For university students who want to manage their class schedule, the default iOS calendar doesn’t quite have enough features. To address this shortcoming issue, Tianfang Li spent 10 days to prototype an app, which soon after attracted 3000 students. That’s how ClassBox got started. He released a second version of his app in September, 2012. This version could automatically extract the lecture data from most university websites in China. Even though similar apps existed, ClassBox excelled in ease of use, requiring only one minute to set up. A month after its launch, the app attracted a million students from over 500 universities across China. Going beyond just management of class schedules, the app became essential for students who wanted to coordinate their campus life. Coinciding with the beginning of classes in September of 2013, a third version of the app was released this year, this time helping students build plans for their future. ClassBox has come to be recognized as means of efficiently reaching university students in China. This led the company to get the sponsorship from popular fashion commerce site, Vancl, and some promotion on posters by Evernote (see below). Li says that the next step for the app…
For university students who want to manage their class schedule, the default iOS calendar doesn’t quite have enough features. To address this shortcoming issue, Tianfang Li spent 10 days to prototype an app, which soon after attracted 3000 students. That’s how ClassBox got started.
He released a second version of his app in September, 2012. This version could automatically extract the lecture data from most university websites in China. Even though similar apps existed, ClassBox excelled in ease of use, requiring only one minute to set up.
A month after its launch, the app attracted a million students from over 500 universities across China. Going beyond just management of class schedules, the app became essential for students who wanted to coordinate their campus life. Coinciding with the beginning of classes in September of 2013, a third version of the app was released this year, this time helping students build plans for their future.
ClassBox has come to be recognized as means of efficiently reaching university students in China. This led the company to get the sponsorship from popular fashion commerce site, Vancl, and some promotion on posters by Evernote (see below).
Li says that the next step for the app is a communication element where students can ask classmates when they have free time, for example.
This ClassBox poster above was put up in many Chinese universities, sponsored by Vancl and Evernote
See the original story in Japanese. We’ve seen many travel-focused online services from here in Japan. A reason why this space is on the upswing is because travel is a very attractive activity for most people. One of the latest travel-related solutions to spring up is from Tokyo-based startup Wonderlust. It has launched a new travel recording platform called Compathy. This service lets users compose and publish a story about your travel experience simply by uploading snapshots during your travel. When you upload, the platform will place each photo at the appropriate sightseeing spot on a map, in accordance with the picture’s time-stamp and location data. In this way, it helps you sort out travel photos and your memories by routes and timeline [1]. In addition to collecting travel photos, the platform will add a feature that automatically creates sight-seeing spot pages. Photos taken by all users at a particular spot will be associated with that page. This resembles restaurant finder sites where photos give users an idea of what they can expect at a glance. By accumulating photos uploaded by users, the company wants to create a sort of travel-focused buzz site. CEO Kentaro Horie explains: No matter how…
We’ve seen many travel-focused online services from here in Japan. A reason why this space is on the upswing is because travel is a very attractive activity for most people. One of the latest travel-related solutions to spring up is from Tokyo-based startup Wonderlust. It has launched a new travel recording platform called Compathy.
This service lets users compose and publish a story about your travel experience simply by uploading snapshots during your travel. When you upload, the platform will place each photo at the appropriate sightseeing spot on a map, in accordance with the picture’s time-stamp and location data. In this way, it helps you sort out travel photos and your memories by routes and timeline [1].
In addition to collecting travel photos, the platform will add a feature that automatically creates sight-seeing spot pages. Photos taken by all users at a particular spot will be associated with that page. This resembles restaurant finder sites where photos give users an idea of what they can expect at a glance.
By accumulating photos uploaded by users, the company wants to create a sort of travel-focused buzz site. CEO Kentaro Horie explains:
No matter how many more more photos or comments we acquire, it would be pretty difficult to defeat TripAdvisor and its SEO tactics. We will focus on acquiring comments posted under real names.
At this point their strategy is very similar to Retty, which is collection of restaurant reviews and evaluations posted under real names.
The company also plans to add a new feature in January, where users can arrange travel plans using the platform. Horie added:
For our next step, we’d like to add a new feature that encourages users to link up with friends overseas. You will be able to arrange plans and take advantage of their advice.
Wonderlust was a member of Incubate Camp, an incubation program operated by Tokyo-based Incubate Fund. They have been improving their service, and now finally has received investment so they can launch the service.
Their service model resembles Korea’s Tripvi Album. ↩
See the original article in Japanese, posted earlier this year I recently had a chance to visit Bangkok, and the following is a conversation with many locals who have unique insights into the Thai startup scene [1]. Oranuch Lerdsuwankij (Mimee) from ThumbsUp Mimee is the cofounder of ThumbsUp, a partner media for The Bridge with whom we often exchange articles. ThumbsUp was founded in 2011 by a team of five, and currently there are seven members who run the Thai and English editions. While Mimee works as a consultant at another company, she operates ThumbsUp, organizes startup events, and hosts an IT-focused TV program call Thailand Can Do. Thailand has three telecommunications carriers: AIS, DTAC and TRUE. And all of them have startup programs. But the problem is that there is little difference among these three programs, and consequently the same startups tend to occupy the programs. So Mimee thinks it is necessary to expand the startup community, and she focuses on helping startups in Thailand expand overseas. Vincent Sethiwan & Permsiri Tiyavutiroj from Launchpad Tokyo-based Animation Crowd Funding platform, Anipipo was launched in 2013. The board members, Vincent Sethiwan and Permsiri Tiyavutiroj (Sam) are in Thailand most of time,…
I recently had a chance to visit Bangkok, and the following is a conversation with many locals who have unique insights into the Thai startup scene [1].
Oranuch Lerdsuwankij (Mimee) from ThumbsUp
Mimee is the cofounder of ThumbsUp, a partner media for The Bridge with whom we often exchange articles. ThumbsUp was founded in 2011 by a team of five, and currently there are seven members who run the Thai and English editions. While Mimee works as a consultant at another company, she operates ThumbsUp, organizes startup events, and hosts an IT-focused TV program call Thailand Can Do.
Thailand has three telecommunications carriers: AIS, DTAC and TRUE. And all of them have startup programs. But the problem is that there is little difference among these three programs, and consequently the same startups tend to occupy the programs. So Mimee thinks it is necessary to expand the startup community, and she focuses on helping startups in Thailand expand overseas.
Vincent Sethiwan & Permsiri Tiyavutiroj from Launchpad
Launchpad entrance
Tokyo-based Animation Crowd Funding platform, Anipipo was launched in 2013. The board members, Vincent Sethiwan and Permsiri Tiyavutiroj (Sam) are in Thailand most of time, founding a co-working space called Launchpad in November of 2012. The space is about a 10-minute walk from Chong Nonsi station, only two stations away from the downtown Bangkok. While many co-working spaces often use a room in a small building, Launchpad has its space on the first floor Sethiwan Tower, a fairly large building. I was quite surprised to see such a great location, and Sethiwan tells me that it’s a property owned by his family, as we might have guessed from the name!
Permsiri Tiyavutiroj (left) and Vincent Sethiwan (right)
Vincent previously participated in Alpha Lab, an accelerator program in Pittsburg. After he came back to Thailand, he got to know Sam while he was working at a Japanese consulting firm. They explained:
Although the three telecom carriers have startup programs, the startups participating in those programs are the same. What Thailand’s startups scene needs is not a pitch contest. Thai startups don’t really know how to do business. Then we got the idea of starting an incubation program. We’d like to offer hands-on training, and we will first accept only around three startups. […] We have a two-hour time difference between Tokyo and Bangkok though, and it would be great if we can do networking or share our pitches over Skype or something.
Amarit Charoenphan from Hubba
Another co-working space, Hubba is a renovated house with a garden located in the east of Bangkok, at Thong Lo, an area where many Japanese and western people live. The co-founder and director of Hubba, Amarit Charoenphan (pictured below, left), said he wanted to create a comfortable and relaxing atmosphere. Hubba is operated though organized events and paid membership. In the past, it was the organizer of Echelon Ignite, a localized vesion of the Singapore-based Echelon tech conference.
Hubba even has a shower, so for long events like the 54-hour Startup Weekend Bangkok, participants can refresh themselves. There are many Japanese restaurants and pubs around this area, a taste of home for any Japan’s startups who would like an office in Thailand.
Hubba’s backyard
Jon Russell of The Next Web & Paul Srivorakul from Ardent Capital
Jon Russel on the right, Photo by Elisha Ong
The last time I met Jon Russell was at Echelon, a tech conference held in Singapore. He often reports on Asia-based startups from his base in Bangkok. He referred us to Paul Srivorakul as a key person in the city. Paul is the founder of Ardent Capital and he co-invested in Asian tech media site e27. He founded NewMedia Edge, Admax Network, Ensogo Group and sold each business to STW Group, Kimil Media and LivingSocial respectively.
Most entrepreneurs in Thailand have little knowledge of management. So Paul sends those who have management experience in major companies to be startup board members and let entrepreneurs learn from them. He focuses on Southeast Asia’s fast-growing market, and has shown interest in meeting Japanese startups who are willing to do business in Southeast Asia.
