news

Japanese personal data storage startup Datasign launches password manager app

Masaru Ikeda 2018.09.09

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based DataSign, a startup offering a service for managing and using personal data, officially launched the Paspit personal data management service with the aim to realize an “information bank” with a built-in PDS (Personal Data Store). Since Paspit functions as a Chrome Extension, it can only be used with Google Chrome. An information bank is a third party service that enables individuals to manage and control information by depositing their own personal data. While various online and offline services are increasing, giving personal data to these service providers involves various risks. Information could leak inadvertently, and even if a user opts out of the service, it depends on the morale of the provider as to whether personal data is deleted or not. In the information bank, the user registers their original personal data, and it is possible to control what personal data is shared with whichever service they want to use by following the user’s instructions regarding permission/denial. If a user sets up a policy of permissions/denials in advance, it is not necessary to grant permission/denial each time they use Paspit. By using an information bank, even if information leaks from services used by…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based DataSign, a startup offering a service for managing and using personal data, officially launched the Paspit personal data management service with the aim to realize an “information bank” with a built-in PDS (Personal Data Store). Since Paspit functions as a Chrome Extension, it can only be used with Google Chrome.

An information bank is a third party service that enables individuals to manage and control information by depositing their own personal data. While various online and offline services are increasing, giving personal data to these service providers involves various risks. Information could leak inadvertently, and even if a user opts out of the service, it depends on the morale of the provider as to whether personal data is deleted or not.

In the information bank, the user registers their original personal data, and it is possible to control what personal data is shared with whichever service they want to use by following the user’s instructions regarding permission/denial. If a user sets up a policy of permissions/denials in advance, it is not necessary to grant permission/denial each time they use Paspit. By using an information bank, even if information leaks from services used by the user, risks are reduced because the services do not hold the original data, and even if the service provider does not allow users to opt-out, it is possible to forcibly withdraw from said service.

See also:

Japan takes step toward enormous bank of personal data (Nikkei Asian Review)

paspit-diagram — How Paspit works (Phase 1)
Image credit: DataSign

One example of how users could use it on a daily basis is by changing from paying for services online using a credit card to using a PayPal account. The risk of a leaked credit card number decreases, and in the case of recurring charges, contracts can be forcibly canceled at the request of the user. Another daily use example could be using it to authenticate oneself with sites like Facebook and Twitter, rather than entering a user ID and password each time (reducing the risk of ID and password leakage).

In order to create an information bank with a built-in PDS, it is desirable to have various other services acting as neutral entities; also, it is necessary to redirect all kinds of personal data such as user IDs/passwords/payment information and relay it to the original service, which will take a certain amount of time to finalize. DataSign released Paspit as a password management tool that can become a foothold for opening such an information bank. The set of user ID/password for each web service is stored on Paspit, and authentication with the web service is carried out by an irreversible hash value (token) that corresponds to the user ID/password on a one-to-one basis.

The biggest feature of Paspit is that it uses web scraping when authenticating users using hash values with web services. Previously, to make web services which only accept credit card payments recognize PayPal payments or to make web services that only work with regular user ID/password authentication correspond to Facebook and Twitter authentication, even though it is a minor thing, it was necessary to integrate with some sort of API. However, since Paspit uses web scraping, basically it can correspond to all web services.

paspit-yahoo-login — An example of using Paspit to login to Yahoo Japan
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

DataSign currently works with market research big names like Intage and Video Research on development and experiments that allow companies to offer rewards when users agree to provide their personal data (opt-in). In the field of information banks, Dentsu and Mitsubishi UFG Trust and Bank, etc., have expressed interest in participating, but it is certainly significant that a “sprightly” startup is stepping up to the challenge to provide a neutral service that can release information even against competing services.

DataSign was established in September of 2016 by Yuichi Oota, who previously served as the president of Owldata, Japan’s first DMP (datamanagement platform) developer. The company has been raising funds from individual investors.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

news

Senri, sales optimization tool for FMCG firms in Africa, raises $7.2M from Japanese VCs

Masaru Ikeda 2018.09.03

See the original story in Japanese. Nairobi-based Africa Incubator (Afri-inc), the Kenyan startup offering the Senri sales optimization platform for manufacturing and distribution businesses in Africa, announced today that it has fundraised 80 million yen (about $7.2 million US) from three Japanese VC firms – Money Ventures, Leapfrog Ventures, and Anri. The funding round at this time has not been designated but appears to be a seed or pre-series A round. This follows their 40 million yen ($3.6 million US) funding back in 2015 from Japanese confectionary company Morinaga and Anri, which made the total funding raised up to 120 million yen (about $1.1 million US). Afri-inc will use the funds to strengthen the capability of the Senri platform including adding payments function in addition to expanding the platform into Nigeria, or Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest market. Since its launch back in 2015 by Kentaro Nagai who has launched and operated several projects at JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) in Africa followed by managing projects at global several strategic consulting firms, Afri-inc has been offering the Senri platform for about 50 manufacturing and distribution businesses centered on FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) including Japanese companies like Honda and Morinaga. In Africa,…

Kentaro Nagai, CEO and Founder of Africa Incubator
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

See the original story in Japanese.

Nairobi-based Africa Incubator (Afri-inc), the Kenyan startup offering the Senri sales optimization platform for manufacturing and distribution businesses in Africa, announced today that it has fundraised 80 million yen (about $7.2 million US) from three Japanese VC firms – Money Ventures, Leapfrog Ventures, and Anri. The funding round at this time has not been designated but appears to be a seed or pre-series A round. This follows their 40 million yen ($3.6 million US) funding back in 2015 from Japanese confectionary company Morinaga and Anri, which made the total funding raised up to 120 million yen (about $1.1 million US).

Afri-inc will use the funds to strengthen the capability of the Senri platform including adding payments function in addition to expanding the platform into Nigeria, or Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest market.

Since its launch back in 2015 by Kentaro Nagai who has launched and operated several projects at JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) in Africa followed by managing projects at global several strategic consulting firms, Afri-inc has been offering the Senri platform for about 50 manufacturing and distribution businesses centered on FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) including Japanese companies like Honda and Morinaga.

Senri (click to enlarge)
Image credit: Afri-inc

In Africa, the distribution process costs more because most of consumer goods are likely to be distributed through traditional retailers, which makes it harder to build a efficient distribution network. Leveraging the SaaS model, Senri has helped users streamline their distribution process including sending and receiving orders, eventually improved their productivity by over 20%.

Nagai says,

In Africa, as the population explosively increases, it is necessary to establish and grasp the network for distributing goods. Africans basically do not trust each other in deals but there are many IT and mobile solutions that can tackle these issues.

According to Nagai, Senri originally launched in Uganda which can easily validate business performance before total roll-out because of the country’s market size, so then advanced to exlore more business opportunities. With all this, he realized streamlining distribution channels to be in high demand regardless of whichever market in the region, eventually made up his mind to start expanding into multiple markets. As long as having an English interface, the platform will not require much localization effort when expanding to other countries. With earlier market expansion efforts, they aim to be dominant in African key markets like Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania.

Afri-inc is not the only company offering this kind of service. There is definitely a competitor in Kenya, so may it in Nigeria too. But Nagai thinks the existence of competitors proves market potential. This market is still immature, so he looked confident to take the lead in every country by offering better customer care and user experience.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

news

Activ8 raises $5.4M from Gumi, Makers Fund; expands ‘Virtual YouTuber’ business

Activ8
Upd8

SCORE 1,642

Takeshi Hirano 2018.09.02

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Activ8 (pronounced ‘activate’), the Japanese startup behind the Upd8 (pronounced ‘update’) ‘Virtual YouTuber’ supporting project, announced on Tuesday that it has raised 600 million yen (about $5.4M US) in funding from Hong Kong-based Makers Fund and Tokyo-based gaming company Gumi (TSE:3903). Details regarding the payment date and investment ratio were not disclosed. Activ8 graduated from the 3rd batch of Tokyo XR Startups and this is the third time it has raised outside funds. The company has also previously received funds from a fund managed by Gumi, and the current capital stands at 695 million yen (about $6.3M US). The company employs 40 people. Since is launch back in September of 2016, Activ8 has been supporting original “virtual talents” in the expanding field of “Virtual YouTubers”. Kizuna AI, an AI-powered virtual YouTuber backed by the company, is ranked most popular on User Local’s ranking survey based on the number of fans and total number of views. Additionally, at the end of May this year the company released the Upd8 virtual support platform. It provides support projects for virtual talent job matching and original goods sales after passing an examination conducted by the company. They…

From left: Activ8 CEO Takeshi Osaka, Masashi Nakano
Image credit: Activ8

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Activ8 (pronounced ‘activate’), the Japanese startup behind the Upd8 (pronounced ‘update’) ‘Virtual YouTuber’ supporting project, announced on Tuesday that it has raised 600 million yen (about $5.4M US) in funding from Hong Kong-based Makers Fund and Tokyo-based gaming company Gumi (TSE:3903).

Details regarding the payment date and investment ratio were not disclosed. Activ8 graduated from the 3rd batch of Tokyo XR Startups and this is the third time it has raised outside funds. The company has also previously received funds from a fund managed by Gumi, and the current capital stands at 695 million yen (about $6.3M US). The company employs 40 people.

Since is launch back in September of 2016, Activ8 has been supporting original “virtual talents” in the expanding field of “Virtual YouTubers”. Kizuna AI, an AI-powered virtual YouTuber backed by the company, is ranked most popular on User Local’s ranking survey based on the number of fans and total number of views.

Additionally, at the end of May this year the company released the Upd8 virtual support platform. It provides support projects for virtual talent job matching and original goods sales after passing an examination conducted by the company. They have 25 registered talents and 26 registered YouTube channels. In Japan this type of project is preceded by the MCN (Multi-Channel Network) developed by UUUM, and can be regarded as a derivation.

See also:

Japan’s leading YouTuber management agency Uuum files for IPO

According to Activ8’s CEO Takeshi Osaka one idea for future expansion includes developing an IP (intellectual property) licensing business. For example, Marvel has produced not only individual titles but has also combined them to form episodes under the main title of Avengers.

Osaka remarked that one strength of virtual talent lies in, “Being able to come in contact with it more frequently, rather than, say, seeing a movie once a year”. Moreover, compared to the period when global access was nearly half what it is now, he noted the borderless feature of this market.

Future plans include increasing the main virtual talent to about 20 by the end of next year, and for Upd8, which is open for general use, the company has a goal of about 1,000 members for the platform as a whole.

Even though everything is virtual, it is still a support platform for gathering talent that will have a strong influence, and since anonymity is high we thought to confirm the level of safety such as the countermeasure to prevent it from being possibly exploited by antisocial forces. Activ8 would like to protect and cherish the world of virtual talent, and unless publicly announced by the talent themselves, the company will not release identities.

Osaka says,

“In terms of judging, we are focusing on diversity. We value the culture of this market.”

With regards to registered talent, the company takes measures to make direct contact with the talent and confirm the safety. When a behavior concern arises the corresponding virtual talent takes direct responsibility and as a platform it will take action according to the code of conduct.

The funds raised this time around will go to strengthening human resources in order to accelerate the company’s virtual talent entertainment activities.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

news

Japan’s Leapfrog Ventures invests in Kenya-based sales bot and SaaS startup Biashara

Masaru Ikeda 2018.08.27

See the original story in Japanese. Three months have passed since we first covered Leapfrog Ventures which started invested in the Sub-Saharan African market, but we just got another news update for their investment from Nairobi, Kenya. The firm announced today that it has invested $50,000 US in Kenya-based Biashara Viral Gains, which develops the BiasharaBot social commerce solution suite consisting of a messenger bot and SaaS (service as a service) to help merchants streamline their sales management processes. Biashara was selected in April as one of top three startups at the Demo Day of Pangea, the Norwegian startup accelerator conducting their programs in Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt. And then the Kenyan startup successfully raised $50,000 US from the accelerator followed by Leapfrog Ventures’ investment at this time. Derived from ‘Sell’ & ‘Buy’ in Arabic, Biashara is a Swahili word meaning business. In Africa, e-commerce customers sometimes receive wrong or counterfeit items since logistic systems and customer relationship management efforts are sloppy. To address this issue, Biasharabot offers a messenger bot helping merchants encourage potential customers purchased items through recommendations from their friends and celebrities, in addition to sales management SaaS solution enabling order receiving, delivery management and payments acceptance….

Moses Korir, Co-founder of Biashara Viral Gains, delivered his pitch at the recent Pangea startup accelerator Demo Day.
Image credit: Biahara Viral Gains

See the original story in Japanese.

Three months have passed since we first covered Leapfrog Ventures which started invested in the Sub-Saharan African market, but we just got another news update for their investment from Nairobi, Kenya. The firm announced today that it has invested $50,000 US in Kenya-based Biashara Viral Gains, which develops the BiasharaBot social commerce solution suite consisting of a messenger bot and SaaS (service as a service) to help merchants streamline their sales management processes.

Biashara was selected in April as one of top three startups at the Demo Day of Pangea, the Norwegian startup accelerator conducting their programs in Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt. And then the Kenyan startup successfully raised $50,000 US from the accelerator followed by Leapfrog Ventures’ investment at this time.

Derived from ‘Sell’ & ‘Buy’ in Arabic, Biashara is a Swahili word meaning business. In Africa, e-commerce customers sometimes receive wrong or counterfeit items since logistic systems and customer relationship management efforts are sloppy. To address this issue, Biasharabot offers a messenger bot helping merchants encourage potential customers purchased items through recommendations from their friends and celebrities, in addition to sales management SaaS solution enabling order receiving, delivery management and payments acceptance.

BiasharaBot
Image credit: Biashara Viral Gains

Customer acquisition efforts and sales management activities are totally different processes, but the messenger bot engages customers and receives their orders so that it can connects these processes to make a seamless workflow from order receipt to delivery monitoring. Integrated with Kenyan mobile payments system M-Pesa and local on-demand delivery service Sendy, the suite allows merchants to call a driver by one-click to deliver items to customers.

Using the funds raised at this time, Biashara plans to develop and release plug-ins for major e-commerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento, while attracting up to 1,000 paying merchants. Not to mention service expansion in Kenya, the company espouses an ambition to advance in Nigeria, South Africa and among other highly-populated Sub-Saharan African markets in the future.

Leapfrog Ventures CEO Takuma Terakubo told The Bridge that our recent coverage about Exuus’ funding encouraged Biashara to get in touch with Terakubo for investment. We were told that the deal was secured in as early as two weeks since the first appointment. We are looking forward to bring you another news update around Leapfrog Ventures soon.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

news

Japan’s influencer marketing startup BitStar secures $12M series C led by Global Brain

Bitstar

Masaru Ikeda 2018.08.24

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based BitStar, develoing the BitStar influencer support platform and the E-DGE YouTuber production, announced on Monday that it has fundraised 1.3 billion yen (around $11.8M US) in a series C round. This round was led by Global Brain with participation from ABC Dream Ventures (VC arm of Asahi Broadcasting), Colopl Next, Wright Flyer Live Entertainment (WFLE; a wholly owned subsidiary of Gree that offers a live VTuber app), Intage Open Innovation fund (jointly operated by Intage Holdings and SBI Investment), Makers Fund (a Hong Kong-based fund specialized in entertainment businesses), Asahi Shimbun, and Nagoya TV Ventures (corporate venture capital of Nagoya Broadcasting Network) also participating. Among the investors from this round, Colopl Next was the sole investor for the series A round in August of 2016 (amount undisclosed, estimated at several hundred million yen), and Global Brain was the sole investor for the series B round in June of 2017 (300 million yen investment). From October of 2017 ABC Dream Ventures participated as an investor (investment amount and round not disclosed). Including funds procured in the seed round (amount not disclosed) from East Ventures in 2014, the cumulative procurement from external investors is probably…

The BitStar and Global Brain teams
Image credit: Global Brain / BitStar

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based BitStar, develoing the BitStar influencer support platform and the E-DGE YouTuber production, announced on Monday that it has fundraised 1.3 billion yen (around $11.8M US) in a series C round.

This round was led by Global Brain with participation from ABC Dream Ventures (VC arm of Asahi Broadcasting), Colopl Next, Wright Flyer Live Entertainment (WFLE; a wholly owned subsidiary of Gree that offers a live VTuber app), Intage Open Innovation fund (jointly operated by Intage Holdings and SBI Investment), Makers Fund (a Hong Kong-based fund specialized in entertainment businesses), Asahi Shimbun, and Nagoya TV Ventures (corporate venture capital of Nagoya Broadcasting Network) also participating.

