes for credit scoring.

Naka added:

The majority of students coming to Japan have difficulty reviewing housing and opening bank accounts. In fact, since a cause of this is the difficulty in building trust, we hope to create standards through learning and working that can guarantee it.

A Profitable Business, Funding to Scale-up

From left: Founder and CEO Shiyo Naka (Siyao Zhong/仲思遥), CMO Sophie Chow (蘇菲), and Co-founder and COO Vincent Wang (王超)
Image credit: Linc

The service was released in January of 2017, but many of the users are foreign nationals who have come to Japan. On China’s version of Twitter, Weibo, many users are talking about and accessing the service, Linc itself has 80,000 social network followers, and CMO Sophie Chow doubles as influencer with over 500,000 followers. The company will continue to strengthen its social network marketing.

“In a single month the company itself turned a profit,” said Naka. Upon asking, “What about offering E-learning in other countries?”

He confided that the funds raised were for just that, server costs and scaling up. While living in China, some people bought teaching materials, but he felt that the server was lagging and slow to load so he sought to improve the user-friendliness.

In the future, the company aims to expand the introduction of Linc’s learning system to language schools throughout Japan, and to higher education institutions and international schools that provide Japanese language education in the Chinese language sphere. In addition, it looks to strengthen the production system and marketing contents, and to expand the target countries to include foreigners in Southeast Asia.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

Mobile payments startup Coiney and e-shop builder Stores.jp merged to share client base

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See the original story in Japanese. Mobile payments startup Coiney and online shop builder Stores.jp — both of Japan — announced on Wednesday that the two companies have set up a stock holding company called Hey, in order to integrate their business operations. Yusuke Sato, Director of FreakOut Holdings (TSE:6094), and Naoko Samata, co-founder and CEO of Coiney, were respectively appointed President and Executive Vice President of this holding company. Both Coiney and Stores.jp started their services back in 2012. Total volume transacted on these two platforms have grown 10 times in three years since their launch back in January of 2015. With the business merger, both companies will expand their target to small companies in rural areas of Japan and popular influencers such as merchants. We were told that the two platforms are planning to launch new services with the aim of helping merchants improve their business and service experience. Japanese mobile payments startup Coiney raises $7.1 million Japanese payments startup Coiney looks back on key metrics from its first year Japanese mobile payment startup Coiney starts selling its card reader on Amazon Japan Japanese mobile payments processor Coiney secures $8M in funding Japanese mobile payments processor Coiney raises…

L to R: Hey’s executive team – Ayana Tsukahara, Naoko Samata, Yusuke Sato, Yusuke Mitsumoto

See the original story in Japanese.

Mobile payments startup Coiney and online shop builder Stores.jp — both of Japan — announced on Wednesday that the two companies have set up a stock holding company called Hey, in order to integrate their business operations. Yusuke Sato, Director of FreakOut Holdings (TSE:6094), and Naoko Samata, co-founder and CEO of Coiney, were respectively appointed President and Executive Vice President of this holding company.

Both Coiney and Stores.jp started their services back in 2012. Total volume transacted on these two platforms have grown 10 times in three years since their launch back in January of 2015. With the business merger, both companies will expand their target to small companies in rural areas of Japan and popular influencers such as merchants. We were told that the two platforms are planning to launch new services with the aim of helping merchants improve their business and service experience.

Via PR Times

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Spiral Ventures Japan closes oversubscribed 1st fund with $64M in partner commitments

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See the original story in Japanese. Spiral Ventures Japan announced the final closing of Spiral Ventures Japan Fund 1 with 7 billion yen (about $64 million US) limited partner commitments on Monday. The fund raise surpassed its initial target of 6 billion yen (about $55 million). Participating limited partners include Asics Ventures, Seino Holdings (TSE:9076), Tosho Printing (TSE:7913), Mori Trust, Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation – JAPAN, in addition to unnamed Japanese securities companies and foreign hedge funds. Spiral Ventures Japan announced the final closing of Spiral Ventures Japan Fund 1 with 7 billion yen (about $64 million US) limited partner commitments on Monday. The fundraise run surpassed its initial target of 6 billion yen (about $55 million). Participating limited partners include Asics Ventures, Seino Holdings (TSE:9076), Tosho Printing (TSE:7913), Mori Trust and Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation – JAPAN, in addition to unnamed Japanese securities companies and foreign hedge funds. The first fund is intended to invest in startups with focusing on “X-Tech” (fusion areas between Internet/technology and real industry), especially in two areas: industry-changing business and industry-creating business. The fund has invested a total of 2.1 billion yen ($19.3 million)…

See the original story in Japanese.

