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Taiwan’s SkyREC, analytics tool for real stores, wins Slush Asia 2016 pitch finals

Masaru Ikeda 2016.05.16

See the original story in Japanese. Slush Asia website casinoceske.com took place on May 13th and 14th at the Makuhari Messe exhibition halls in Chiba. Among 60 nominees fiercely competing during the 2-day event, Taiwan-based SkyREC — which is developing an analytics platform for real stores — won this year’s startup pitch competition. Taiwanese startups won for two consecutive years following Slush Asia 2015 last year. Top award winner: SkyREC (Taiwan) Supplemental awards: Premium support worth 1 million yen from Google, 55,000 miles point from Japan Airlines, legal services worth $15,000 from the law firm Orrick and 1 million yen in cash from Autodesk SkyREC is a Google Analytics for real stores, allows users to understand how many times and also how long wherein the store customers have been gathing at the most. It will demonstrate a great capability in finding customer flow lines, hot-selling items as well as unpopular items with 12 different core analytics solutions. At a certain store in Taiwan, it could improve in-store customer traffic 10% and monthly revenue 18% after three months since implementing the SkyREC solution. Since its launch in December of 2015, the solution has been adopted by 400 stores, planning to be…

See the original story in Japanese.

Slush Asia

website casinoceske.com

took place on May 13th and 14th at the Makuhari Messe exhibition halls in Chiba. Among 60 nominees fiercely competing during the 2-day event, Taiwan-based SkyREC — which is developing an analytics platform for real stores — won this year’s startup pitch competition. Taiwanese startups won for two consecutive years following Slush Asia 2015 last year.

Top award winner: SkyREC (Taiwan)

Supplemental awards: Premium support worth 1 million yen from Google, 55,000 miles point from Japan Airlines, legal services worth $15,000 from the law firm Orrick and 1 million yen in cash from Autodesk

SkyREC is a Google Analytics for real stores, allows users to understand how many times and also how long wherein the store customers have been gathing at the most. It will demonstrate a great capability in finding customer flow lines, hot-selling items as well as unpopular items with 12 different core analytics solutions.

At a certain store in Taiwan, it could improve in-store customer traffic 10% and monthly revenue 18% after three months since implementing the SkyREC solution. Since its launch in December of 2015, the solution has been adopted by 400 stores, planning to be deployed into 64,000 stores under 30 brands. This startup was born out of the 11th batch of Taiwan’s AppWorks accelerator.

Recruit Strategic Partners award winner: Giroptic (France)

Supplemental awards: 500,000 yen in cash and ~~one-year~~ free rent until September 2016 of TECH LAB PAAK co-working space in Shibuya, Tokyo

Giroptic has developed a camera device which enables capture of 360-degree motion pictures with three micro cameras and three microphones but without any software. In addition to Nokia’s Ozo exhibited in the Slush Asia venue at this time, images captured by three cameras are stitched into one 360-degree video stream in real time with an onboard chip. It can be livestreamed via Wi-Fi too.

Typical use cases include projecting images using a virtual reality-enabled head-mounted display (HMD) or browsing on desktop but users can swipe it directly or horizontally towards where they want to look at. It can be also attached to a light bulb socket and work as a 360-degree CCTV camera which enables image transmissions via Wi-Fi in real time. The team has received about 4,000 pre-orders at a Kickstarter campaign in France. Giroptic has 48 employees in France and San Francisco, and is currently funded at $6.1 million.

PR Times award winner: Meleap (Japan)

Supplemental awards: One-year complimentary use of press release distribution from PR Times

Meleap has developed a sports game environment called Hado, leveraging a combination of several technologies such as spatial perception, smartphone-based HMD and motion sensors. It virtually reproduces decorated rooms and townscapes for up to 10 users upon enjoying games or exercises. They will start with a B2B (business-to-business) model serving leisure and recreational service providers.

See also:

This Japanese founder wants to make augmented reality sports as big as the Olympics (Tech in Asia)

The following two finalists could receive no award but were attracting much attention from an audience and judges:

Vectr (Taiwan)

Vectr is a one-stop graphic design platform that has been integrated with markup editor, prototyping tool and other several functions. With a professional account paying $25 monthly fee, users can use create documents making the most of templates, icons, fonts, stock photos, logs and illustration patterns provided on the platform. It also has editors and libraries for animated content, audios and videos as well.

Users can also sell their templates, icons, fonts, stock photos, logos and illustration patterns to other users through a marketplace. The company will take 30% of the price as a commission when the purchase is made.

