news

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

Masaru Ikeda 2018.06.27

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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Japan’s IssueHunt funding platform can get contributors paid for open source work

Masaru Ikeda 2018.06.27

See the original story in Japanese. Japanese startup BoostIO (formerly Maisin & Co.) has launched a platform called IssueHunt, which allows project owners to request bug fixes in their open source project to other users, in a way like crowdsourcing. Open source developers can import their self-managed repository from GitHub onto IssueHunt, make a bug report (issue), and ask other users for solutions. It is possible to show appreciation to users (contributors) for their effort in the form of rewards and donations. There have been Open Collective and other several open source management platforms with financing functions but we were told that IssueHunt is the first platform that allows users to solicit contributions on an issue-by-issue basis. According to BoostIO CEO Kazumasa Yokomizo, Boostnote is currently being developed by contributions from users. The idea for IssueHunt came to Yokomizo and CTO Choi Junyoung while they were discussing ways to help contributors taking part in the development. The beta version of IssueHunt has been released internally and has already been used for multiple open source bug fixes, but the reward function is currently only available for Boostnote projects on IssueHunt. See also: Open Collective is a GoFundMe-like service for open source…

See the original story in Japanese.

Japanese startup BoostIO (formerly Maisin & Co.) has launched a platform called IssueHunt, which allows project owners to request bug fixes in their open source project to other users, in a way like crowdsourcing. Open source developers can import their self-managed repository from GitHub onto IssueHunt, make a bug report (issue), and ask other users for solutions. It is possible to show appreciation to users (contributors) for their effort in the form of rewards and donations.

There have been Open Collective and other several open source management platforms with financing functions but we were told that IssueHunt is the first platform that allows users to solicit contributions on an issue-by-issue basis.

According to BoostIO CEO Kazumasa Yokomizo, Boostnote is currently being developed by contributions from users. The idea for IssueHunt came to Yokomizo and CTO Choi Junyoung while they were discussing ways to help contributors taking part in the development. The beta version of IssueHunt has been released internally and has already been used for multiple open source bug fixes, but the reward function is currently only available for Boostnote projects on IssueHunt.

See also:

Open Collective is a GoFundMe-like service for open source projects（VentureBeat）

IssueHunt’s business model divides the reward for bug fixes between contributors and maintainers (committers) by 80%:20%, and IssueHunt takes a 10% commission from the contributor’s share. In other words, IssueHunt’s income is 8% of the total amount given for bug-correction.

We want to create a world where open source maintainers can make a living just from this. Our target is a scale of 10,000 people.” (Yokomizo)

Masanori Hashimoto, CEO of the successful SaaS business Nulab, first brought the Fukuoka-based BoostIO to The Bridge’s attention. Nulab is known for the majority of its users being from overseas, but BoostIO brings it full circle with the majority of its access coming from abroad. 87% of Boostnote’s access comes from overseas, and Boostlog, a blog for programmers using Markdown (Yokomizo described it as comparable to Medium for developers) and was released in February of this year by BoostIO, has a foreign access rate of 97%. Following the growth of Boostnote and Boostlog, BoostIO is targeting the world market for IssueHunt as well.

Yokomizo added:

In the US IT companies are donating to OpenCollective and others, and there is a movement to support the developer community. We are hoping to build a culture that encourages IT donations here in Japan too. Participating as a contributor to open source allows people to self-study and work a side job at the same time, so I think it’s easy for IT companies to recommend it to their employees as part-time work opportunities. (Yokomizo)

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

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Aquatech startup Umitron secures $8.4M to help improve and sustain fisheries industry

Umitron

Masaru Ikeda 2018.06.25

See the original story in Japanese. Singapore- and Tokyo-based aquatech startup Umitron announced on Friday that it has raised from 920 million yen (about $8.4 million) from Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, D4V and two Japanese angel investors, Shinichi Fujishiro and Takeshi Matsuoka. The company will use the funds to strengthen its business foundation and R&D efforts. Umitron develops technologies to help fisheries outfits manage fish farming efficiently through digitalized operations. By installing a white-colored connected device called UmiGarden (as shown in picture above) on a fish crawl, it enables livestreaming of fish swimming behavior to realize school remote monitoring at any time. In view of possible poor data connectivity at the installation site, the Umitron device has an edge computing function so that it can optimize feeding cost by analyzing the school of fish. Since it is said that feeding cost accounts for 70% of all the expenses needed upon fish farming, optimizing it can give a direct impact on improving business profitability. Umitron developed a solution for feeding fish when they are hungry, focused on fish farming of specific species like tuna and Japanese sea perch as well as red sea bream which especially requires a larger amount…

See the original story in Japanese.