Spiral Ventures Japan announced the final closing of Spiral Ventures Japan Fund 1 with 7 billion yen (about $64 million US) limited partner commitments on Monday. The fund raise surpassed its initial target of 6 billion yen (about $55 million). Participating limited partners include Asics Ventures, Seino Holdings (TSE:9076), Tosho Printing (TSE:7913), Mori Trust, Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation – JAPAN, in addition to unnamed Japanese securities companies and foreign hedge funds.

Spiral Ventures Japan announced the final closing of Spiral Ventures Japan Fund 1 with 7 billion yen (about $64 million US) limited partner commitments on Monday. The fundraise run surpassed its initial target of 6 billion yen (about $55 million). Participating limited partners include Asics Ventures, Seino Holdings (TSE:9076), Tosho Printing (TSE:7913), Mori Trust and Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation – JAPAN, in addition to unnamed Japanese securities companies and foreign hedge funds.

The first fund is intended to invest in startups with focusing on “X-Tech” (fusion areas between Internet/technology and real industry), especially in two areas: industry-changing business and industry-creating business. The fund has invested a total of 2.1 billion yen ($19.3 million) in 19 startups including OpenLogi (logistics), BizReach (human resource), Nurve (preliminary inspection of apartment rooms using virtual reality solutions), Z-Works (elderly caregiving solutions powered by Internet of Things) and Future Standard (rapid hardware/software prototyping). The fund’s typical investment size is 50 to 300 million yen ($460,000 to $2.8 million) for an early/middle-stage startup and up to 500 million yen ($4.6 million) for a later-stage startup.

See also:

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s Amegumi raises $183K to develop budget smartphone with minimal functions

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokushima, Japan-based Amegumi announced on Wednesday that it has fundraised a total of 20 million yen (about $183K US) from angel investors Shogo Kawada (DeNA Co-founder) and Yuzuru Honda (FreakOut Founder). This follows the company’s previous funding last year (funding round and amount unknown) from Skyland Ventures and angel investor Shinji Yamamoto (former Far East Asia Co-Chairperson for AT Kearney and former Representative in Tokyo for Bain & Company). Amegumi has developed Sunblaze OS, a smartphone operating system focused on supporting minimal functions. The company aims to develop inexpensive smartphones at around 5,000 yen (about $46 US) for markets such as Asia and Africa, specializing in users who do not use games or watch videos, and are satisfied with social network, search and other minimal functions. Amegumi completed the Sunblaze OS prototype in December of last year, and said that funds raised this time will be used to add talented people to its team who can be responsible for OS development and sales. Amegumi plans to utilize EMS (Electronics Manufacturing Service) in China to manufacture smartphones, but it faces the challenge of building sales networks around the world. It will search for possible alliances…

L to R: Shogo Kawada, Eisuke Tokiwa (Founder/CEO of Amegumi), and Yuzuru Honda
Image credit: Amegumi

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokushima, Japan-based Amegumi announced on Wednesday that it has fundraised a total of 20 million yen (about $183K US) from angel investors Shogo Kawada (DeNA Co-founder) and Yuzuru Honda (FreakOut Founder). This follows the company’s previous funding last year (funding round and amount unknown) from Skyland Ventures and angel investor Shinji Yamamoto (former Far East Asia Co-Chairperson for AT Kearney and former Representative in Tokyo for Bain & Company).

Amegumi has developed Sunblaze OS, a smartphone operating system focused on supporting minimal functions. The company aims to develop inexpensive smartphones at around 5,000 yen (about $46 US) for markets such as Asia and Africa, specializing in users who do not use games or watch videos, and are satisfied with social network, search and other minimal functions. Amegumi completed the Sunblaze OS prototype in December of last year, and said that funds raised this time will be used to add talented people to its team who can be responsible for OS development and sales.

Amegumi plans to utilize EMS (Electronics Manufacturing Service) in China to manufacture smartphones, but it faces the challenge of building sales networks around the world. It will search for possible alliances through open innovation in the future, especially with leading telcos, ad agencies, app developers, IoT product developers and other companies.

A smartphone prototype running on the Sunblaze OS
Image credit: Amegumi

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

Japan’s Boostnote secures funding to boost global expansion of GitHub alternative

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This guest post is authored by Masanori Hashimoto, co-founder and CEO of Nulab, the Fukuoka-based startup behind SaaS (software as a service) platforms like Backlog, Cacoo and Typetalk. In addition to managing his startup, he has been involved in various local initiatives encouraging entrepreneurship such as Oreoka.com and Myojo Waraku. See the original story in Japanese. Fukuoka-based Maisin & Co., the Japanese startup developing a programmer tool called Boostnote, recently announced that it has rebranded into BoostIO and raised an undislosed sum from Japanese seed round-focused startup funds Anri and F Ventures in addition to six angel investors. Participating angel investors include several key players on the local startup scene in the western Japan city of Fukuoka such as Shinji Hamauzu (CEO of Aratana) and Shuhei Hiya (Tech Lead of Tsumug, Former Head of Uhuru Technical Rockstars). Junji Murakami, one of the Myojo Waraku startup festival organizers, is helping increase angel investors in the city because he thinks not only VC funds but also angel investors are crucial upon building the local startup community. Other angel investors participating in this round were Masao Ito (CEO of User Local), Shinichi Iwata (Japan head of Atomico and former President of Skype Japan),…