MoBagel (Taiwan)

By collecting usage of IoT (Internet of Things) or “connected” home appliances, MoBagel provides consumer electronics manufacturers with business intelligence through a dashboard screen. It will help manufacturers understand usage or customer behaviors of their products. With this solution, manufacturers can grab statistics about how frequently their products are being used or demographics of their user base. Through the analysis, manufacturers can gain user insights that will definitely be useful for future product developments such as considering a suitable lifetime of batteries installed in their products.

Having partnered with Softbank, Philips, Panasonic and other consumer electronics companies, the company also secured $1 million in a seed round from 500 Startups, CyberAgent Ventures, SingTel’s Innov8 incubation initiative and Club Clover.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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7 Japanese teams awarded at this year’s Microsoft Innovation Award

Masaru Ikeda 2016.05.15

See the original story in Japanese. This article is part of our coverage of Microsoft Innovation Day in Tokyo. Under the theme of ‘innovation by software,’ Microsoft Innovation Award had been established to award a software or service which had achieved realization of innovative ideas. Previous award winners include AgIC (electronic circuit printing technology using conductive ink), Opect (gesture control for surgeons during their operation), Shikumi Design (new-gen music instrument), and TVision Insights (effective TV rating measurement technology). See also: Japan’s AgIC, circuit board printing startup, raises $1.5M for radiant heating technology Japan’s AgIC launches Kickstarter campaign for enhanced version of circuit pattern maker This year, 16 startups covering hardware, AI (artificial intelligence) or IoT (internet of things) had given pitches as finalists. Eventually, the University of Tsukuba Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, developing BioSync which enables synchronous kinesthetic interactions among people, won the Best Team Award and Japan Airlines (JAL) Entrepreneur Award. The following were the jurors for the competition. Yoshiaki Ishii, Director, New Business Policy Office, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry Katsura Itoh, Developer and Evangelism Lead, Microsoft Japan Fumihiko Nakajima, Senior Director, Business Development, Dentsu CDC Ken Nishimura, Chief Editor, TechCrunch Japan Shumpei Fukui, Principal, Archetype Tomonori Yako,…

See the original story in Japanese.
This article is part of our coverage of Microsoft Innovation Day in Tokyo.

Under the theme of ‘innovation by software,’ Microsoft Innovation Award had been established to award a software or service which had achieved realization of innovative ideas. Previous award winners include AgIC (electronic circuit printing technology using conductive ink), Opect (gesture control for surgeons during their operation), Shikumi Design (new-gen music instrument), and TVision Insights (effective TV rating measurement technology).

See also:

This year, 16 startups covering hardware, AI (artificial intelligence) or IoT (internet of things) had given pitches as finalists. Eventually, the University of Tsukuba Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, developing BioSync which enables synchronous kinesthetic interactions among people, won the Best Team Award and Japan Airlines (JAL) Entrepreneur Award. The following were the jurors for the competition.

Yoshiaki Ishii, Director, New Business Policy Office, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
Katsura Itoh, Developer and Evangelism Lead, Microsoft Japan
Fumihiko Nakajima, Senior Director, Business Development, Dentsu CDC
Ken Nishimura, Chief Editor, TechCrunch Japan
Shumpei Fukui, Principal, Archetype
Tomonori Yako, IoT Innovation Center Chief and Executive Consultant, Ufuru

The following introduces seven startups which won the Best Team Award and sponsor awards. Incidentally, every finalist team was provided prizes from accounting software maker Yayoi as well as Microsoft.

The Best Team Award winner / JAL Entrepreneur Award winner: BioSync by Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, University of Tsukuba

BioSync is a device for next-gen rehabilitation by “hacking” human bodies. It consists of a sensor device which measures changes of myogenic potential changes and a device which receives these signals for transmission as potential changes. By linking into / being linked by another person with general cable used for earphones, the device enables an understanding of kinesthetics for physically-disabled people, or realize effective rehabilitation by sharing healthy people’s sense of muscle activities with handicapped people. As an example of use, the team had succeeded in development of feeding spoon for people with neuromuscular disorders.

Jury’s Special Award / The Bridge Award: The Voice by Hmcomm

Hmcomm had started as a technology transfer venture from Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), and has been developing cloud-based voice recognition engine called The Voice. Although voice recognition R&D has been continuing for many years, it is still far attaining a fully practical level. However, thanks to the rapid progress in hardware or network since 2010s the environment to dramatically improve the processing performance of voice recognition has been set, with the market expanding along with the advance in communication robots. The team is also seeking a solution for problems as to conventional voice recognition technologies, like recognition difficulties during crosstalk or in noisy locations.