Singapore- and Tokyo-based aquatech startup Umitron announced on Friday that it has raised from 920 million yen (about $8.4 million) from Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, D4V and two Japanese angel investors, Shinichi Fujishiro and Takeshi Matsuoka. The company will use the funds to strengthen its business foundation and R&D efforts.

Umitron develops technologies to help fisheries outfits manage fish farming efficiently through digitalized operations. By installing a white-colored connected device called UmiGarden (as shown in picture above) on a fish crawl, it enables livestreaming of fish swimming behavior to realize school remote monitoring at any time.

In view of possible poor data connectivity at the installation site, the Umitron device has an edge computing function so that it can optimize feeding cost by analyzing the school of fish. Since it is said that feeding cost accounts for 70% of all the expenses needed upon fish farming, optimizing it can give a direct impact on improving business profitability.

Umitron developed a solution for feeding fish when they are hungry, focused on fish farming of specific species like tuna and Japanese sea perch as well as red sea bream which especially requires a larger amount of bait. The company also wants to help prevent wasting resources and pollution in the seawater by reducing overfeeding.

Umitron also has an office not only in Japan but also in Singapore because the aquaculture market has high potential in Southeast Asia while most of the industry’s majors have their Asia Pacific regional headquarters in Singapore. In fact, Umitron has been receiving support from Singapore’s Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) and also projects from Indonesia’s Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF).

Some statistics show people’s consumption of marine products are increasing in accordance with GDP growth while large nations like China and India are getting wealthier. It is noted that the global market size of the fisheries industry is growing twice as fast than the global population growth rate, which indicates that the market potential is extremely huge. In addition to selling and implementing their solution to clients through aquaculture majors, Umitron plans to serve large fish farming firms directly.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Reference:

FAO statistics: Fisheries and Aquaculture Department

news

What Japanese computer vision startup Edison.ai takes away from Techstars Music

Masaru Ikeda 2018.06.24

See the original story in Japanese. Brand Pit– the company that analyzes images posted on social media and provides brand companies with marketing data acquired from the brand logos in the images for gauging the popularity of their products, regional distribution, use cases, etc. It has been about 5 years since The Bridge began following them, and in the intense world of startups they have stood the test of time. To update our readers, last year Brand Pit changed its name. The new name is Edison.ai. The previously uttered joke, “the startup with a name like that famous actor…” no longer holds true. When we caught up with them recently, we learned that they are participating in an accelerator program that Techstars started last year called Techstars Music, held in Los Angeles, the home of the music business. Based on our previous image of Brand Pit, we couldn’t imagine how they would fit into the music industry, so what sort of pivot did they undertake? Techstars is a long-established accelerator based in Boulder, Colorado.. It operates Global Accelerator Network (GAN) and is entrusted with managing corporate accelerators around the world. However, unlike these corporate accelerators in their kind, Techstars Music…

The Edison.ai team participating in Techstars Music (May 2018, Los Angeles)
Image credit: Edison.ai

See the original story in Japanese.

Brand Pit– the company that analyzes images posted on social media and provides brand companies with marketing data acquired from the brand logos in the images for gauging the popularity of their products, regional distribution, use cases, etc. It has been about 5 years since The Bridge began following them, and in the intense world of startups they have stood the test of time.

To update our readers, last year Brand Pit changed its name. The new name is Edison.ai. The previously uttered joke, “the startup with a name like that famous actor…” no longer holds true. When we caught up with them recently, we learned that they are participating in an accelerator program that Techstars started last year called Techstars Music, held in Los Angeles, the home of the music business. Based on our previous image of Brand Pit, we couldn’t imagine how they would fit into the music industry, so what sort of pivot did they undertake?

Techstars is a long-established accelerator based in Boulder, Colorado.. It operates Global Accelerator Network (GAN) and is entrusted with managing corporate accelerators around the world.

However, unlike these corporate accelerators in their kind, Techstars Music is specialized in a certain vertical and sector, and it is one of the programs for which Techstars voluntarily collects and manages multiple sponsors. Along with Warner Music and Sony Music, Japan’s RecoChoku participates as a sponsor.

Founder and CEO Chu Tsz Tat (TT Chu) joined the first batch in Los Angeles from February of this year for 13 weeks (about 3 months) and explained that participating in Techstars Music was heavily involved in the company’s name change from Brand Pit to Edison.ai. Ten teams were chosen for this accelerator (11 teams selected, 10 teams graduated), and each team receives $120,000 US in financing from Techstars, however the program’s goal is not supporting user growth or funding.

It seems like the intention is not to benefit to a specific music company, but to further evolve the music industry as a whole (by involving startups). (Chu)

Even in Japan, Avex and others have started accelerators (Avex Ventures’ website appears to be closed), but it is still hard to say that the momentum is building to transform the entire music industry. It seems it will take time and effort to disrupt the conservative music industry with the power of startups, even just pursuing concessions among businesses. The goal of Techstars Music appears to be cracking the door little by little into this world.

Edison.ai

What sort of transformation has the former Brand Pit, which was largely associated with FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) brands, undergone after coming into contact with the music industry? The answer lies in the expectation that the music industry wants to know what its audience is interested in.

Music companies can probably obtain metrics of streaming or downloading music content from online music stores, and perhaps a certain amount of offline sales data can be acquired from real music stores via their point of sales systems. We can also speculate about the possibility of accumulating data from concerts and music events where artists and fans are directly interacting each other through ticket digitization.

However, even that is not enough to comprehend the full music scene. Edison.ai participated in Techstars Music under the hypothesis that its technology would be helpful in understanding where and under what circumstances, what kind of artists and which songs are getting popularity.

Chu related that Techstars Music’s Managing Director Bob Moczydlowsky launched the music division of Twitter and has a very deep understanding of data collection and analysis, so Chu’s team was very lucky to participate in the program. Other features of Techstars include finding mentors who have experienced exits and relentlessly connecting industry leaders with participating startups.

Edison.ai (formerly Brand Pit) participates in various accelerator programs such as IBM BlueHub, Kirin Accelerator, Paris-based Numa’s La FrenchTech, Hong Kong’s Swire Group, and Australia’s Global Incubator Network. For the time being, the company is more focused on technological development for applications that have expanded its target field, as well as user validation, rather than financing.

Meanwhile, it seems that Techstars is increasing its presence in Asia more and more recently. Techstars Music, mentioned above, is preparing to recruit teams for its next batch, and since the beginning of the year it has begun the Rakuten Accelerator in partnership with Rakuten. Even at the Techsauce Summit held in Bangkok this week, it will invited Techstars co-CEO David Brown as a keynote speaker, so we can get answers to the question about Techstars’ extraordinary interest in Asia.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

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Japan has its successful Unicorn. Next it needs its first Unicorpse.

The Bridge 2018.06.23

This guest post is authored by Mark Bivens. Mark is a Silicon Valley native and former entrepreneur, having started three companies before “turning to the dark side of VC.” He is a venture capitalist that travels between Paris and Tokyo (aka the RudeVC). You can read more on his blog at http://rude.vc or follow him @markbivens. The Japanese translation of this article is available here. Japan witnessed its first successful unicorn take flight this week in the IPO of Mercari. Since its launch in 2013, Mercari has become Japan’s leading online flea market platform, allowing people to buy and sell secondhand items on a smartphone app with a brilliant UX. In just five years, the startup has reached a valuation of $6 billion, the largest IPO for a tech company since Line Corp. went public in July 2016. Hats off to the investors who backed Mercari, especially East Ventures who subscribed to the vision during the company’s seed round. And deep bow to the tireless leadership of Shintaro Yamada and his team at Mercari for your collectively heroic efforts! My hope is that Mercari represents a watershed moment for tech innovation in Japan. I’ve encountered mixed prognostications here in Tokyo…

This guest post is authored by Mark Bivens. Mark is a Silicon Valley native and former entrepreneur, having started three companies before “turning to the dark side of VC.” He is a venture capitalist that travels between Paris and Tokyo (aka the RudeVC). You can read more on his blog at http://rude.vc or follow him @markbivens. The Japanese translation of this article is available here.

Japan witnessed its first successful unicorn take flight this week in the IPO of Mercari.
Since its launch in 2013, Mercari has become Japan’s leading online flea market platform, allowing people to buy and sell secondhand items on a smartphone app with a brilliant UX. In just five years, the startup has reached a valuation of $6 billion, the largest IPO for a tech company since Line Corp. went public in July 2016.

Hats off to the investors who backed Mercari, especially East Ventures who subscribed to the vision during the company’s seed round. And deep bow to the tireless leadership of Shintaro Yamada and his team at Mercari for your collectively heroic efforts!

My hope is that Mercari represents a watershed moment for tech innovation in Japan. I’ve encountered mixed prognostications here in Tokyo this week. Some view it as a game-changer. Others remain skeptical, contending that Mercari remains an exception in a culture which stigmatizes failure.

Numerous people in both camps have told me that the absence of unicorns in Japan has been an embarrassment to the world’s third largest economy and former technology powerhouse viewed with intimidation in the West.

True, the U.S., Europe, and China possess herds of tech unicorns. Even today, I would submit that Europe punches above its weight in its proportion of unicorns. As I had explained in a recent interview to ITmedia News, Europe now counts about 30 technology unicorns, over 25% of the U.S. figure, which is impressive given that Europe only receives 1/10th of VC funding with substantially lower fundraising rounds compared to the U.S. As a VC during the breakout years of Europe’s tech sector, I have been fortunate to witness and invest in this magical phase.

And magical it is. The birth of unicorns in Europe has awakened international investors to the Old Continent’s potential. Capital from America and China has found it way into Europe. Now it appears that a few savvy investors from Japan are discovering the potential as well. Perhaps Mercari can unleash a similar stampede.

Granted, the term unicorn is annoyingly overused and increasingly inaccurate. However, investment bankers, research analysts, and investors love it (not to forget tech journalists, of course). Government officials across the globe have also almost universally adopted the unicorn mantra. Some use it as a metric on which to score points in petty rivalries about whose nation boasts the best tech ecosystems. One could also argue that a proliferation of unicorns is a sign of inefficiency in the capital markets.

Although I am hopeful that Japan will produce more tech unicorns in short order, I submit that the real litmus test will come in the form of a more macabre milestone: Japan’s first unicorpse.

Now please don’t misunderstand me. I applaud each and every aspiring unicorn venture, and I wish them no harm. I also salute the as-of-yet unsung heroes: the entrepreneurs who are still struggling out of the spotlight to reach escape velocity. Some of you will hopefully join the unicorn club, whereas many of you will not cross the $1B barrier but still build great companies of lasting value. Just as I wept at the end of Seabiscuit, I would not take pleasure in seeing a bunch of dead unicorn carcasses.

However, although Aileen Lee’s term refers to an arbitrary valuation threshold (remember: $1B is just another number), there is something stratospheric, ostentatious, and memorable about the $1 billion mark. On today’s scales, when you’ve crossed $1B, you’ve made it beyond the big leagues; you’ve become a near-mythical creature.

By the same token, a $1B failure will also be monumental. The topic of faltering unicorns is still a bit taboo, and the projected “dying unicorn lists” are not publicized (I know of one in particular that has recently attracted Japanese VC funding to the surprise of the local insiders).

But make no mistake, there has been and will be more blood. Probably several more unicorpses around the world. Such is the nature of venture building. This is actually a good thing, because global success stories of game-changing disruption cannot exist in an environment devoid of colossal failures.

Japan’s first unicorpse, whenever it happens, will represent a new inflection point. How the community reacts will reveal the true potential of Japan’s innovation ecosystem.

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Japanese government unveils action plan to create more global startups, unicorns

SCORE 1,169

Masaru Ikeda 2018.06.21

See the original story in Japanese. The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced last week that it has launched the startup support program named J-Startup, aiming to promote overseas development of Japanese startups and creation of unicorns. In the same day, a launch ceremony was held in Tokyo, inviting dignitaries including Hiroshige Seko (Japanese Minister of METI), Makoto Takahashi (CEO of KDDI), Laurent Pic (French Ambassador to Japan) and Sujan R. Chinoy (Indian Ambassador to Japan). J-Startup is a general name for startup support programs managed by METI jointly with Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) or New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). Aiming to produce 20 unicorns / listed companies by 2023, this program chooses about 100 startups from among 10,000 startups throughout Japan based on experts’ evaluation (consisting of 66 members including investors) and gives them certification of J-Startup Company (92 teams were chosen in the first batch). The certified startups are allowed to use the J-Startup logo as well as various beneficial supports. Invitation to visit / exhibition tours to global events such as GITEX FUTURE STARS, WebSummit, SLUSH, Consumer Electronics Show or SXSW, free use of Global Acceleration Hub at JETRO’s overseas…

Hiroshige Seko, the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan, announces the J-Startup program.
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

See the original story in Japanese.

The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced last week that it has launched the startup support program named J-Startup, aiming to promote overseas development of Japanese startups and creation of unicorns. In the same day, a launch ceremony was held in Tokyo, inviting dignitaries including Hiroshige Seko (Japanese Minister of METI), Makoto Takahashi (CEO of KDDI), Laurent Pic (French Ambassador to Japan) and Sujan R. Chinoy (Indian Ambassador to Japan).

J-Startup is a general name for startup support programs managed by METI jointly with Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) or New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). Aiming to produce 20 unicorns / listed companies by 2023, this program chooses about 100 startups from among 10,000 startups throughout Japan based on experts’ evaluation (consisting of 66 members including investors) and gives them certification of J-Startup Company (92 teams were chosen in the first batch).

The certified startups are allowed to use the J-Startup logo as well as various beneficial supports. Invitation to visit / exhibition tours to global events such as GITEX FUTURE STARS, WebSummit, SLUSH, Consumer Electronics Show or SXSW, free use of Global Acceleration Hub at JETRO’s overseas branches, business matching opportunities with major enterprises and the authorities is sent, in addition to arranging preferential treatment including financial support or simplification of procedures, preferential application of the regulatory sandbox or participation opportunities to governmental missions overseas.

It holds the interview event named J-Startup Hour inviting major supporters or famous entrepreneurs at Toranomon Hills Café from 18 to 19 p.m. every Thursday (held as a part of Venture Café Tokyo’s Thursday Gathering). In addition, 105 support companies as J-Startup Supporters will provide preferential treatments in terms of mentoring or lending equipment / facilities.

METI had managed various startup support programs such as Shido Next Innovator Program for global entrepreneur development or Hiyaku Next Enterprise for next-gen company development. JETRO, the organization under METI, had also independently developed programs to send promised entrepreneurs to foreign startup conferences. All of these programs are integrated / arranged into the unified brand of J-Startup and will be managed in a more effective manner.

J-Startup does not only support Japanese startups to advance overseas but also focuses on invitation of inbound startups / entrepreneurs. It utilizes the previously mentioned JETRO’s Global Acceleration Hub, as well as positively examines the issuance of the Startup visa relaxing the requirements for obtaining statuses of residence within certified municipalities in cooperation with the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This J-Startup announcement suggests similar attempts being made outside of Japan, for example, K-Startup by the Korean Ministry of SMEs and Startups or La French Tech under Business France. The chicken logo of La French Tech is often seen in startup conference all over the world in recent years. We will continue to check out the future trend of J-Startup and how much their presence will grow in name and in reality.

J-Startup Companies and J-Startup Supporters at J-Startup launch ceremony
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s Crooz launches VC arm, appoints 25-year-old up-and-coming investor as head

Takeshi Hirano 2018.06.17

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Crooz (TSE:2138), the Japanese company operating online fashion e-commerce site Shoplist and other internet services, announced earlier this month that it has established Seven Woods Investment (SwI) as a fully-owned subsidiary to focus on investment business. Reo Kasai, who previously served as the Managing Partner at IF Angel, was apponted as a representative of the new company. SwI will have multiple investment partnerships under its umbrella. In addition to managing SwI, Kasai manages carries out investment of his fund called Reo Asset Management Investment Limited Partnership No.1 as the managing partner. Along the same lines, Satoshi Babasaki will participate in the company’s investment projects while managing his own fund called Blackswan Capital Investment Limited Partnership No.1. See also: Book discovery service raises $200,000 from Japanese investors Crooz claims that these are part of the company’s management strategy called Everlasting Evolution Initiative. Going forward the company will continue to set up investment limited partnerships with varying strategies and representative with the aim to grow its investment business into one of their core businesses. Kasai founded hits own startup Prosbee back in 2012 when he was still a student. After participating in an acceleration program…

Reo Kasai, CEO and Managing Partner of Seven Woods Investment
Image credit: Takeshi Hirano

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Crooz (TSE:2138), the Japanese company operating online fashion e-commerce site Shoplist and other internet services, announced earlier this month that it has established Seven Woods Investment (SwI) as a fully-owned subsidiary to focus on investment business. Reo Kasai, who previously served as the Managing Partner at IF Angel, was apponted as a representative of the new company. SwI will have multiple investment partnerships under its umbrella.

In addition to managing SwI, Kasai manages carries out investment of his fund called Reo Asset Management Investment Limited Partnership No.1 as the managing partner. Along the same lines, Satoshi Babasaki will participate in the company’s investment projects while managing his own fund called Blackswan Capital Investment Limited Partnership No.1.

Japanese mobile tutor app Manabo acquired by prep school major Sundai Group

Takeshi Hirano 2018.06.12

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Manabo, providing the mobile tutor app under the same name, announced on Wednesday that it has been acquired by Japanese prep school major Sundai Group. SATT, one of the group company engaging in IT-related service development, obtained all of Manabo’s share and made it a wholly-owned subsidiary company. The cost of the acquisition was not disclosed. Manabo was founded in April of 2014. Katsuhito Mihashi, CEO of the firm, developed the idea of a real-time mobile tutor service while studying at a graduate school of the University of Tokyo. He declined employment offers from large enterprises and decided to start up. The following year, the firm secured 40 million yen (about $374,000 at the exchange rate then) in its seed round from CyberAgent Ventures and subsequently secured 330 million yen (about $3.4 million at the exchange rate then) from Benesse in 2014 and 250 million yen (about $2.3 million) from Zoshinkai Holdings in 2016. On the platform, about 200,000 lectures have been delivered and over 3,500 online tutors are registered. The platform has been introduced mainly to cram schools or prep schools, and that resulted in the buyout this time. Mihashi told that…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Manabo, providing the mobile tutor app under the same name, announced on Wednesday that it has been acquired by Japanese prep school major Sundai Group. SATT, one of the group company engaging in IT-related service development, obtained all of Manabo’s share and made it a wholly-owned subsidiary company. The cost of the acquisition was not disclosed.

Manabo was founded in April of 2014. Katsuhito Mihashi, CEO of the firm, developed the idea of a real-time mobile tutor service while studying at a graduate school of the University of Tokyo. He declined employment offers from large enterprises and decided to start up. The following year, the firm secured 40 million yen (about $374,000 at the exchange rate then) in its seed round from CyberAgent Ventures and subsequently secured 330 million yen (about $3.4 million at the exchange rate then) from Benesse in 2014 and 250 million yen (about $2.3 million) from Zoshinkai Holdings in 2016.

On the platform, about 200,000 lectures have been delivered and over 3,500 online tutors are registered. The platform has been introduced mainly to cram schools or prep schools, and that resulted in the buyout this time. Mihashi told that Manabo had been discussing about business cooperation and capital tie-in with Sundai Group since around 2017:

We had been received several offers but decided to accept Sundai’s one in consideration of its general evaluation, future possibility of service development, flexibility in business management and so forth. In the educational service field, “cheap, nasty, brutish and short services” can never be allowed.

Even with the same products, performance could change depending on the presence or absence of a provider’s reliability and business result.

In an analysis conducted through the cooperation with Benesse or Zoshinkai Publishers (Z-kai) in the past, Manabo found the efficacy of online tutorials to be higher in ‘real cram schools’ taught by real actual tutors than in correspondence education system in terms of the point of students’ motivation.

Mihashi, now 31, could not buy reference books for economic reasons and had a frustrating experience suffering some inconveniences in studies due to external factors. That experience brought him to the idea of the mobile tutor app allowing users to be taught by online tutors anytime.

However, after the foundation of Manabo, Mihashi realized that few people have difficulties in studies due to economic reasons but the decline of motivation for learning is a more serious problem for them. That is the reason for the cooperation with a real prep school this time, although Manabo had collaborated mainly with online learning service providers.

Mihashi added:

In real cram schools, tutors lift up students’ motivation. Since Manabo is the tool that motivate such motivate people more, our services are a good match.