This guest post is authored by Masanori Hashimoto, co-founder and CEO of Nulab, the Fukuoka-based startup behind SaaS (software as a service) platforms like Backlog, Cacoo and Typetalk.

In addition to managing his startup, he has been involved in various local initiatives encouraging entrepreneurship such as Oreoka.com and Myojo Waraku.


L to R: Anri Samata (founder of Anri), Kazumasa Yokomizo (CEO of BoostIO CEO), Choi Junyoung (BoostIO CTO)
Image credit: BoostIO

See the original story in Japanese.

Fukuoka-based Maisin & Co., the Japanese startup developing a programmer tool called Boostnote, recently announced that it has rebranded into BoostIO and raised an undislosed sum from Japanese seed round-focused startup funds Anri and F Ventures in addition to six angel investors.

Participating angel investors include several key players on the local startup scene in the western Japan city of Fukuoka such as Shinji Hamauzu (CEO of Aratana) and Shuhei Hiya (Tech Lead of Tsumug, Former Head of Uhuru Technical Rockstars). Junji Murakami, one of the Myojo Waraku startup festival organizers, is helping increase angel investors in the city because he thinks not only VC funds but also angel investors are crucial upon building the local startup community.

Other angel investors participating in this round were Masao Ito (CEO of User Local), Shinichi Iwata (Japan head of Atomico and former President of Skype Japan), Yusuke Sato (President of FreakOut Holdings) and an unnamed angel investor.

Angel investors participating in this round
Image credit: BoostIO

With native apps for platforms including Macintosh, Windows, Linux, Android and iOS, Boostnote allows system developers to save and share their source codes online. The open source project was launched in beta under the previous name of Boost back in 2015 but it has succeeded in engaging contributors from around the world to build up a global community.

Programmers worldwide are now participating in development and improvement of Boostnote, which is also so loosely operated as a warm community that their users can help each others solve questions and bugs. Going forward, the team expects to provide more versatile solutions while verifying technical issues.

Boostnote
Image credit: BoostIO

Boostnote is characterized by its global spread in both developers and users since almost all developers and 82% of users are based outside Japan. With user access from more than 200 countries, the service has seen a good growth by taking the “global-first” strategy from Day One. In view of a notebook app, many of us will first come up with Evernote but the app has become complicated and heavy because of too many functions that are overloaded and eventually churn existing users. I wish Boostnote maintains simplicity yet still excites programmers.

The BoostIO team has strength not only in software development but also as to community of open source programmers that they have been steadily building. Their co-founders CEO Kazumasa Yokomizo and CTO Choi Junyoung are looking at future workstyle through open source activities while having started stepping toward the next growth under the stealth mode. Just after they finished a meeting with their investors, I had a chance to talk with them. They looked full of energy and told me:

I want to make big things happen within 2018.

Happy new year to all!

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s Jiraffe launches “honesty” app Peing – QuestionBox for global audience

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Jiraffe announced today that it had launched a so-called “honesty” app for 40 English-speaking markets. The app, dubbed Japan’s answer to Sarahah, is called Peing – QuestionBox with the aim to to help users collect “honest” anonymous feedback from their friends, co-workers and neighbors. Peing was initially launched for Japanese users by freelance engineer Seseri (his real name has not been disclosed) back in November last year. The service saw about 200 million page views in a month from November 2017 to December 2017, and was subsequently acquired by Jiraffe last month. According to the company’s CEO Teruaki Aso, they expect the English version will target U.S., UK, Hong Kong, India and other English-speaking markets because even the original Japanese version has seen user access from Mainland China since its Launch. Aso said in a recent interview with The Bridge: The overseas expansion is challenging for us. But the rapid launch of the English version was made possible since the app has adopted a global platform like Twitter (for user authentication process). The company plans to integrate with other platforms like China’s Weibo, and also to support Instagram formats and Chinese language to…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Jiraffe announced today that it had launched a so-called “honesty” app for 40 English-speaking markets. The app, dubbed Japan’s answer to Sarahah, is called Peing – QuestionBox with the aim to to help users collect “honest” anonymous feedback from their friends, co-workers and neighbors.