Jury’s Special Award: AI-based life science image analysis system by LPixel

Although 90% of the academic papers are publicized with images in recent years, most of the author researchers did not learn about image processing. LPixel analyzes a large quantity of data with high accuracy, outputs images then enables pasting of images onto papers by easy operation which even children can do. It was developed under the concept of having AI as a research assistant. The team has acquired three patents, and LPixel ImageJ Plugins has exceeded 30,000 downloads.

Audience Award / PR TIMES Award: Secual by Secual

Secual is a smart home security service linked to the Internet. It provides WiFi-connectable intruder detection sensors and a cloud service at a low price, and allows users to recognize irregularities in their own house from outside locations via smartphones. The team had obtained the seed fund from Will Group Incubate Fund in June 2015, subsequently fundraising 60 million yen (about $550,000) from lease property agent Ambition and vacation rental startup Adventure in December 2015. In March 2016, it agreed to a strategic capital alliance with Investors Cloud.

Audience Award: Bioelectric-controlled prosthesis by Meltin MMI

Meltin MMI, born from the Incubation Center of the University of Electro-Communications, showcased the robot hand / bioelectric-controlled prosthesis. The team had fundraised from Euglena-SMBC Nikko-Leave a Nest Capital and Glocalink this January, following by winning the prize in the startup category at Real-Tech Venture of the Year 2016 organized by Leave a Nest this March.

Samurai Incubate Award: Kagura by Shikumi Design

Kagura is a next-gen music instrumental platform enabling music to be played just with physical movement, based on distance and gesture recognition technologies. Adopting Intel®RealSense™3D, the app had been launched for Mac in July 2015 then subsequently for Windows. The Shikumi Design team had won the top award in Intel® Perceptual Computing Challenge 2013.

See also:

Japan’s Shikumi Design unveils magical motion-based musical instrument

Tech in Asia Award: Milbox Touch by White

Various kinds of cheap VR (virtual reality) goggles that allow feeling a sense of immersion by inserting smartphones into cardboard box cases have been appearing. However, a major defect of these products is that users cannot touch smartphones’ screen directly to control apps by swiping, scrolling or tapping. Milbox Touch is an electrode seal with high sensitivity for transmitting current change to smartphones, enabling control of apps by touching the surface with the seal.

The White team is applying for a patent on the seal, and aims OEM (original equipment manufacturer) supply to other VR goggles such as Google Cardboard. Currently, the team has been developing a PacMan game for VR as well, also provides a SDK (Software Development Kit) embeddable in games, free of charge. The SDK is available for Unity, Xamarin, iOS and Android. The team plans to start OEM supply of the seal and launch of PacMan at the end of April 2016.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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AdAsia unveils ad network and management tool, enables programmatic buying for Asia

AnyMind Group (previously AdAsia Holdings)

Masaru Ikeda 2016.05.13

See the original story in Japanese. AdTech startup AdAsia Holdings (hereafter AdAsia), established in Singapore on April 7, has unveiled its service content. AdAsia has commenced provision of AdAsia Digital Platform capable of programmatic buying (auto-purchasing of advertisement frames based on data) and integrated report management system as well as AdAsia Ad Network which is an ad-network aggregating local media in the Southeast Asian region. With programmatic buying, finely detailed configuration of target audience for advertisement can be simplified by minimizing labor in the form of human operation as much as possible through linkage with the companies’ own websites, CRM (customer relationship management) or customer loyalty programs. Advertisers do not have to pay advertisement fees arising from visitors who are out of their target or who visits the websites accidentally. While every ad network such as Google or Facebook requires configuration of distribution conditions, target of advertisement or confirmation of performance reports, AdAsia Digital Platform automates these works in part. By providing services over the AdAsia Digital Platform which has such functions, the firm aims to differentiate AdAsia Ad Network from other conventional ad networks in terms of operational convenience. AdAsia Digital Platform has realized uniform management of performances over…

See the original story in Japanese.

AdTech startup AdAsia Holdings (hereafter AdAsia), established in Singapore on April 7, has unveiled its service content. AdAsia has commenced provision of AdAsia Digital Platform capable of programmatic buying (auto-purchasing of advertisement frames based on data) and integrated report management system as well as AdAsia Ad Network which is an ad-network aggregating local media in the Southeast Asian region.

With programmatic buying, finely detailed configuration of target audience for advertisement can be simplified by minimizing labor in the form of human operation as much as possible through linkage with the companies’ own websites, CRM (customer relationship management) or customer loyalty programs. Advertisers do not have to pay advertisement fees arising from visitors who are out of their target or who visits the websites accidentally.

While every ad network such as Google or Facebook requires configuration of distribution conditions, target of advertisement or confirmation of performance reports, AdAsia Digital Platform automates these works in part. By providing services over the AdAsia Digital Platform which has such functions, the firm aims to differentiate AdAsia Ad Network from other conventional ad networks in terms of operational convenience.

AdAsia Digital Platform has realized uniform management of performances over any ad network in addition to AdAsia Ad Network. In the future, a video ad network targeting smart TV viewers will be supported, which is currently in development by the firm.

As of launch date, AdAsia Digital Platform had already been scheduled for implementation in 30 companies including US automakers or major Japanese confectionery makers, and the firm plans to achieve sales of $10 million within 2016.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s Gree Ventures targets $65 million for new fund, eyes opportunities in India

Gree Ventures

Masaru Ikeda 2016.05.12

See the original story in Japanese. Gree Ventures, the investment arm of Tokyo-based online gaming company Gree (TSE:3632), announced today that it has formed a new fund called AT-II Limited Investment Partnership. By the time of the first close, about 4 billion yen (about $37 million) had been committed as investment from Gree and Mizuho Financial Group, plus major Japanese companies and financial institutions, but the firm is expecting to reach about 7 billion yen ($64.5 million) by the end of this year. As for which sectors to invest in, they will follow the scope of the previous fund, keeping the focus on seed- to early-stage B2B (business-to-business) or B2B2C (business-to-business-to-consumer) startups. However, they will begin investing in startups in India with the new fund in addition to their conventional geographical coverage of Japan and Southeast Asia. Gree Ventures CEO Yusuke Amano told The Bridge that the firm aims to invest 100 to 300 million yen respectively into an individual company as a lead investor, while offering their investees hands-on support including helping fulfill personnel needs and developing new accounts. Gree Ventures recently invested in two Japanese startups, Sorabito and Ookami, from the new fund but how much these deals…

gree-ventures-yusuke-amano-and-tatsuki-tsutsumi — From the left: Gree Ventures CEO and partner Yusuke Amano, partner Tatsuki Tsutsumi

See the original story in Japanese.

Gree Ventures, the investment arm of Tokyo-based online gaming company Gree (TSE:3632), announced today that it has formed a new fund called AT-II Limited Investment Partnership. By the time of the first close, about 4 billion yen (about $37 million) had been committed as investment from Gree and Mizuho Financial Group, plus major Japanese companies and financial institutions, but the firm is expecting to reach about 7 billion yen ($64.5 million) by the end of this year.

As for which sectors to invest in, they will follow the scope of the previous fund, keeping the focus on seed- to early-stage B2B (business-to-business) or B2B2C (business-to-business-to-consumer) startups. However, they will begin investing in startups in India with the new fund in addition to their conventional geographical coverage of Japan and Southeast Asia. Gree Ventures CEO Yusuke Amano told The Bridge that the firm aims to invest 100 to 300 million yen respectively into an individual company as a lead investor, while offering their investees hands-on support including helping fulfill personnel needs and developing new accounts.

Gree Ventures recently invested in two Japanese startups, Sorabito and Ookami, from the new fund but how much these deals were have not been stated. Regarding expected regional allocation of investments, Amano says that they see putting 80% in Japan vs. 20% in the rest of Asia, or 70% in Japan vs. 30% in Asia with about half of this comprising Indian startups-related deals.

See also:

In order to better respond to the expansion of investment activities both in size and in geographical spread, Gree Ventures added new people to the investment team this spring. In addition to Amano and partner Tatsuki Tsutsumi as core members, principal Albert Shyy (former Lazada Group director), associate Nikhil Kapur (formerly a business founder in India), associate Masyuki Minato (formerly working at Boston Consulting Group), Natsumi Negishi (formerly working at Nomura Research and Advisory) and analyst Yuya Mineshima (formerly working at Goldman Sachs) joined the team. On June 1st, the firm will relocate their office from Gree Headquarters in Roppongi Hills to KaleidoWorks in the Arkhills business complex where Japan Venture Capital Association, B Dash Ventures and Incubate Fund are based together.