The two companies will promote the expanded use of Manabo within and outside of Japan leveraging the network of Sundai Group, in addition to aiming at creating new EdTech services.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Transform Africa Summit: How Japan can get involved in Rwandan startup ecosystem

Masaru Ikeda 2018.06.12

See the original story in Japanese. This article is a part of series of covering Transform Africa Summit 2018 Transform Africa Summit (TAS) 2018 was held in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, over two days from May 7th to 8th. 21 countries mainly in sub-Saharan Africa participate in Smart Africa, the organizer of this event aiming to encourage the ICT-driven economy in Africa led by Rwanda. Japan Pavilion was set by 20 Japanese organizations including large enterprises or startups. Japan and Rwanda have close business relationships; Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) develops ICT Innovation Ecosystem Strengthening Project in Rwanda, and the cities of Kobe and Kigali are in a cooperation relationship. Other than Rwanda, only Japan and Estonia set up their own pavilions. Japan Pavilion had about 80 Japanese staffers and stood out among the others. As Chinese companies have the initiative in every country in Africa, none of them can be seen in the context of innovation or startup. In addition to Japan, UK (Rwanda participates in the British Commonwealth) and Israel play a important part to drive a startup ecosystem in this country. Relationship between Japan and Rwanda in startup ecosystem On the first day of the event,…

Kigali Convention Center, the main venue of Transform Africa Summit 2018
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

See the original story in Japanese.
This article is a part of series of covering Transform Africa Summit 2018

Transform Africa Summit (TAS) 2018 was held in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, over two days from May 7th to 8th. 21 countries mainly in sub-Saharan Africa participate in Smart Africa, the organizer of this event aiming to encourage the ICT-driven economy in Africa led by Rwanda.

Japan Pavilion was set by 20 Japanese organizations including large enterprises or startups. Japan and Rwanda have close business relationships; Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) develops ICT Innovation Ecosystem Strengthening Project in Rwanda, and the cities of Kobe and Kigali are in a cooperation relationship.

Japan Pavilion in TAS2018
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

Other than Rwanda, only Japan and Estonia set up their own pavilions. Japan Pavilion had about 80 Japanese staffers and stood out among the others. As Chinese companies have the initiative in every country in Africa, none of them can be seen in the context of innovation or startup. In addition to Japan, UK (Rwanda participates in the British Commonwealth) and Israel play a important part to drive a startup ecosystem in this country.

Relationship between Japan and Rwanda in startup ecosystem

Jean de Dieu Rurangirwa (Rwandan Minister of ICT, center), Masahiko Tominaga (Japanese Vice-Minister for Policy Coordination of Internal Affairs and Communications, right) and Takayuki Miyashita (Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Rwanda, left) show a memorandum regarding cooperative relationship between Japan and Rwanda.
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

On the first day of the event, Masahiko Tominaga (Japanese Vice-Minister for Policy Coordination of Internal Affairs and Communications) and Jean de Dieu Rurangirwa (Rwandan Minister of ICT) signed a memorandum regarding cooperative relationship in ICT field between the governments of Japan and Rwanda.

JICA had financially supported the establishment of technology hubs such as kLab (2012) or FABLAB (2016) in Kigali City. About 100 entrepreneurs or investors bases their activities on these hubs and had turned out dozens of startups. On the other hand, more than 40 Rwandan students are on exchange at Kobe Institute of Computing (KIC) Graduate School of Information Technology utilizing the Japanese scholarship.

Japanese space / satellite startups such as Axelspace or Infostellar participated in the event. Intelligent Space Systems Laboratory from the University of Tokyo concluded an agreement on partnership with Smart Africa.
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

On the second day of the event, KIC and the U.S.-based major drone developer Swift Engineering announced that they will establish a joint venture (JV) in Rwanda. KIC had been training ICT engineers by providing lectures on programing based on kLab, and will expand the range of its support activity through providing education of drone engineers or promotion of drone business, triggered by the JV establishment.

Kobe Institute of Computing Graduate School of Information Technology and Swift Engineering announces establishment of JV for education of drone engineers in Rwanda.
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

Rwanda is located in the highlands (here in Kigali is at an altitude of 1,500 meters) and has a rainy season, so that the daily utilization of drone is drawing attention in this country because of inadequate road condition out of urban areas. Through the investment into the Rwanda-based drone-driven medical distribution startup Zipline by the Japanese startup studio Mistletoe in 2016, the people involved in startup ecosystem recognized the high compatibility of Rwanda and drone business.

The author of this article plans to visit three sub-Saharan countries of Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya until next week and cover the present situation of the startup scene in these countries.

Jean de Dieu Rurangirwa (Rwandan Minister of ICT) and participants / staffers of Japanese companies / startups, Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, JICA and Embassy of Japan in Rwanda
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Loopin’ for more — Upon attending “Startup Mantra” recitals in Tokyo

The Bridge 2018.06.10

This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. Startups, Startups Everywhere Tokyo I daresay is as of June looking to launch full-fledged efforts to leverage various international events, not only the Olympiad but also — American football in Japan having besmirched its name during May — Rugby World Cup, Gov. Yuriko Koike having had to clear some obstacles such as those related to Central Fish Market and development/environment issues. As a prelude, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in late May organized in conjunction with Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Invest Japan Center a Startup Tokyo gathering. It was followed thereupon by startup-focused events, to culminate in the once-every-five-year international fire safety and disaster mitigation event which this year particularly highlights startup roles. Thus, the startup mantra recitations. To underscore Tokyo’s friendliness towards foreign-affiliated startups the Startup Tokyo seminar was held at a WeWork facility in ARK Hills South, aptly located next to JETRO HQ as well as Invest Japan office. The event was opened by the Governor herself, with a short speech. In fact, prior to her arrival the participants got to view a looping video of her exhorting…

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

Startups, Startups Everywhere

Tokyo I daresay is as of June looking to launch full-fledged efforts to leverage various international events, not only the Olympiad but also — American football in Japan having besmirched its name during May — Rugby World Cup, Gov. Yuriko Koike having had to clear some obstacles such as those related to Central Fish Market and development/environment issues.

As a prelude, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in late May organized in conjunction with Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Invest Japan Center a Startup Tokyo gathering. It was followed thereupon by startup-focused events, to culminate in the once-every-five-year international fire safety and disaster mitigation event which this year particularly highlights startup roles. Thus, the startup mantra recitations.

To underscore Tokyo’s friendliness towards foreign-affiliated startups the Startup Tokyo seminar was held at a WeWork facility in ARK Hills South, aptly located next to JETRO HQ as well as Invest Japan office. The event was opened by the Governor herself, with a short speech. In fact, prior to her arrival the participants got to view a looping video of her exhorting the merits of Tokyo.

See also:

Invest Tokyo

The Governor noted that the Financial Times [I would note the paper is owned by Nikkei now] and some others had found Tokyo to be the best city to live, and that thanks to first-instance use of National Strategic Special Zone scheme, the Tokyo One-Stop Business Establishment Center (TOSBEC) facilitates corporate foundation for startups as well as foreign companies to set up branches and subsidiaries.

The WeWork Japan CEO Chris Hill then spoke about the foray made by the international collaboration group into Tokyo since the beginning of this year. His staff gave a presentation after this, and invited participants to explore the facility while networking with entrepreneurs there, including two (a Japanese husband-and-wife team as represented by cleanliness expert Ms. Ohashi and a global outfit) who presented their experiences.

American businessman Mr. Erek Yedwabnick spoke on behalf of his international Internet consultant colleagues at Webguru. He noted that even with the combined knowledge of multinational web-savvy people and language support from his Japanese wife it would have been quite cumbersome to set up shop so quickly without use of TOSBEC. As it is, going forth Webguru will need to negotiate IP issues and suchlike.

See also:

Invest Tokyo

Chris Hill, CEO of WeWork Japan
Image credit: Invest Tokyo

Expanding Business

As for Ouchi Detox headed by Ms. Ohashi, she outlined her company expansion. A former nurse, she started out at an individual level armed with knowhow as to compact storage of goods and struck a chord with the social problem of “hoarders” in Japan. She methodically expanded business, gaining IT-literacy and business-computing prowess (her husband being good with numbers too), to enable incorporation.

Apparently, she is expanding operations into Kyoto area with a business partner located there. As it is, Kyoto and other history-laden locations in Japan could use expertise in proper storage methods since some items with value could become irretrievably ruined, whether they be family heirlooms (as the old saying goes, a spoilt… or moldy, as it were… apple will ruin the whole basket) or invaluable documentation.

Interestingly, clean storage can be seen becoming a good business in Asia-Pacific overall. Not only such necessities as the need to reduce allergens and infections becoming widespread, there is the Damocles sword of natural and even man-made disasters hanging over the region so preparedness in terms of appropriate storage and maintenance is foreseen forming new demands at home/work (including collab space).

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