Peing was initially launched for Japanese users by freelance engineer Seseri (his real name has not been disclosed) back in November last year. The service saw about 200 million page views in a month from November 2017 to December 2017, and was subsequently acquired by Jiraffe last month.

According to the company’s CEO Teruaki Aso, they expect the English version will target U.S., UK, Hong Kong, India and other English-speaking markets because even the original Japanese version has seen user access from Mainland China since its Launch.

Aso said in a recent interview with The Bridge:

The overseas expansion is challenging for us. But the rapid launch of the English version was made possible since the app has adopted a global platform like Twitter (for user authentication process).

The company plans to integrate with other platforms like China’s Weibo, and also to support Instagram formats and Chinese language to gain more market share in this sector.

See also:

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japanese hottest unicorn Mercari expands AI research with Sharp and academia leaders

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See the original story in Japanese. Japan’s Mercari, providing the peer-to-peer marketplace app under the same name, announced in December that it has established Mercari R4D, a Research & Development organization with the aim to deploy emerging technologies to the society. Toshiya Kimura, Manager of Engineering Department at Mercari, was appointed the head of the new initiative. The name R4D stands for ‘Research for Development, Design, Deployment and Disruption.’ Mercari has been utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning technologies so far, and the firm will begin projects for social deployment and commercialization of these technologies in cooperation with other enterprises or educational organizations through the initiative. At this time, eight research themes jointly with Sharp and university laboratories have already been chosen, as follows: Communications with multiple locations utilizing 8K TVs with Corporate R&D Business Unit, Sharp Outletless office with wireless power feed system with Kawahara Lab, The University of Tokyo Deep Hashing Network for similar image search with Ochiai Lab, Tsukuba University 3D form estimation from product image posted on the marketplace with Ochiai Lab, Tsukuba University Background auto-specification from product image with Ochiai Lab, Tsukuba University Trust framework using blockchain with Keio University Internet of Things ecosystem…

Mercari CEO Shintaro Yamada introduces in-house AI research initiative Mercari R4D
Image credit: Sekiko Suzuki/The Bridge

See the original story in Japanese.

Japan’s Mercari, providing the peer-to-peer marketplace app under the same name, announced in December that it has established Mercari R4D, a Research & Development organization with the aim to deploy emerging technologies to the society. Toshiya Kimura, Manager of Engineering Department at Mercari, was appointed the head of the new initiative.

The name R4D stands for ‘Research for Development, Design, Deployment and Disruption.’ Mercari has been utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning technologies so far, and the firm will begin projects for social deployment and commercialization of these technologies in cooperation with other enterprises or educational organizations through the initiative. At this time, eight research themes jointly with Sharp and university laboratories have already been chosen, as follows:

  • Communications with multiple locations utilizing 8K TVs with Corporate R&D Business Unit, Sharp
  • Outletless office with wireless power feed system with Kawahara Lab, The University of Tokyo
  • Deep Hashing Network for similar image search with Ochiai Lab, Tsukuba University
  • 3D form estimation from product image posted on the marketplace with Ochiai Lab, Tsukuba University
  • Background auto-specification from product image with Ochiai Lab, Tsukuba University
  • Trust framework using blockchain with Keio University
  • Internet of Things ecosystem with Cross-tech Design Lab, Kyoto University of Art & Design
  • Application of quantum annealing technology to art field with Ohzeki Lab, Tohoku University

According to Mercari CEO Shintaro Yamada, the investment amount to these research activities has not been clearly set yet, but it will be at several hundred millions of yen (several millions of dollars)-scale next year. The research themes are chosen from mid-to long-term plans requiring 3 to 5 years, as well as ones utilizing IoT or blockchain technologies having application possibility of social infrastructure.

Research is already being undertaken in the above eight themes and more themes will possibly be added. The commercialization and deployment of research results may be brought about as a Mercari product in the future. Yamada explains the background to the foundation of R4D:

Mercari achieved 100 million downloads just the other day. Meanwhile, we have implemented the wrongful exhibit detection system utilizing AI technology or the auto-estimation of weight of items to the app for the U.S.. One of our purposes is to differentiate the app by technologies through R&D.

The firm plans to enhance its engineer structure to 1000-staffer organization from current 100-staffer one. In addition, it started establishment of an organization capable of scaling by micronizing each function. Kimura explains the firm’s future vision:

As Fujifilm engaged in development of cosmetics, we may start different business in the future and are considering how to make good use of our owned technologies.

As the Japanese artist Sputniko!, a renowned British/Japanese artist and designer, who joined the team as Senior Producer, various direction of deployment can be seen, for example utilizing technologies which are hard to deploy immediately into a form of design or art. The firm focuses on research as well as commercialization and visualization of technology jointly with external research organizations.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy