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Japan’s Paidy secures $55M series C round to foray beyond cardless online payments

Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based cardless payments service provider Paidy announced on Thursday that it raised a total of $55 million dollars in a series C round. This round was led by Itochu Corporation with participating from Pocket Card, Goldman Sachs and one unnamed company. Itochu revealed that it has invested $42 million dollars (about 76%) in the startup at this time. This follows Paidy’s (formerly Exchange Corporation or ExCo) series A round ($3.3 million US raised) conducted in July 2014, the follow-on of the series A round in May 2015 ($5 million dollars raised), the series B round ($15 million dollars raised) conducted in August 2016 and a capital and business alliance with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (now Mitsubishi UFJ Bank) in July 2017. The total amount raised so far is $80.83 million dollars. Paidy was founded in 2008 by Russell Cummer, whose previous work experience includes Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs. It started with a P2P finance or social lending service called Aqush followed by the launch of Paidy back in 2014. Subsequently the management of Paidy shifted from ExCo to the operating company Paidy. As of the end of June 2018, the number of accounts…

Russell Cummer pitching at RISE 2018 in Hong Kong on July 12
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based cardless payments service provider Paidy announced on Thursday that it raised a total of $55 million dollars in a series C round. This round was led by Itochu Corporation with participating from Pocket Card, Goldman Sachs and one unnamed company. Itochu revealed that it has invested $42 million dollars (about 76%) in the startup at this time.

This follows Paidy’s (formerly Exchange Corporation or ExCo) series A round ($3.3 million US raised) conducted in July 2014, the follow-on of the series A round in May 2015 ($5 million dollars raised), the series B round ($15 million dollars raised) conducted in August 2016 and a capital and business alliance with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (now Mitsubishi UFJ Bank) in July 2017. The total amount raised so far is $80.83 million dollars.

Paidy was founded in 2008 by Russell Cummer, whose previous work experience includes Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs. It started with a P2P finance or social lending service called Aqush followed by the launch of Paidy back in 2014. Subsequently the management of Paidy shifted from ExCo to the operating company Paidy. As of the end of June 2018, the number of accounts exceeds 1.4 million.

Russell Cummer pitching at RISE 2018 in Hong Kong on July 12
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

Even without a credit card, Paidy users can certify their identity using SMS (short message service) or IVR (interactive voice response), and then shop online and pay later at convenience stores or via bank transfers. For online businesses, it is possible to incorporate consumers who do not hold credit cards as customers, and in fact money transfers are confirmed by payment from Paidy at the time the order is made, so no accounts receivable risks arise. For customers, there is a level of comfort with e-commerce in that the payment can be made after the goods arrive.

As a result of this funidng, Paidy will become an equity-method affiliate of Itochu. Itochu has many retail chain businesses, including convenience stores and cafe chains under its umbrella, and it is thought that Paidy will develop systems of credit and face-to-face settlement that do not depend on credit cards at these stores. According to knowledgeable sources, it seems that the company is also looking for partnerships with a tablet-based payments platform for retail stores.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

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Japan’s Makuake ties up with Korea’s Wadiz for more cross-border crowdfunding deals

Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Makuake, the Japanese company behind crowdfunding platform under the same name, announced on Thursday that it has partnered with Wadiz, the Seoul-based company running the same business in Korea. This partnership is intended to help their crowdfunding campaign owners in Japan and Korea better promote in their counterpart market, and there are no capital ties between the two companies. Established in May 2012, Wadiz was officially approved by the Korea Financial Services Committee in January 2016 as an equity-type crowdfunding platform and currently offers two types of crowdfunding services: equity and reward. The company has supported so far about 2,500 crowdfunidng projects and help them fundraise more than 30 billion won (about $26.5 million US). Past famous projects include a complete meal replacement called Lab Nosh, a portable air purifier called Clair, and a handmade car manufacturing service called Mohenic Garages. In the future, the company plans to expand into Singapore, Malaysia, and other markets. There have been cases until now on both the Makuake and Wadiz platforms where project owners in Japan and Korea have taken it upon themselves to launch crowdfunding campaigns on each of their counterpart platforms. Both companies received…

From left: Makuake CEO Ryotaro Nakayama, Wadiz Co-founder and CBO Dong Choi

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Makuake, the Japanese company behind crowdfunding platform under the same name, announced on Thursday that it has partnered with Wadiz, the Seoul-based company running the same business in Korea. This partnership is intended to help their crowdfunding campaign owners in Japan and Korea better promote in their counterpart market, and there are no capital ties between the two companies.