Among the investors from this round, Colopl Next was the sole investor for the series A round in August of 2016 (amount undisclosed, estimated at several hundred million yen), and Global Brain was the sole investor for the series B round in June of 2017 (300 million yen investment). From October of 2017 ABC Dream Ventures participated as an investor (investment amount and round not disclosed). Including funds procured in the seed round (amount not disclosed) from East Ventures in 2014, the cumulative procurement from external investors is probably around 2 billion yen (about $18M US).

Additionally, BitStar announced its partnership with WFLE, in which WFLE will support the 3D conversion, recording, and distribution of VTubers from 2D models produced by BitStar, with the two companies jointly producing multiple VTubers (Virtual YouTubers) in 2019. The investments from multiple broadcasters are reflective of BitStar CEO Taku Watanabe’s previous remarks on moving to produce products in collaboration with them. The company is also collaborating with Asahi Broadcasting and Asahi Shimbun for the creation of next-generation media under the latter two companies’ #ONE! new channel brand.

Makers Fund is a $180 million US fund established by Jay Chi, who led the McKinsey Video Game Project, and Michael Cheung, also hailing from McKinsey and the former Senior Director of Tencent Holdings. In May of this year, BitStar started a promotion for the Greater China and Southeast Asian markets through a business tie-up with Fun! Japan, but Makers Fund seems to further spur this movement.

BitStar (formerly known as Bizcast) was established in July 2014 and launched BitStar, a matching platform for companies looking to do promotions for and with YouTubers. It has more than 1,500 YouTubers who do not belong to a specific MCN (multi-channel network) and their total number of followers exceeds 80 million (as of September 2016). Recently, the company has started new business such as the Costar fan club service Costar, a quantitative analysis program to measure the effect of influencers called Influencer Power Ranking (IPR), and the VTubers business.

Translated Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

news

Japan’s Metro Engines raises $6.3M, offers hotels with AI-powered pricing optimization

Metro Engines

The Bridge 2018.08.23

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Metro Engines, the Japanese startup offering Dynamic Pricing functions for hotels leveraging Deep Learning-powered demand forecast, announced today that it has raised 700 million yen (about $6.3 million US) from SBI Investment, NEC Capital Solution, Evolable Asia, JR East Start Up, Tap, Vector, Venture Labo Investment and Kiyohiro Sugashita. The latest funding follows the previous one raising estimated several million US dollars from Beenos back in December of 2016. Metro Engines will use the funds to increase the number of engineers and data scientists up to about 100, aiming to improve the accuracy of the dynamic pricing technology and accelerate business expansion using it. Metro Engines has developed a tool that allows hotel to set pricing leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning based on real-time Big Data. It collects Big Data regarding booking behaviors of hotel guests, and provides AI-powered analysis and optimized room pricing based on real-time data. By repeatedly verifying whether or not the suggested pricing is appropriate with Deep Learning, it can help hotels improve work efficiency and customer’s experience as well as reduce cost. The company claims dozens of notable hotel chains in Japan have decided to adopt it….

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Metro Engines, the Japanese startup offering Dynamic Pricing functions for hotels leveraging Deep Learning-powered demand forecast, announced today that it has raised 700 million yen (about $6.3 million US) from SBI Investment, NEC Capital Solution, Evolable Asia, JR East Start Up, Tap, Vector, Venture Labo Investment and Kiyohiro Sugashita.

The latest funding follows the previous one raising estimated several million US dollars from Beenos back in December of 2016. Metro Engines will use the funds to increase the number of engineers and data scientists up to about 100, aiming to improve the accuracy of the dynamic pricing technology and accelerate business expansion using it.

Metro Engines has developed a tool that allows hotel to set pricing leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning based on real-time Big Data. It collects Big Data regarding booking behaviors of hotel guests, and provides AI-powered analysis and optimized room pricing based on real-time data. By repeatedly verifying whether or not the suggested pricing is appropriate with Deep Learning, it can help hotels improve work efficiency and customer’s experience as well as reduce cost. The company claims dozens of notable hotel chains in Japan have decided to adopt it.

Metro Engines won the top award at Demo Day of IBM BlueHub’s Open Innovation Program Inbound Travel back in May of 2017. Their competitors include Sora, the Japanese startup behind AI-powered pricing strategy support platforms for hotels called Hotel Hanzuke and MagicPrice.

via PR Times

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

news

Ex-Tech in Asia editor launches his startup, aims to attract more people with craft beers

Best Beer Japan

Masaru Ikeda 2018.08.23

See the original story in Japanese. Entrepreneurs are often eccentric, and that may be a kind of honorable title worthy of praise but there must be no one else as unconventional in the world as this guy. Peter Rothenberg graduated UCLA and came to Japan in 2007 to study at International Christian University. In 2014, he founded the English learning service Eigooo! from MOVIDA Japan 5th batch and seems to have focused on service provision but suddenly changed jobs to become a driver of human-powered rickshaw in Asakusa, Tokyo. This was followed by an appointment to Tokyo-based chief editor of Singapore-headquartered startup media outlet Tech in Asia. It became gradually rare to see Rothenberg’s posts since around last summer. I heard he had been preparing something new at his office in East Ventures in Roppongi, and it is finally unveiled. I, as a writer covering entrepreneurs, would like to say welcome back to him, as he returns to the entrepreneurial field. Peter Rothenberg founded a craft beer startup Best Beer Japan and raised a total of 15 million yen (about $136,000) in its angel round. 15 venture capitals and individual investors as shown below participated in this round. NOW (the…

L to R: Peter Rothenberg (CEO/founder, Best Beer Japan), Eldad Bribrom (Chief Beer Officer, Best Beer Japan)
Image credit: Best Beer Japan

See the original story in Japanese.

Entrepreneurs are often eccentric, and that may be a kind of honorable title worthy of praise but there must be no one else as unconventional in the world as this guy. Peter Rothenberg graduated UCLA and came to Japan in 2007 to study at International Christian University. In 2014, he founded the English learning service Eigooo! from MOVIDA Japan 5th batch and seems to have focused on service provision but suddenly changed jobs to become a driver of human-powered rickshaw in Asakusa, Tokyo. This was followed by an appointment to Tokyo-based chief editor of Singapore-headquartered startup media outlet Tech in Asia.

It became gradually rare to see Rothenberg’s posts since around last summer. I heard he had been preparing something new at his office in East Ventures in Roppongi, and it is finally unveiled. I, as a writer covering entrepreneurs, would like to say welcome back to him, as he returns to the entrepreneurial field.

Peter Rothenberg founded a craft beer startup Best Beer Japan and raised a total of 15 million yen (about $136,000) in its angel round. 15 venture capitals and individual investors as shown below participated in this round.

NOW (the fund launched last month by Kazuma Ieiri )
Makoto Takano (CEO / Chief Editor of Forbes Japan, CEO of D4V, CEO of MT Partners)
Mamoru Taniya (D4V, CEO of Asuka Asset Management)
Jun Ogawa (Director of Teambox, Managing Director of Pixie Dust Technologies)
Koji Yamada (CEO of Boundary Spanner)
Norihiro Matsudaira (Chief Investment Officer of Hoops Partners)
Masashige Obara (CEO of StartPoint)
Hiroaki Watatani (CEO of AS-accelerator)
Hisamizu Takahashi (Miz Partners)
Ken Soga (SG Capital)
Yasushi Oga (CEO of Flier)
Naoki Yamada (CEO of Anydoor)
Kengo Ito (D4V)
2 undisclosed individual investors

Best Beer Japan’s logo
Image credit: Best Beer Japan

Not a few readers of The Bridge love craft beer (and the investors of this round must be craft beer lovers too), but unfortunately the price becomes higher than major brand beer when drinking at bars. There are two reasons for this: craft beer is not on mass-production and the distribution channel is not established. The former one cannot easily be solved due to dependency on consumer demands, but the latter one went beyond my expectations.

With respect to the major brands, beer produced at their breweries is distributed to wholesalers, and then it is supplied to consumers through retailers or liquor stores. We often see a beer barrel connected to a beer server in a bar or restaurant. On the other hand, in the craft beer industry, restaurant users have to put in orders directly to craft beer brewers and receives them directly using low-temperature delivery services (aka cold storage delivery). Unlike the major brand beer, there is no system to collect empty beer barrels by wholesalers so that restaurant users send them back to brewers themselves via delivery services.

As described above, the distribution system of craft beer is quite inefficient. For example, with a glass of craft beer sold by 1,000 to 1,500 yen (about $9.1 to $14) for one pint in restaurant, its cost is about 650 yen (about $5.9) and the distribution cost accounts for 20 to 30% of it. Rothenberg’s aim is this: if the cost is reduced by improving efficiency of distribution, restaurant can provide craft beer at a cheaper price than the current one and that may lead to increased consumer desire for craft beer. As the demand increases, brewers can increase the production and one of the former reasons for high pricing mentioned above is likely to be solved.

The form of craft beer barrel is not standardized but brewers do not promote its brand with beer barrels. They compete for the quality of their products. Best Beer Japan’s first challenge is to improve the distribution efficacy by sharing beer barrels among brewers. The firm has commenced beer barrel collection services in cooperation with brewers and restaurants which participate in this concept in the Tokyo area. It is in the so-called user validation phase, and Rothenberg said that the main purpose of this phase is to observe whether restaurants’ behavior will change or not by introducing the beer barrel service.

Aims to beer company of 21th century

Recipe image of made-to-order beer
Image credit: Best Beer Japan

Best Beer Japan’s goal is not to be a startup to improve craft beer distribution, although starting with the beer barrel collection service. Leveraging market data and knowledge acquired from this service, the firm eyes a possible future that it provides an E-commerce of craft beer or makes made-to-order beer by itself six months or a year later. The firm can use time for preparing these new services effectively by acquiring licenses of liquor manufacturing and liquor sales business while providing the beer barrel collection service. As Japan’s Raksul succeeded in the printing and delivery service by networking printing factories, Rothenberg expects that the similar model can be realized in the beer industry because not a few existing breweries have surplus production capacity.

Digital tools will also be useful for the craft beer sales. The craft beer lovers form a strong and heavy layer of enthusiasts and the craft beer business basically focuses on repeat users. Although certain marketing efforts and branding strategies will be needed, it can acquire heavy users at very low cost apart from the severe share competition among major brands. In this field, web media players like Beer Girl which was purchased by Cocolable this February exist, and such an online marketing style using story content seems to go well with craft beer too.

In the context of the startup, cooperation with the unmanned convenience store system 600 would be possible. It is well-known that free beer is provided at WeWork’s co-working spaces after working time, so that it is a reasonable culture that craft beer is provided from 600’s refrigerator at startup offices where labor environment is regarded as important. Based on the data-driven sale strategy, the firm can deliver a best-selling craft beer product in an optimum distribution flow.

If Best Beer Japan grasps the brewery, distribution and sales channel, a D2C (direct to consumer) model of craft beer will be completed. The beer industry has a long history so that it is not so easy for existing beer companies to introduce innovative management style. The firm will also focus on the brewing process improvement by digitalizing the recipe in order to create an environment where everyone can drink craft beer in everyday life. The firm’s tag-line ‘To life. To beer. To exploration’ are included in Rothenberg’s tenets.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

news

Drone Fund announces $27M second fund; Japan soccer star Honda joins as investor

DroneFund

Masaru Ikeda 2018.08.22

See the original story in Japanese. Japan’s Drone Fund, the fund led by the Japanese angel investor Kotaro Chiba focusing on investment into drone startups, last month announced the establishment of its second fund. The second fund will be offered from 1st of August and be closed on 30th of this September. The fund is seen reaching 3 billion yen (about $27 million) to 5 billion (about $45 million) at the highest, with oversubscription twice the size of their first fund. They offered the first fund expecting 1 billion yen and fully closed for 1.6 billion yen this February. The Drone Fund has already invested in 20 companies (19 domestic companies and U.S.-based Sabrewing). The anchor investors of the second fund include anew Mizuho Bank, KDDI, the founding family of Mabuchi Motor, footballer Keisuke Honda as KSK Angel Fund and Sega Sammy Group, along with first fund investors such as Canal Ventures (VC arm of Japanese leading system integration company Nihon Unisys), FFG Venture Business Partners (the Bank of Fukuoka’s venture capital), Mistletoe, Aucfan, Japan Asia Group and Leave a Nest that are continuing to take part in the second fund. See also: Drone Law Japan During the press conference held…

For the press conference at Ryugasaki Airport in Ibaraki, a drone demonstration flight was given, having obtained permission from the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

See the original story in Japanese.

Japan’s Drone Fund, the fund led by the Japanese angel investor Kotaro Chiba focusing on investment into drone startups, last month announced the establishment of its second fund. The second fund will be offered from 1st of August and be closed on 30th of this September. The fund is seen reaching 3 billion yen (about $27 million) to 5 billion (about $45 million) at the highest, with oversubscription twice the size of their first fund. They offered the first fund expecting 1 billion yen and fully closed for 1.6 billion yen this February. The Drone Fund has already invested in 20 companies (19 domestic companies and U.S.-based Sabrewing).

The anchor investors of the second fund include anew Mizuho Bank, KDDI, the founding family of Mabuchi Motor, footballer Keisuke Honda as KSK Angel Fund and Sega Sammy Group, along with first fund investors such as Canal Ventures (VC arm of Japanese leading system integration company Nihon Unisys), FFG Venture Business Partners (the Bank of Fukuoka’s venture capital), Mistletoe, Aucfan, Japan Asia Group and Leave a Nest that are continuing to take part in the second fund.

See also:

Drone Law Japan

Japanese soccer star Keisuke Honda (left) shakes hands with and Kotaro Chiba (right), the founder of Drone Fund
Image credit: Drone Fund

During the press conference held at Ryugasaki Airport in Ibaraki, Chiba explained the purpose of the second fund as focusing on investment in ‘creation of drone-based society’ and ‘preparation for air-mobility society’. Additionally, its official character Misora Kanata was introduced, aiming to improve awareness of drone and air-mobility society. This character, with the personality of a high school girl living in Tokyo’s Sumida Ward in 2022 was designed by Japanese designer Yamakitakumi.

Misora Kanata, Image character of Drone Fund
Image credit: Drone Fund

After the press conference, demonstrations of the first fund’s investment targets were offered: Speeder-One, the hoverbike runnable on public roads as developed by Aerial Lab Industries and ACSL-PF1, industrial drone platform developed by ACSL. In addition, Chiba’s own light aircraft PA-28 Cherokee as his training plane was shown. The illustration of Misora Kanata is drawn on its main wings and main body.

Yukino Moroe, fashion model riding on mock-up of hoverbike Speeder-One
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

Keisuke Honda’s signature on head of mock-up of hoverbike Speeder-One
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

Yoshihide Suga, the Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary, recently announced that the Japanese government will formulate a progression schedule of air-mobility development and promote entry of new drone-related players.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

news

Meet six teams from Mitsubishi UFJ’s 3rd acceleration batch in Tokyo

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ

Masaru Ikeda 2018.08.16

See the original story in Japanese. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), a bank holding company with its core commercial banking subsidiary The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, last month held the Demo Day for MUFG Digital Accelerator 3rd batch in Tokyo. Six teams that passed the selection had participated in the program and been working on improvements in order to brush up for their services, upon receiving support from mentors over a four-month period starting April of 2018 based on the co-working space The Garage in Nihonbashi-Kabutocho, Tokyo. In the Demo Day, the teams’ four-month results were showcased to MUFG Group staffers, Venture Capital and media for the first time, to be examined based on four evaluation items: degree of innovation, user benefit, business potential and synergy with MUFG. The highly evaluated teams were given support grants and supplemental awards. The judges for the Demo Day were as follows: Hironori Kamezawa (Chief Digital Transformation Officer, MUFG) Souichi Kariyazono (Managing Partner, Globis Capital Partners) Muneki Handa (CEO, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital) Yoshiaki Murakami (Executive Research Director, Mitsubishi Research Institute) In addition, all six teams were given PR Times award (free use right of the press release distribution service PR Times for one years)…

See the original story in Japanese.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), a bank holding company with its core commercial banking subsidiary The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, last month held the Demo Day for MUFG Digital Accelerator 3rd batch in Tokyo.