AT-I Limited Investment Partnership, the firm’s previous fund, was formed in 2014 at 5 billion yen (about $49 million in terms of the exchange rate then), and managed by Amano and Tsutsumi as well as Gree director Naoki Aoyagi and principal Alan Kuan Hsu in charge of deals in the Southeast Asian region (Hsu quit Gree Ventures last November to join KK Fund). They have invested in 16 startups in Japan and 9 startups in Southeast Asia from the previous fund, and could already collect a 40% return on these investments while there are still more than eight years remaining until the redemption period.

kaleidoworks-lounge — KaleidoWorks’ lounge area (Image credit: Mori Bldg.)

According to Tsutsumi, the firm halted new investments temporarily over the last six months in preparation for the new fund, but commencing with the recent Sorabito and Ookami deals, they want to resume aggressive investments in startups focusing on the following three pillars: Industrial Renovation (AdTech, Digital Health and FinTech), Mobile Re-design (mobile optimization of existing services for desktop use) and People Empowerment (crowdsourcing, etc). Thanks to the upcoming relocation to KaleidoWorks which has a lounge space, they are expected to gain more touch points with startups and entrepreneurs.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s Ookami behind sports live app Player! raises seed round from Gree Ventures

Masaru Ikeda 2016.05.11

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Ookami, which is behind sports live app named Player!, today announced that it had fundraised an undisclosed amount from Gree Ventures in its seed round. This follows previous angel rounds totaling 30 million yen (about $275,000) from Dai Tamesue (Japanese athlete), Uzabase, Yusuke Umeda (CEO of Uzabase), Tomohito Ebine (founder of Internet ad agency Opt) and Toshiaki Komatsu (co-founder of Photocreate), in June 2014 and March 2015. This fund will be spent for enhancement of the development system. Ookami started in April of 2014. A year later, in April of 2015, it had officially launched mobile app Player! for iOS. Although initially commenced as a sports news distribution platform, as repeating pivot, the app has evolved into a sport-focused social network platform distributing the progress or results of sports game live to enable users to share feelings with other audience users in real-time. In December 2015, the app won the title of App Store Best of 2015. In sports games on Player!, a baseball game between the Yomiuri Giants and the Hiroshima Carp teams for example, users can choose which team to back. By watching the progress of the game, users can chat…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Ookami, which is behind sports live app named Player!, today announced that it had fundraised an undisclosed amount from Gree Ventures in its seed round. This follows previous angel rounds totaling 30 million yen (about $275,000) from Dai Tamesue (Japanese athlete), Uzabase, Yusuke Umeda (CEO of Uzabase), Tomohito Ebine (founder of Internet ad agency Opt) and Toshiaki Komatsu (co-founder of Photocreate), in June 2014 and March 2015. This fund will be spent for enhancement of the development system.

Ookami started in April of 2014. A year later, in April of 2015, it had officially launched mobile app Player! for iOS. Although initially commenced as a sports news distribution platform, as repeating pivot, the app has evolved into a sport-focused social network platform distributing the progress or results of sports game live to enable users to share feelings with other audience users in real-time. In December 2015, the app won the title of App Store Best of 2015.

In sports games on Player!, a baseball game between the Yomiuri Giants and the Hiroshima Carp teams for example, users can choose which team to back. By watching the progress of the game, users can chat in the comment window and enjoy the game with the same team’s fans. Detailed information on the progress of sports game is gained through reproduction of photos or texts with content-usage permitted from more than 150 sports media including Soccer King (by From One) or Gekisaka (by Kodansha). As for live broadcasting, although the latest version of Player! supports that technically, the broadcasting fee for sports games is generally quite expensive. Therefore, the company plans to secure video content through tie-up with companies that hold broadcasting rights in the future.

CEO of Ookami Taiyo Ogata commented on the app:

Concerning monetization, I think it is rather easy to connect the app with the sports game ticket business. On the other hand, connection with Toto (Japanese state-run sport promotion lottery) may not be so easy. […]

The average stay time for the app exceeds 15 minutes per use due to the content characteristics, and that is the advantage which overwhelms other mobile apps.

So far, Ookami has launched apps only for iOS in order to focus on interface design of the apps. However, it aims to launch Player! for PC and Android by the Rio de Janeiro Olympic games in August.

In this field, Softbank (TSE:9434) and its subsidiary Yahoo Japan (TSE:4689) had started a service with mobile app named Sponavi-Live since this March, which enables the viewing of live sports game broadcasting in seven genres at 3,000 yen (about $28) or 500 yen (about $4.6) only for Softbank mobile users at a monthly charge.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

ookami-team-members — CEO of Ookami Taiyo Ogata (second from right, in front row) and members of his firm

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Japan’s Sorabito gets $4.7M to enhance global marketplace of used heavy machinery

Junya Mori 2016.05.09

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Sorabito, the company behind the global marketplace for used construction machinery from Japan, has fundraised about 500 million yen (about $4.7 million) from several investors. This follows their previous 100 million yen (about $940,000) funding from GMO Venture Partners, Fumiaki Koizumi and Hidetoshi Takano back in September last year. In addition to these existing investors, Gree Ventures, JA Mitsui Leasing, Opt Ventures and SMBC Venture Capital joined this round. The Allstocker marketplace allows businesses to buy and sell used heavy construction and farm machinery of Japanese origin online. On top of the marketplace function, it offers a unique payment solution in partnership with SMBC, not to mention a global logistics system which enables delivery of the purchased heavy machinery from sellers to buyers around the world. Translated by Masaru Ikeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

allstocker_featuredimage — Image credit: Allstocker.com

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Sorabito, the company behind the global marketplace for used construction machinery from Japan, has fundraised about 500 million yen (about $4.7 million) from several investors. This follows their previous 100 million yen (about $940,000) funding from GMO Venture Partners, Fumiaki Koizumi and Hidetoshi Takano back in September last year. In addition to these existing investors, Gree Ventures, JA Mitsui Leasing, Opt Ventures and SMBC Venture Capital joined this round.

The Allstocker marketplace allows businesses to buy and sell used heavy construction and farm machinery of Japanese origin online. On top of the marketplace function, it offers a unique payment solution in partnership with SMBC, not to mention a global logistics system which enables delivery of the purchased heavy machinery from sellers to buyers around the world.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Cotobe, Japan’s answer to CrunchBase, aims to improve work environment at startups

Masaru Ikeda 2016.04.22

See the original story in Japanese. Net Jinzai Bank is a new business team within Japanese staff-dispatching and outsourcing company Saint Media, primarily offering an executive and talent search service for tech and IoT (Internet of Things) startups in Japan. On Wednesday, the company officially launched a startup valuation and scoring database site called Cotobe. It gathers and scores information about startups’ corporate values, and provides them as a list. This service is available via the website, and also as a mobile app for Android and iOS. The Cotobe site deals with listed and unlisted Japanese Internet companies as well as foreign companies run by Japanese entrepreneurs, gathers metrics like their amount of funding, annual sales, pageviews / unique visitors or the number of app downloads from publicly-available updates as well as the availability of stock options and average annual income by interviewing people involved. Then these metrics will be analyzed using a unique algorithm on the site so that users can easily compare startups at a glance. The breakdown of their targeted users is estimated to be job seekers (70%) and investors (30%), hence the service is seen being used for opportunities like finding new startups to work with…

See the original story in Japanese.

Net Jinzai Bank is a new business team within Japanese staff-dispatching and outsourcing company Saint Media, primarily offering an executive and talent search service for tech and IoT (Internet of Things) startups in Japan. On Wednesday, the company officially launched a startup valuation and scoring database site called Cotobe. It gathers and scores information about startups’ corporate values, and provides them as a list. This service is available via the website, and also as a mobile app for Android and iOS.

The Cotobe site deals with listed and unlisted Japanese Internet companies as well as foreign companies run by Japanese entrepreneurs, gathers metrics like their amount of funding, annual sales, pageviews / unique visitors or the number of app downloads from publicly-available updates as well as the availability of stock options and average annual income by interviewing people involved. Then these metrics will be analyzed using a unique algorithm on the site so that users can easily compare startups at a glance. The breakdown of their targeted users is estimated to be job seekers (70%) and investors (30%), hence the service is seen being used for opportunities like finding new startups to work with or invest in.

Typical job seekers for startups in Japan may use a social recruiting service like Wantedly. According to the Cotobe team, in contrast to Wantedly focused on offering users with an intuitive approach by allowing them to feel the atmosphere and work environment of startups they are interested in working at, Cotobe can be defined as offering a data-proven standard in finding a new position. Especially for the convenience of job seekers, each profile of registered startups is linked to the one on Wantedly, if any.

Considered an information resource for investments and funding updates on the startup landscape, the site plays a similar role as CrunchBase (US), CB Insights (US), Entrepredia (Japan), RocketPunch (Korea), Itjuzi (China), and 36kr’s database service (China).

Cotobe is provided free of charge, because it is part of activities to increase awareness of NET Jinzai Bank. Not just positive information for startups will be displayed on Cotobe so one can easily compare job information including average incomes from startups in the same industry. However, NET Jinzai Bank is going to publicize as much information as it can obtain, and contribute to improved status of startup workers by encouraging startup efforts to compete even under such an environment.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy and Masaru Ikeda

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report

Startup Grind Tokyo finds new venue, looks to become more international

Startup Grind Tokyo

The Bridge 2016.04.22

This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. Startup Grind Tokyo, currently the only Google for Entrepreneurs community in Japan of the startup-focused group, held a meeting on 19 April at its new venue in Roppongi for the first time. Sponsor Pivotal provided the space for the group on the 20th floor of Roppongi Hills Mori Tower. It will also be the main site for subsequent meetups, with guests from Japan for the May and June events already lined up. The Tokyo City Chapter Director is Tamami Ushiki, with Satoru Kobayashi acting as Event Host. Japan-based Indian entrepreneur Shyam Pyarauk is the General Coordinator. As is usually the case, the April Startup Grind meeting in Tokyo featured a “fireside chat” with an interviewee, a prominent startup player, being asked to talk about their experience upon launching their business(es). The guest this time was Hallohallohome Founder Hiromasa Suzuki, a Japanese entrepreneur who found success in business in the Republic of Philippines (RP). He has recently written a book urging the Japanese to take a closer look at the market in RP and other “Emerging Markets” in addition to promoting land purchases in ASEAN centered upon the Filipino real estate….

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

Startup Grind Tokyo, currently the only Google for Entrepreneurs community in Japan of the startup-focused group, held a meeting on 19 April at its new venue in Roppongi for the first time. Sponsor Pivotal provided the space for the group on the 20th floor of Roppongi Hills Mori Tower. It will also be the main site for subsequent meetups, with guests from Japan for the May and June events already lined up. The Tokyo City Chapter Director is Tamami Ushiki, with Satoru Kobayashi acting as Event Host. Japan-based Indian entrepreneur Shyam Pyarauk is the General Coordinator.

As is usually the case, the April Startup Grind meeting in Tokyo featured a “fireside chat” with an interviewee, a prominent startup player, being asked to talk about their experience upon launching their business(es). The guest this time was Hallohallohome Founder Hiromasa Suzuki, a Japanese entrepreneur who found success in business in the Republic of Philippines (RP). He has recently written a book urging the Japanese to take a closer look at the market in RP and other “Emerging Markets” in addition to promoting land purchases in ASEAN centered upon the Filipino real estate.

In recounting his road to entrepreneurship, Suzuki said that he was working in apparel sales in RP when his Japanese employer decided the company should quit the market.

I first became an entrepreneur by default, when I asked my boss then not to fold the RP operation and was told ‘OK then, you run it!’… in the beginning things went quite well.

Then the mainstay business worsened and he faced major difficulties, including a huge debt. He notes that fortunately, “I had products in stock that could be monetized, so I continued on.”

By dint of hard work, he was able to regain success, by “playing smart and keeping an eye on the market conditions.” The Japanese entrepreneur in RP especially kept tabs on the financial field since RP was a country where “global currency abound due to Filipinos sending money back home from their workplaces abroad” not to mention the IT sector which he found to be the “game changer” both in RP and Japan. Regarding the Internet, he added that he learned a lot from his association with models, who used their blogs effectively upon marketing.

In retrospect, he asserts “I am lucky to be supported by very many people.” Today, he handles the marketing for Hallo Hallo Alliance which is a network of businesses centered upon his companies, involved in diversified fields such as housing, human resources and travel. The Aichi-born Suzuki concluded,

I am now spending much time in Tokyo but I found my way here via Manila. RP reminds me of Japan of yore, back when it was full of vim and vigor. Hopefully this energy will transfer here in part, as my colleagues and I shuttle back and forth.

After the meetup, Startup Grind Tokyo’s General Coordinator Pyarauk stated that hopefully the group can become even more international as time goes on.

If there are potential sponsors out there, hope they can contact us. Perhaps English-language speakers can also be lined up in the future. And of course there are other cities in Japan so the Tokyo City Chapter need not be alone in this country.

news

Japan’s social recruiting startup Wantedly unveils portfolio platform to attract creators

Junya Mori 2016.04.21

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Wantedly, the Japanese startup offering a social recruiting platform under the same name to connect startups with their potential employees, has launched a portfolio showcase platform called Case, aiming to connect creators and companies via products or artworks. Coinciding with the launch, products made by various startups or creative companies in Japan such as Party, Bascule, Bracket, 1->10design, Fablic and Vasily have as launch partners been displayed on the Wantedly website. Case allows users to team up and submit ‘projects.’ Any team already formed at Wantedly can submit projects as that team. When submitting projects, names of people concerned in the artworks or products can be put in the ‘credits.’ Although that is common practice in the advertisement field, names have not been visualized in product development so far. Visualization of names on Case will be appreciated by designers or engineers. Case aims to assist creators upon gaining inspiration or finding companies that provide excellent works through the displaying of products or artworks. However, there already have been many websites available for exhibition of creators’ portfolios or acquisition of inspiration. To distinguish Case itself as a later player from others, Wantedly will hold…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Wantedly, the Japanese startup offering a social recruiting platform under the same name to connect startups with their potential employees, has launched a portfolio showcase platform called Case, aiming to connect creators and companies via products or artworks.

Coinciding with the launch, products made by various startups or creative companies in Japan such as Party, Bascule, Bracket, 1->10design, Fablic and Vasily have as launch partners been displayed on the Wantedly website.

Case allows users to team up and submit ‘projects.’ Any team already formed at Wantedly can submit projects as that team. When submitting projects, names of people concerned in the artworks or products can be put in the ‘credits.’ Although that is common practice in the advertisement field, names have not been visualized in product development so far. Visualization of names on Case will be appreciated by designers or engineers.

Case aims to assist creators upon gaining inspiration or finding companies that provide excellent works through the displaying of products or artworks. However, there already have been many websites available for exhibition of creators’ portfolios or acquisition of inspiration. To distinguish Case itself as a later player from others, Wantedly will hold the key to success.

Previously on the Wantedly webpages, it was not easy for user companies to provide information about their products or artworks visually. By displaying their own products on Case, these companies can promote their activities more easily. On each company webpage at Case, a button for ‘view job’ is available, in addition to the follow button within Case. Accordingly, user companies will obtain more opportunities to acquire new customers or to recruit creators that match them.

Due to this launch, about 300 pieces of products were collected. The service plans to increase the number of users as targeting creators by having many opportunities to create products, and to attract 2,000 products within several months.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy and Masaru Ikeda

news

Tokyo-based Cluster secures $460K funding to develop VR platform for meet-ups

Cluster

Masaru Ikeda 2016.04.20

Cluster, the Japanese startup behind a virtual reality(VR)-based event and environment platform under the same name, announced on Tuesday that it has fundraised 50 million yen (about US$460,000) from Skyland Ventures, East Ventures and several angel investors. Upon obtaining this funding, the company was rebranded from its previous name Fictbox. Skyland Ventures participated in the previous funding round in January. The firm apparently is targeting relative small event organizers that cannot afford to commit much money or withstand losses. The Cluster platform allows event organizers to hold meet-ups, events, and other gathering opportunities using VR without fear of booking a venue or paying a high rent. For participants, they can virtually participate in an event by wearing a headgear and communicate with each others, even from home. Thanks to recent advances in server integration technologies and a protocol optimized for Internet of Things (IoT), even if more than 1,000 connections are established simultaneously, users are unlikely to feel a heavy load on the system. via TechCrunch Japan Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Cluster, the Japanese startup behind a virtual reality(VR)-based event and environment platform under the same name, announced on Tuesday that it has fundraised 50 million yen (about US$460,000) from Skyland Ventures, East Ventures and several angel investors.

Upon obtaining this funding, the company was rebranded from its previous name Fictbox. Skyland Ventures participated in the previous funding round in January.

The firm apparently is targeting relative small event organizers that cannot afford to commit much money or withstand losses. The Cluster platform allows event organizers to hold meet-ups, events, and other gathering opportunities using VR without fear of booking a venue or paying a high rent. For participants, they can virtually participate in an event by wearing a headgear and communicate with each others, even from home.

Thanks to recent advances in server integration technologies and a protocol optimized for Internet of Things (IoT), even if more than 1,000 connections are established simultaneously, users are unlikely to feel a heavy load on the system.

via TechCrunch Japan

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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