Established in May 2012, Wadiz was officially approved by the Korea Financial Services Committee in January 2016 as an equity-type crowdfunding platform and currently offers two types of crowdfunding services: equity and reward. The company has supported so far about 2,500 crowdfunidng projects and help them fundraise more than 30 billion won (about $26.5 million US). Past famous projects include a complete meal replacement called Lab Nosh, a portable air purifier called Clair, and a handmade car manufacturing service called Mohenic Garages. In the future, the company plans to expand into Singapore, Malaysia, and other markets.

There have been cases until now on both the Makuake and Wadiz platforms where project owners in Japan and Korea have taken it upon themselves to launch crowdfunding campaigns on each of their counterpart platforms. Both companies received encouragement from KOTRA (Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency), which ultimately led to this business partnership. In cooperation with related companies, Makuake and Wadiz will support project owners by developing campaigns from Japan to Korea and vice versa, translating explanations and backer interactions, providing local logistics, settlement means and so on.

Up to now, examples of projects introduced by Makuake to Wadiz include Tidy ( Makuake / Wadiz ), a wallet that is easy to organize, and Soladey Rhythm ( Makuake / Wadiz ), a toothbrush that removes plaque with negative electrons and sound vibration. Additionally, with Japan as the theme, we’ve seen projects like creating a Korean version of “Miracles of the Namiya General Store” Japanese movie as well as Saeki’s hand-made glove products on Wadiz.

When The Bridge reached out to Makuake CEO Ryotaro Nakayama he suggested that one way to support the distribution of projects originating in Japan to the world is to strengthen and expand their relationships especially around Asia. Nakayama related that, as Makuake’s beta version in English is insufficient for localization, the company wants to be flexible in thinking about how to tie-up with potential partners and business alliances in each country, and is looking to increase business partnerships similar to the one with Wadiz.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

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Japan’s Monstar Lab ties up with aid agency, empowers refugees with IT in Jordan, Gaza

Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-headquartered Monstar Lab, the Japanese company sourcing app developments around the world,  announced on Monday that it has agreed with JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) regarding on-site survey of business potential based on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). JICA announced five companies including Monstar Lab as being selected for the program in July of last year. This survey is aimed at creating employment opportunities for refugees in Jordan affected by the Syrian Civil War that began in 2011. In order to help their economic independence, Monstar Lab will explore hiring software developers from among the Syrian refugees in Jordan as well as young people from the Palestinian autonomous territory of Gaza to connect them to digital product development work for Japan and the Middle East region. From the SDGs perspective, Monstar Lab says their proposed project is categorized in No. 8: Decent Work and Ecoonmic Growth as well as No. 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure while JICA is aiming to contribute through this survey especially to No. 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure as well as No. 10: Reduced Inequalities. Monstar Lab has opened multiple overseas bases, including in Bangladesh, and has the knowledge and experience…

From the left: Eiji Kubo (Director of the Private Sector Partnership Division, Private Sector Partnership and Finance Department, JICA), Hiroki Inagawa (CEO of Monstar Lab), Eyad Al-hindi (Councilor, the Permanent General Mission of Palestine in Japan), Rami Alkharabsheh (Second Secretary, the Embassy of Jordan in Japan)

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-headquartered Monstar Lab, the Japanese company sourcing app developments around the world,  announced on Monday that it has agreed with JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) regarding on-site survey of business potential based on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). JICA announced five companies including Monstar Lab as being selected for the program in July of last year.

This survey is aimed at creating employment opportunities for refugees in Jordan affected by the Syrian Civil War that began in 2011. In order to help their economic independence, Monstar Lab will explore hiring software developers from among the Syrian refugees in Jordan as well as young people from the Palestinian autonomous territory of Gaza to connect them to digital product development work for Japan and the Middle East region.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations (click to enlarge)

From the SDGs perspective, Monstar Lab says their proposed project is categorized in No. 8: Decent Work and Ecoonmic Growth as well as No. 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure while JICA is aiming to contribute through this survey especially to No. 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure as well as No. 10: Reduced Inequalities.

Monstar Lab has opened multiple overseas bases, including in Bangladesh, and has the knowledge and experience of maintaining local employment and expanding business in developing countries. Based on these points and the high demand for the creation of employment opportunities due to high unemployment in the Jordan/State of Palestine regions, Monstar Labs will make the refugee problems known to Japanese companies and provide opportunities to use them as CSR (corporate social responsibility) through this project, while keeping the acquisition of the Middle East market in mind.