Six teams that passed the selection had participated in the program and been working on improvements in order to brush up for their services, upon receiving support from mentors over a four-month period starting April of 2018 based on the co-working space The Garage in Nihonbashi-Kabutocho, Tokyo.

In the Demo Day, the teams’ four-month results were showcased to MUFG Group staffers, Venture Capital and media for the first time, to be examined based on four evaluation items: degree of innovation, user benefit, business potential and synergy with MUFG. The highly evaluated teams were given support grants and supplemental awards.

The judges for the Demo Day were as follows:

Hironori Kamezawa (Chief Digital Transformation Officer, MUFG)
Souichi Kariyazono (Managing Partner, Globis Capital Partners)
Muneki Handa (CEO, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital)
Yoshiaki Murakami (Executive Research Director, Mitsubishi Research Institute)

In addition, all six teams were given PR Times award (free use right of the press release distribution service PR Times for one years) as a supplemental prize.

See also:

Mitsubishi UFJ showcases five prominent startups from its first FinTech accelerator batch

Top-award winner / AWS Award winner: Lendy by Credit Engine

Mentor: Yasuhiro Yoshizawa (Inclusion Japan), Kotaro Sasamoto (Dentsu Ventures)
Grand Prix supplemental prize: Business support grant 2 million yen
AWS Award supplemental prize: Amazon Echo

Credit Engine provides a small-lot loan service Lendy as short-term emergency funds or operation funds targeting SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) / sole proprietors. Through cooperation with external web services and utilization of machine learning, its own risk evaluation system and quick application receiving / credit screening became available, so that the firm focuses on needs for funding which cannot be covered by conventional banks and financial organizations.

Credit Engine also developed a platform allowing external financial organizations to provide online lending service. This platform is specialized for online lending and enables bank users to reduce a burden of operation work in various introduction patterns according to their existing financing works flexibly.

Credit Engine revealed that it conducts PoC (proof of concept) at the MUFG-affiliated money lending company Acom and is expected to acquire new customers. Credit Engines will cooperate with MUFG Bank, and it is the first client of the platform.

See also:

Japan’s Credit Engine closes $970K seed round for data-driven small business loans

Runner-up: MDR

Mentor: Kengo Ito (D4V), Akira Kurabayashi (Draper Nexus)
Supplemental prize: business support grant 500,000 yen

Quantum computers to perform high level computation is classified roughly into special-purpose machine and general-purpose machine. MDR exhibits a Python-based SDK (software development kit) supporting special-purpose machine free of charge, allowing anyone to experience quantum computing easily. Through the participation in this acceleration program, the MDR team commented that it became possible to assess the influence on operations of banks / investment banks / investment trusts and to determine the area in present operations that quantum computing can or cannot be introduced.

In addition, MDR developed an OS for special-purpose quantum computer that allows easy development of quantum computing app without specialized knowledge. To deal with problems that cannot be solved by special-purpose quantum computer, MDR concluded an agreement with MUFG Bank on joint development of general-purpose computer. The firm plans to develop OS for general-purpose computer and aims to establish an environment where special-purpose / general-purpose quantum computing can be easily introduced into every operation of the financial industry.

Runner-up: Remitis by Restar

Mentor: Shinji Asada (Salesforce Ventures) and Jun Nakajima (Archetype)
Supplemental prize: business support grant 500,000 yen

The real estate startup Restar develops information search / analysis platform Remetis targeting enterprises dealing with real estate investment. The market size of real estate fund is huge in Japan and the total amount of managed asset is estimated to be 33 trillion yen (about $290 billion), but the firm pointed out that the available information to manage real estate efficiently is insufficient. For example, to acquire essential information to manage a certain real estate properly such as surrounding conditions of room availabilities or market prices of rent, gathering online data from more than 100 websites and even from paper-based data is a must.

With Remetis, users can acquire such information in one-stop and upload rent income / expense data automatically. It also acquires development situation data of competitors and creates summary chart or report automatically. In cooperation with MUFG Bank, Restar verified whether Remetis can automate asset evaluation / rating works for the bank’s loan customers.

Audience Award / Microsoft Azure Award / DEJIMA Award winner: Orphe Track by No New Folk Studio

Mentor: Joh Konno (Globis Capital Partners), Kotaro Sasamoto (Dentsu Ventures)
Microsoft Azure supplemental prize: use right of Microsoft Visual Studio Enterprise for one year
DEJIMA Award supplemental prizes: member user right of DEJIMA, event-holding right, novelty T-shirts

No New Folk Studio develops the smart shoes Orphe mounted with LED light and motion sensor. It was an epochal decision that the firm known for an IoT (Internet of Things) startup or a hardware startup aims to collaborate with the financial organization.

The firm develops the smart shoes Orphe Track that a small-sized device can be inserted into its insole, enabling foot data collection linking with a mobile app. Focusing on the fact that not a few runners injure their knees while running, the firm realized an unique analysis method of runners’ landing by using its own algorithm based on running data acquired from the shoes, without requiring any expensive sensors unlike conventional methods.

CEO Kikukawa was inspired by the data published from the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport that a step a day reduces medical cost by 0.065 – 0.072 yen (about 0.06 cent). He applied for this accelerator program aiming to construct an ecosystem where users can have benefits through personal foot data collection. The firm also developed a platform in which coins are accumulated by running, tying up with the blockchain startup Zerobillbank and others.

See also:

Progress update on Tokyo hardware startup’s Orphe LED smart-shoes

AndGo

Mentor: Noriaki Sakamoto (The University of Tokyo Edge Capital), Yasuhiro Yoshizawa (Inclusion Japan)

AndGo takes on research and development of technologies related to encryption, blockchain and hardware wallet and has been developing a cold wallet in which cryptocurrency can be saved.

Generally, the security of user-owned cryptocurrency can be maintained by saving it in cold wallet without depositing it in an exchange, but there are still some issues in utility such as users having to memorize a lot of secret words.

AndGo realizes restoring core for both utility and safe use, cryptocurrency transfer method with QR code and multi-component authentication by a combination of smartphone and cold wallet. The firm plans to start sales of the cold wallet earlier next year. After the pitch, the firm discussed technical issues with the staffers of Kabu.com and Paygent affiliated by MUFG.

Signal by Factbase

Mentor: Kenichiro Hara (DCM Ventures)

Factbase develops the information portal focusing on cryptocurrency named Signal with two key functions; Signal Board is a market forecast function with web-based dashboard and Signal Alert notifies users by LINE when an event that may have a significant impact on the cryptocurrency market occurs.

In contrast to the stock and exchange market based on legal tender, the cryptocurrency market is much influenced by information disseminated online. By understanding contexts and by arranging miscellaneous information using Big Data and AI (artificial intelligence), Signal realizes a system to provide information correctly to users.

The firm plans to distribute its first premium content that exhibits BTC FX (Bitcoin foreign exchange) trading techniques with actual examples, and users can subscribe to it for 10,000 yen since July 30th.

See also:

Japan’s Factbase unveils cryptocurrency market forecast platform at Blockchain Expo

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

news

SynchroLife, blockchain-based restaurant discovery app from Japan, raises $720K

Masaru Ikeda 2018.08.13

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Ginkan, developing and offering an AI-powered social restaurant discovery app called SynchroLife, announced on Friday that it has fundraised 80 million yen ($720,000 US) in a seed round. Tokyo-based internet marketing company Ceres (TSE:3696) and Fujio Komura, former chairman of Cybird Holdings, participated this round. For Ginkan, this follows their angel fundraising of 30 million yen (about $280,000 US) back in September of 2017. Komura, one of the investors participating in this round, has also participated in the previous round. The company has raised a total of 110 million yen (about $1 million US) since its foundation. Coinciding with the funding, Ginkan has partnered with Ceres to explore synergy with the latter’s mobile point media platforms serving 3.5 million active members as well as aim to develop a blockchain-based service which can be connected with offline businesses. SynchroLife is a mobile social networking app that allows users to connect with each others by sharing restaurant reviews. Ginkan rolled out a major update on the app earlier this month so that it can guarantee the accuracy and transparency of the reviews leveraging blockchain technologies. Users are incentivised by receiving SynchroCoin tokens in accordance with…

GInkan and Ceres teams
Image credit: Ceres / Ginkan

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Ginkan, developing and offering an AI-powered social restaurant discovery app called SynchroLife, announced on Friday that it has fundraised 80 million yen ($720,000 US) in a seed round. Tokyo-based internet marketing company Ceres (TSE:3696) and Fujio Komura, former chairman of Cybird Holdings, participated this round.

For Ginkan, this follows their angel fundraising of 30 million yen (about $280,000 US) back in September of 2017. Komura, one of the investors participating in this round, has also participated in the previous round. The company has raised a total of 110 million yen (about $1 million US) since its foundation.

Coinciding with the funding, Ginkan has partnered with Ceres to explore synergy with the latter’s mobile point media platforms serving 3.5 million active members as well as aim to develop a blockchain-based service which can be connected with offline businesses.

SynchroLife is a mobile social networking app that allows users to connect with each others by sharing restaurant reviews. Ginkan rolled out a major update on the app earlier this month so that it can guarantee the accuracy and transparency of the reviews leveraging blockchain technologies. Users are incentivised by receiving SynchroCoin tokens in accordance with how much their contributed articles are evaluated by other users.

SynchroLife boasts over 17,000 reviews with 420,000 pictures while about 20% out of all the users have posted their reviews. Available in English, Korean and Chinese as well as Japanese since July of 2017, the app can accept reviews of restaurants in 155 countries from around the world. The company has received user registrations from 82 countries and review posts from 48 countries.

SynchroLife’s business model
Image credit: Ginkan (click to enlarge)

Ceres has recently accelerated investments in blockchain startups including cryptocurrency exchanges such as Bitbank and Coincheck in addition to blockchain startups like Orb (Distributed Ledger Technology developer) and Sivira (blockchain app developer). In addition, the firm announced in April that it has partnered with Good Luck 3, the developer of a dApp game called Crypto-Oink.

Furthermore, Ceres has been offering ways to turn online value into real one by allowing users to convert rewards into real money or e-money. With regard to this context, Ceres recently unveiled it has partnered with Japanese crowdfunding platform Campfire to allow users to back campaigning projects using rewards within this year.

See also:

e27 holds Japan Qualifiers for Echelon 2015 Top 100 startup competition in Tokyo

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Article

Japanese personal data storage startup Datasign launches password manager app

Senri, sales optimization tool for FMCG firms in Africa, raises $7.2M from Japanese VCs

Activ8 raises $5.4M from Gumi, Makers Fund; expands ‘Virtual YouTuber’ business

Japan’s Leapfrog Ventures invests in Kenya-based sales bot and SaaS startup Biashara

Japan’s influencer marketing startup BitStar secures $12M series C led by Global Brain

Japan’s Metro Engines raises $6.3M, offers hotels with AI-powered pricing optimization