Eiji Kubo, Director of the Private Sector Partnership Division, Private Sector Partnership and Finance Department, JICA, gave his comment in a statement:

The IT industry has the advantage of being able to do business with the outside world without having to move people and goods. As Monstar Lab seeks to make use of this feature and create employment for the local youth including Syrian and Palestinian refugees and aims for their economic independence, we would like to cooperate with the company and its business plan through this survey.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

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Nikkei presents AG/SUM 2018 in Central Tokyo with an eye to next year, 2020

The Bridge The Bridge
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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. AG/SUM (Agritech Summit) 2018 was presented by Nikkei from June 11 in Tokyo’s Nihombashi area, which from the Edo era has been home to Shinto shrines dedicated to medicinal plants. The district, under redevelopment by Mitsui Fudosan which was a major event sponsor, also has a concentration of pharmaceuticals firms ranging the gamut from Daiichi-Sankyo (with its Kusuri [Medicine] Museum) to Takeda Pharmaceutical’s newly-opened global headquarters building. The three-day event is part of the newly-launched “summit” series run by Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the flagship daily newspaper of the NIKKEI news concern; originally focused on finance and regulation, it is now aiming at such fields as life sciences and transportation, with an eye to the expansion of business activities in reflection of the Rugby World Cup next year in Japan as well as the 2020 Tokyo Olympics/Paralympics. The agriculture-centered event comprised a Symposium, an Exhibition and a Start-up Pitch Run plus a Reverse Pitch, in addition to a Marche where stalls lined the underground passageway leading from the main venues of Nihombashi Life Science Building and Nihombashi Mitsui Hall to the…

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

AG/SUM Pitch Run finalists
Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

AG/SUM (Agritech Summit) 2018 was presented by Nikkei from June 11 in Tokyo’s Nihombashi area, which from the Edo era has been home to Shinto shrines dedicated to medicinal plants. The district, under redevelopment by Mitsui Fudosan which was a major event sponsor, also has a concentration of pharmaceuticals firms ranging the gamut from Daiichi-Sankyo (with its Kusuri [Medicine] Museum) to Takeda Pharmaceutical’s newly-opened global headquarters building.

The three-day event is part of the newly-launched “summit” series run by Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the flagship daily newspaper of the NIKKEI news concern; originally focused on finance and regulation, it is now aiming at such fields as life sciences and transportation, with an eye to the expansion of business activities in reflection of the Rugby World Cup next year in Japan as well as the 2020 Tokyo Olympics/Paralympics.

The agriculture-centered event comprised a Symposium, an Exhibition and a Start-up Pitch Run plus a Reverse Pitch, in addition to a Marche where stalls lined the underground passageway leading from the main venues of Nihombashi Life Science Building and Nihombashi Mitsui Hall to the nearest railway stations, namely Mitsukoshimae subway station for Ginza and Hanzomon Metro lines as well as the JR Shin-Nihombashi station, nearby Nihombashi Information Center.

AG/SUM Reverse Pitch
Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

The Pitch Run was held with 26 participants, in two parts (a.m. and p.m.) on June 12, with the Reverse Pitch being gathered in the early evening of the same day. The competitors vied for the main Nikkei Award while the Mizuho Award (namesake after Mizuho Bank, Mizuho standing for the Japanese phrase meaning plentiful harvest, roughly equivalent to “cornucopia”) was subsidiary. The Reverse Pitch was more of a participant feedback and follow-up session for pitch participants.

The a.m. session judges were Plug and Play Tech Center’s Seena Amidi, World Innovation Lab’s Namiko Kajiwara, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings’ Uraki Fumiko and Nihon Keizai Shimbun’s Keiichi Murayama while the p.m. judges were Bits x Bites’ Matilda Ho, RocketSpace’s Shaina Silva, Mistletoe’s Eriko Suzuki and euglena’s Akihito Nagata; Mizuho Bank’s Naoto Oohitsu was a judge for both sessions.

Musca CEO Mitsutaka Kushima
Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

The joint winners of the Mizuho Award turned out to be three companies, all from Japan – graft biotech outfit Gra & Green, plant factory maker PlantX and insect-tech Musca [“musca” meaning fly in Latin]. The Nikkei award went to the international quartet of U. California Berkeley-affiliated Sugarlogix, Stanford-related Agribody Technologies, vineyard support tech provider Biome Makers and non-fermentation winemaker AVA Winery.

Speaking of wine, along with visitors from Israel (though only contaminant detector manufacturer Inspecto showed up this year, MBR-supported hydroponics firm FreightFarms opting out this year, depriving me of a chance to ask about Kosher foodstuff) and elsewhere in the Middle East (Turkish agro-finance service Tarfin and sensor data processor Tarsens [with NVIDIA backing], where Halal is a huge market), afficianados of the beverage like myself found AVA tech intriguing for such diets.

It is hoped that next year the event can be expanded and brings more general visitors to the Marche and other public outreach aspects – as for example the Turkish start-ups in fact stayed on through Monday after in order to gain more information and further exchange. In addition perhaps more start-up involvement from South American and even Africa, not to mention elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region, could be possible.

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Japan’s Ookami behind sports-centric social network app Player! raises series B round

Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Ookami, the Japanese startup behind sports entertainment app “Player!”, earlier this month announced that it has raised an undisclosed amount from NTT Docomo Ventures, Mizuho Capital, Asahi Media Lab Ventures and Asics Ventures in its series B round. The raised amount is estimated to be several millions of US dollars as surmised from information emanating from various quarters. It is the fundraising subsequent to the one with 30 million yen (about $270,000) in total from investors including Dai Tamesue (athlete), Uzabase, Yusuke Umeda (CEO of Uzabase), Tomohito Ebine (founder of Opt) and Toshiaki Komtasu (co-founder of Photo Create) in its angel round (in June of 2014 and March of 2015), the one with an undicslosed amount from Gree Ventures in a seed round (in April of 2016), and the one with an undisclosed amount from IMJ Investment Partners (now Spiral Ventures Japan), Gree Ventures and The Asahi Shimbun in a series A round (March of 2017). With this secured money, Ookami is going to strengthen human resource recruitment / development in designer, finance / management and marketing sector. Ookami was founded in April of 2014. In the following year, the team launched the…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Ookami, the Japanese startup behind sports entertainment app “Player!”, earlier this month announced that it has raised an undisclosed amount from NTT Docomo Ventures, Mizuho Capital, Asahi Media Lab Ventures and Asics Ventures in its series B round. The raised amount is estimated to be several millions of US dollars as surmised from information emanating from various quarters.

It is the fundraising subsequent to the one with 30 million yen (about $270,000) in total from investors including Dai Tamesue (athlete), Uzabase, Yusuke Umeda (CEO of Uzabase), Tomohito Ebine (founder of Opt) and Toshiaki Komtasu (co-founder of Photo Create) in its angel round (in June of 2014 and March of 2015), the one with an undicslosed amount from Gree Ventures in a seed round (in April of 2016), and the one with an undisclosed amount from IMJ Investment Partners (now Spiral Ventures Japan), Gree Ventures and The Asahi Shimbun in a series A round (March of 2017).

With this secured money, Ookami is going to strengthen human resource recruitment / development in designer, finance / management and marketing sector.

Team members of Ookami
Image credit: Ookami

Ookami was founded in April of 2014. In the following year, the team launched the mobile app Player! for iOS, pivoting its concept from sports news platform to sports SNS which distributes progress or results of games and allows users to share the excitement in real time with other users watching the same game. The app was winner of both App Store Best of 2015 and Good Design Award in 2016. Player! for Apple Watch was launched in September of 2016 and that for Android will be likewise, soon. Coincidentally with this fundraising, Ookami announced that it has added the following three functions to Player!.

  • Reminder function about favorite teams
  • Launch of Player! for web
  • Enhancement of content coverage as to college / amateur sports

Ookami participated in Tokyu Accelerate Program 3rd batch last year and won NewWork Award on its demo day. As a demonstration in the program, the team tested a real-time distribution of process of Japan vs. North Korea of E-1 Football Championship last December 9th, using the outdoor large-display Q’s Eye in Shibuya.

Now that FIFA World Cup is being held in Russia, Player! has been distributing proceedings of the games over a two-week period beginning June 18th at digital signage at major railway stations in Tokyo and Osaka.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s Abeja, Google Analytics for retail stores, secures $38M series C round

The Bridge The Bridge
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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Abeja, the company offering solutions for retail stores to improve customer path or traffic based on image analysis and machine learning technologies, announced today that it has raised 4.25 billion yen (about $38.4 million) in a series C round. Participating investors are SBI Investment, Daikin Industries, TBS Innovation Partners, Topcon, Japan Post Capital and Musashi Seimitsu Industry, in addition to existing investors including PNB-Inspire Ethical Fund, Nvidia and Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ). The company uses the funds to set up AI (artificial intelligence) management locations in ASEAN countries and the US for their flagship cloud Abeja Platform, enhance their vertical-focused SaaS (Software as a Service) platform Abeja Insight, strengthen R&D efforts and improve intellectual property management, plus hire talented staffers in the deep learning space. Founded in September of 2012, followed by graduation from the 1st batch of the Orange Fab Asia acceleration program, Abeja has raised an undisclosed sum in an angel and a seed round. Subsequently, the company has raised six figures in US dollars from Salesforce in a series A round back in 2014, followed by securing 700 million yen (about $7 million at the exchange rate then)…

Abeja CEO/CTO Yosuke Okada explains about Abeja Platform Partner Ecosystem
(Photographed at Docomo Innovation Village in November of 2016)
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Abeja, the company offering solutions for retail stores to improve customer path or traffic based on image analysis and machine learning technologies, announced today that it has raised 4.25 billion yen (about $38.4 million) in a series C round. Participating investors are SBI Investment, Daikin Industries, TBS Innovation Partners, Topcon, Japan Post Capital and Musashi Seimitsu Industry, in addition to existing investors including PNB-Inspire Ethical Fund, Nvidia and Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ).

The company uses the funds to set up AI (artificial intelligence) management locations in ASEAN countries and the US for their flagship cloud Abeja Platform, enhance their vertical-focused SaaS (Software as a Service) platform Abeja Insight, strengthen R&D efforts and improve intellectual property management, plus hire talented staffers in the deep learning space.

Founded in September of 2012, followed by graduation from the 1st batch of the Orange Fab Asia acceleration program, Abeja has raised an undisclosed sum in an angel and a seed round. Subsequently, the company has raised six figures in US dollars from Salesforce in a series A round back in 2014, followed by securing 700 million yen (about $7 million at the exchange rate then) in a series B round from INCJ, Archetype, Inspire-PNB Partners. The funding at this time is seen making the amount raised to date total at 5 billion yen (about $45 million).

See also:

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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JustInCase gets approval from regulator for P2P insurance, raises $1.4M pre-series A

Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based insuretech startup JustInCase has been officially registered as a small-amount / short-term insurer by the Tokyo Finance Bureau. In response to this, the company will officially launch an insurance business and new mobile app called JustInCase on the app store as of July 1st. Unlike an old app they were offering on a testing basis, the new app will start by offering an insurance service to cover repair costs in the event of a malfunction for smartphone users but add new service features later on. In conjunction with the launch announcement, the company revealed that it had raised 150 million yen (about $1.4 million US) in a pre-series A round from 500 Startups Japan, Globis Capital Partners, Line Ventures and others. They have raised a total of 195 million yen (about $1.8 million) to date including the funds in a seed round. The new app will score users on a daily basis about how they carefully use their smartphone so that premium rebate will be given to them at renewal of insurance according to the safety score measured in the last three months. If one has no claim which has been filed during…

Image credit: JustInCase

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based insuretech startup JustInCase has been officially registered as a small-amount / short-term insurer by the Tokyo Finance Bureau. In response to this, the company will officially launch an insurance business and new mobile app called JustInCase on the app store as of July 1st. Unlike an old app they were offering on a testing basis, the new app will start by offering an insurance service to cover repair costs in the event of a malfunction for smartphone users but add new service features later on.

In conjunction with the launch announcement, the company revealed that it had raised 150 million yen (about $1.4 million US) in a pre-series A round from 500 Startups Japan, Globis Capital Partners, Line Ventures and others. They have raised a total of 195 million yen (about $1.8 million) to date including the funds in a seed round.

The new app will score users on a daily basis about how they carefully use their smartphone so that premium rebate will be given to them at renewal of insurance according to the safety score measured in the last three months. If one has no claim which has been filed during the latest insurance period or has a high score indicating a lower risk, one gets a 30% discount on average for payment.

A Screenshot of the new app.
Image credit: JustInCase

JustInCase tried to deal with P2P (peer-to-peer) insurance though the fact of the matter is that they virtually adopted it due to regulatory limitations.

Generally speaking, P2P applies the concept of a sharing economy to insurance, i.e. friends and groups of users (pools) who are interested in insurance against the same risk pay the insurance premiums, and a system is adopted whereby insurance money is paid out from this pool. P2P insurance has various merits including the risk being easier to calculate compared with conventional insurance, insurance products that were impossible in the past can be easily developed, insurance money fraud and moral hazard problems are less likely to occur, and ex-post facto premiums can be kept cheap (through cashback, etc.).

Meanwhile, JustInCase took a while to get approval from the regulator because it was the first attempt to launch a (virtual) P2P insurance in Japan where users can complete all application steps in the app and require no interaction with any insurance representative. The company says that it actually needed 467 days to complete the registration as an insurer on June 25th while its application process started back in March of 2017.

In this space, we’ve seen emerging P2P insurance startups such as Sure (having raised $10.6M US so far), Lemonade (recently raised $120M US from Softbank, GV or Google Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Allianz last year-end) or Berlin-based Friendsurance (raised more than $15M US from Horizon Ventures, the investment firm of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing).

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s Cacoo boasts 3 million users, wants to attract with new collaboration experience

Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
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See the original story in Japanese. Fukuoka-headquartered Nulab, the Japanese SaaS (Software as a Service) company offering several collaborative work solutions, has rolled out a new interface on their flagship product Cacoo. Because this is the first major update since the product’s launch back in 2009, we can expect there will be numerous improved functions and upgraded features based on user feedback. Major updates include: Modern and sophisticated designs for dashboard and editor screens New comment function facilitates user feedbacks to team members Easier diagram drawing by adjusting styles Automated data saving while drawing diagram Improved presentation mode for sharing idea with team members In addition to its headquarters in Fukuoka, Nulab has offices in Tokyo, New York City, Taipei and Singapore. The renewal was made on top of concept design and research which has been mainly conducted by their user experience researchers and designers over one year in Japan and New York City. When we take at look at how Cacco has been growing their user base to date, it surpassed 200,000 users back in 2011 celebrating the second anniversary, and then marked 500,000 users in 2012 and 1.5 million users in 2015. In the announcement at this time,…

See the original story in Japanese.

Fukuoka-headquartered Nulab, the Japanese SaaS (Software as a Service) company offering several collaborative work solutions, has rolled out a new interface on their flagship product Cacoo. Because this is the first major update since the product’s launch back in 2009, we can expect there will be numerous improved functions and upgraded features based on user feedback.

Major updates include:

  • Modern and sophisticated designs for dashboard and editor screens
  • New comment function facilitates user feedbacks to team members
  • Easier diagram drawing by adjusting styles
  • Automated data saving while drawing diagram
  • Improved presentation mode for sharing idea with team members

In addition to its headquarters in Fukuoka, Nulab has offices in Tokyo, New York City, Taipei and Singapore. The renewal was made on top of concept design and research which has been mainly conducted by their user experience researchers and designers over one year in Japan and New York City.

When we take at look at how Cacco has been growing their user base to date, it surpassed 200,000 users back in 2011 celebrating the second anniversary, and then marked 500,000 users in 2012 and 1.5 million users in 2015. In the announcement at this time, Nulab revealed that Cacoo has reached 3 million users, and more interestingly, over 86% international access accounts for their entire user base, which is unusual for Japanese companies.

Nulab launched earlier this month a single sign-on scheme called Nulab Account which allows users to utilize and integrate their portfolio with a single user account all across the company’s business integration tools: Backlog (serving 780,000 users, primarily in Japan) and Typetalk (serving 12,000 users as of March 2016 but the latest figures not disclosed). The Nulab Account scheme was partially launched in 2016 but its full roll-out  this month enables full migration of user management functions, enabling users to go back and forth between these tools.

The company’s user engagement activity is not limited to online, and the  launch of NuSpace in Singapore this April underscores their aim to foster user community in the Southeast Asian region.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s content distribution tech startup Pulit raises series A from Samsung, Line Ventures

Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Pulit, the Japanese startup developing distribution technologies for digital image and video content, has secured funding in a series A round from Samsung Venture Investment and an investment fund managed by Line Ventures. The funding sum has not been disclosed but it is estimated at several million of US dollars. For Pulit, this follows their seed round back in August of 2016 (raising 50 million yen) and their pre-series A round back in June of 2017 (raising about 100 million yen). The company also disclosed at this time that investors participating in the previous pre-series A round were DK Gate (a joint venture company of Digital Garage and Kodansha) and Dentsu. While Samsung Venture Investment and Line Ventures are corporate venture capital arms of the global electronics giant and the messaging giant respectively, possible strategic partnerships between Pulit and these companies are still unclear. The company uses the funds to strengthen hiring engineers (focused on content distribution network, digital rights management and content streaming technologies) as well as business developers aiming to launch an official roll-out. Pulit was founded in 2015 by K.W. Lee (CEO), a Tokyo Institute of Technology graduate who had…

The Pulit team
Image credit: Pulit

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Pulit, the Japanese startup developing distribution technologies for digital image and video content, has secured funding in a series A round from Samsung Venture Investment and an investment fund managed by Line Ventures. The funding sum has not been disclosed but it is estimated at several million of US dollars.

For Pulit, this follows their seed round back in August of 2016 (raising 50 million yen) and their pre-series A round back in June of 2017 (raising about 100 million yen). The company also disclosed at this time that investors participating in the previous pre-series A round were DK Gate (a joint venture company of Digital Garage and Kodansha) and Dentsu.

While Samsung Venture Investment and Line Ventures are corporate venture capital arms of the global electronics giant and the messaging giant respectively, possible strategic partnerships between Pulit and these companies are still unclear. The company uses the funds to strengthen hiring engineers (focused on content distribution network, digital rights management and content streaming technologies) as well as business developers aiming to launch an official roll-out.

Super Distribution System (SDS)
Image credit: Pulit

Pulit was founded in 2015 by K.W. Lee (CEO), a Tokyo Institute of Technology graduate who had been engaged in R&D at Samsung Electronics, Min-Soo Kim (CTO) who had been developing apps as a freelance programmer and Shohei Komatsu (Director) who had been involved in fund management or technical advisory work at Tokyo-based startup accelerator Slogan. The firm was born out from the first batch of seed acceleration program Supernova which is jointly managed by Draper Nexus, Slogan, Coent Venture Partners and Viling Venture Partners (however, their participation was undisclosed because they were still in stealth mode as of Demo Day).

In the Super Distribution System (SDS) scheme developed by Pulit, as content holders or creators upload videos to be distributed onto cloud, Robust Image Watermark is embedded on the cover image and direct access link (URL) is issued for each video. Clicking the direct access link, OS-native players are activated and then users are allowed to watch the videos on PC or smart devices. Also, DRM (digital rights management) control is available, so that users can save the videos on local environment or watch them again according to conditions set by content holders or creators.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s Recruit holds Tech Lab Paak Demo Day, teams from final batch present results

Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
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See the original story in Japanese. Japan’s Recruit Holdings (TSE:6098) earlier this month held a Demo Day for the 12th batch of Tech Lab Paak, the startup accelerator based in Shibuya, Tokyo. 11 teams gave 3-minute pitches presenting their six-months’ results since joining the program. In addition, 6 teams made 1-minute pitches (1 team was absence) and thereby it became a big pitch event totaling 17 teams. Below, we introduce what kind of services were or are going to be born out from Tech Lab Paak, with a focus on prizewinners. The following were judges for the pitch competition. Yohei Sawayama (Managing Partner, 500 Startups Japan) Madoka Sawa (Director, Microsoft Technology Lab., Microsoft Japan) Ken Nishimura (Journalist / ex. Editor-in-Chief, TechCrunch Japan) Goushi Yamaguchi (COO, ProtoStar) Hiroshi Hata (Principal Manager of Startup Business Development Department , Amazon Web Service) Ayumi Iwamoto (Chief, Tech Lab Paak) Tech Lab Paak has been managed for three and a half years since its launch in December of 2014, but it is going to be closed at the end of June. The accelerator program is also scheduled to be terminated with this 12th batch. Yoichi Aso, the first head of the venue and the program,…

See the original story in Japanese.

Japan’s Recruit Holdings (TSE:6098) earlier this month held a Demo Day for the 12th batch of Tech Lab Paak, the startup accelerator based in Shibuya, Tokyo.

11 teams gave 3-minute pitches presenting their six-months’ results since joining the program. In addition, 6 teams made 1-minute pitches (1 team was absence) and thereby it became a big pitch event totaling 17 teams.

Below, we introduce what kind of services were or are going to be born out from Tech Lab Paak, with a focus on prizewinners. The following were judges for the pitch competition.

  • Yohei Sawayama (Managing Partner, 500 Startups Japan)
  • Madoka Sawa (Director, Microsoft Technology Lab., Microsoft Japan)
  • Ken Nishimura (Journalist / ex. Editor-in-Chief, TechCrunch Japan)
  • Goushi Yamaguchi (COO, ProtoStar)
  • Hiroshi Hata (Principal Manager of Startup Business Development Department , Amazon Web Service)
  • Ayumi Iwamoto (Chief, Tech Lab Paak)

Tech Lab Paak has been managed for three and a half years since its launch in December of 2014, but it is going to be closed at the end of June. The accelerator program is also scheduled to be terminated with this 12th batch. Yoichi Aso, the first head of the venue and the program, had left Recruit this April and started two business of Alpha Drive and Genome Clinic.

Tech Lab Paak Award winner: Residential facility in space by Outsense

Supplemental prize: AppleStore gift cards worth 30,000 yen

Outsense is developing technologies for constructing residential facility in space utilizing three-dimensional developable structure like Origami (Japanese folding papercraft). As the space development moves ahead globally and manned activities on the moon are expected to begin in around 2030, the team tackles designing of residential facility, mockup creation or business development.

Unlike the conventional residential facilities on the moon, Outsense devised a concept of a roofed house design and is applying for a patent on that technology. The team has been improving functions of the facility not only for the maintenance of life but also for a space to live a comfortable life.

Microsoft Award winner: Kazamidori

Supplemental prize: king crab 1.5kg

Kazamidori offers solutions for general problems related to infant education. To provide an environment where anyone can receive a proper educational opportunity regardless of birth or background, the team takes on research and development of a data-driven and socially implementable infant education method. The team approaches to infant education from three angles: giving advice about caring of children domestically, improving work efficiency at nursery schools or kindergartens and reforming social systems through lobbying of governmental authorities. The research part is planned to be conducted as a non-profit organization (NPO) set apart from its main body of business.

Kazamidori is going to launch an infant educational media soon. In the end, the team plans to manage its own nursery school bringing together the knowledge acquired from all business sectors but thinks it is not easy to achieve the exit in its all business sectors at once due to the size of the business theme ranging over various area, so that it is considering a way to pay return to investors as exiting each business one by one.

500 Startups Japan Award: TOLETTA by Hachitama

Supplemental prize: Matsusaka beef and Kobe beef set

Hachitama develops Toletta, the IoT (Internet of Things) toilet for cat capable of checking up urologic diseases. It cleans cat excrement automatically, identifies each cat by image recognition and records usage information including weight, urine quantity or urination / defecation frequency. When any abnormal findings are detected, the information will be sent to their owners’ app. The team monetizes its service based on three factors: device / smartphone app, periodic purchase of recognized organic cat food and online consultation.

The most common cause of cats’ death is kidney failure and Hachitama aims to prolong cats’ lifespan by enabling the owners to realize their cats’ initial symptoms such as polyuria or weight loss. Coincidentally, Sharp had also recently unveiled a similar smart cat toilet product, but Hachitama aims to maintain priority by establishing diversified business strategy leveraging cooperation with pet food / insurance companies and database about cats / owners.

Hachitama was founded in 2015 (the company name was Pet Board Healthcare then). It succeeded in a crowdfunding campaign at Green Funding and was subsequently chosen for Morinaga Accelerator 2016 which is managed / supported by 01booster and Tokyo Accelerator which is managed by Dai-ichi Kangyo Credit Cooperative. After that, the team raised a total of 40 million yen (about $380,000) from Morinaga, Kanshin Mirai Fund (managed by Dai-ichi Kangyo Credit Cooperative), Actcall and 01booster, in addition to obtaining the subordinated loan from Japan Finance Corporation. The team won the Monozukuri Hardware Cup competition in March and was recently invited to the Global Hardware Cup 2018 competition in Pittsburgh as a finalist.

ProtoStar Award / Audience Award winner: Kimakuri by BloomScheme

Supplemental prizes: pair of meal tickets of Cuisine[s] Michel Troisgros / Champagne Taittinger 6,000 ml

BloomSheme develops a virtual try-on service named Kimakuri. It solves fashion users’ worries that they do not know whether clothes suit their faces or body types just by seeing magazine photos and it is bothersome to go shop to try them on but takes time to order the clothes from e-commerce websites.

On Kimakuri, users upload their face photos and input body type data in advance. The face photos are translated into 3D model and it shows a try-on image in the well-fitted style to the body type with each user’s face when a user chooses any clothes. The team plans to support single item changing in an outfit and 360-degree imaging in the future.

Users can share try-on images on social network services and can access e-commerce sites directly from Kimakuri allowing them to purchase the items. The team allows end-users to use the service for free and is considering monetization by charging fashion operators for account use, coordinate listing fee or website guidance fee. The team also considers adding a coordinate suggestion by a professional stylist as a premium function in the future. The team is applying for a patent for the system and plans to launch the closed beta at the end of June.

Nishimura Award winner: Ostrich antibody food science by VitaLonga

Supplemental prize: three meal tickets at boat-style restaurant (Yakatabune)

VitaLonga is a nutraceuticals (nutrition+pharmaceuticals) startup focusing on technology to use antibodies acquired from ostriches into food. The ostrich antibodies are much cheaper, resident to heat and stable to acid / alkali than general antibodies, so that they can be easily to added to food. By introducing ostrich antibodies against pollen allergen or influenza virus into food, various disease preventing effects can be expected.

Since antibodies delivered via invasive methods are considered as drugs, clinical trials are required to be given marketing approval. On the other hand, since food comprising antibodies are treated as additives which act only from taking by mouth until discharging from the body, the market introduction may be easier. The antibodies are separated from ostrich egg york and has low possibility of causing side effects. The team begins with the food additives and has been considering the application to health functional food or pharmaceuticals in the future.

AWS Award winner: AI for security camera analysis by VAAK

Supplemental prize: Amazon gift cards worth 30,000 yen

VAAK develops crime prevention solution analyzing security camera images by AI (artificial intelligence). The total damage due to shoplifting is estimated to be 13 trillion yen (about $120 billion) in the world and 500 billion yen (about $4.5 billion) in Japan annually at least, and it is hard to fully stop just by introducing watchdog persons or prevention gates. The team utilizes existing security cameras or video recorders to provide cheap and efficient crime prevention measures.

This system analyzes shop visitors’ behavior scenario based on past crime data and shop visiting patterns such as their severe facial expression or furtive manner and notifies shop managers that shoplifting is likely to happen 60 seconds before that  happens. The system is applicable to suspicious person countermeasure or accident prevention, as well as to automatic settlement service without the cashier using the same technology. VAAK announced it had raised 50 million yen (about $450,000) from an undisclosed venture capital this April.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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