At Khaosan Road
Even though I spent just a weekend there, I met so many key people in Bangkok and learned a lot from them. My overall impression is that Thailand’s startup scene is just beginning. Startups like Oakbee, Wangnai or Builk are often mentioned as success stories. But success for Thai startups, according to Vincent Sethiwan, is to fundraise in Singapore and expand overseas. The mindset is very far from that of Silicon Valley’s startups and might be closer to the outlook of Japanese startups.
I found that many people have a good impression of Japanese people and products. While there are 18.3 million Facebook users in Thailand, Line has already attracts 12.3 million [2]. There are some great examples of implementing Japanese apps such as the case where Thailand’s police started using LINE for sharing investigation information with members.
For Japanese startups looking to do business in Asian countries, I hope they can consider Thailand as a possible choice.
This article was first published back in February, and has been slightly modified to create this English version. ↩
The Facebook data is according to research data by Cereja Technology, released on Januarty 8th, 2013. Line’s numbers are based on an infographic from Line’s blog, released on Januarty 18th, 2013. ↩
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based gaming company Gumi is expected to announced a comprehensive partnership with Fuji Media Holdings today, the stock holding company the Japanese TV network giant. The company plans to launch a joint venture worth 500 million yen (approximately $4.8 million) with Fuji Startup Ventures, the investment arm of the media conglomerate. CNet Japan reports the new venture will be called Fuji & Gumi Games. In addition, the gaming company will announce significant funding from the media company and B Dash Ventures. We are told by sources we trust that it will be worth tens of millions of dollars. Gumi previously established Alim, a joint venture gaming company with Fuji Startup Ventures and B Dash Ventures back in July. Their first gaming title Brave Frontier has done quite well this year. Fuji TV has been seeking new revenue streams beyond its primary business. And as a result, both companies have agreed to an extensive business partnership at this time. Gumi has already started marketing many of its mobile games globally, including titles produced by their subsidiaries in Singapore and Korea. The funds raised at this time will be use to fuel the company’s global expansion….
Tokyo-based gaming company Gumi is expected to announced a comprehensive partnership with Fuji Media Holdings today, the stock holding company the Japanese TV network giant. The company plans to launch a joint venture worth 500 million yen (approximately $4.8 million) with Fuji Startup Ventures, the investment arm of the media conglomerate. CNet Japan reports the new venture will be called Fuji & Gumi Games.
In addition, the gaming company will announce significant funding from the media company and B Dash Ventures. We are told by sources we trust that it will be worth tens of millions of dollars.
Gumi previously established Alim, a joint venture gaming company with Fuji Startup Ventures and B Dash Ventures back in July. Their first gaming title Brave Frontier has done quite well this year. Fuji TV has been seeking new revenue streams beyond its primary business. And as a result, both companies have agreed to an extensive business partnership at this time.
Gumi has already started marketing many of its mobile games globally, including titles produced by their subsidiaries in Singapore and Korea. The funds raised at this time will be use to fuel the company’s global expansion. We have reached out to Gumi CEO Hironao Kunimitsu and Fuji Startup Ventures’ manager Yoshiro Taneda for more on this development. So please stay tuned.
See the original article in Japanese Class, an app that has received much attention here in Japan even before its release, has finally launched. It’s a sort of social networking app where six users who don’t know each other form a virtual class for 15 days where they can interact with each other. Check out the video below for a more visual explanation of the concept. Yukinari Mako, the CEO of we-b, the company that operates the service, explained how he came up with the idea. When you’re busy working for a company, it can be difficult to make new friends. So I came up with the idea of creating new social opportunities for people who have the same problem. At school, we can easily make friends, because students share the same age and meet at the same location for class. My concept is based on the school experience that everyone understands. I decided to provide the same kind of experience on a digital platform. There are many online social services like Line, Path and Facebook. Is Class competing with these services? Mako says that those services are intended to strengthen existing friendships. But Class has a different concept. Mako…
Class, an app that has received much attention here in Japan even before its release, has finally launched. It’s a sort of social networking app where six users who don’t know each other form a virtual class for 15 days where they can interact with each other. Check out the video below for a more visual explanation of the concept.
Yukinari Mako, the CEO of we-b, the company that operates the service, explained how he came up with the idea.
When you’re busy working for a company, it can be difficult to make new friends. So I came up with the idea of creating new social opportunities for people who have the same problem.
At school, we can easily make friends, because students share the same age and meet at the same location for class. My concept is based on the school experience that everyone understands. I decided to provide the same kind of experience on a digital platform.
There are many online social services like Line, Path and Facebook. Is Class competing with these services? Mako says that those services are intended to strengthen existing friendships. But Class has a different concept. Mako adds:
There is no service that really focuses on building friendships from scratch. I am aiming to make Class into a major SNS.
So what is the app experience like? The user participates in the virtual class for two weeks until ‘graduation day’. In the class, some features are in place to enhance communication. There is a teacher character who encourages users’ interaction, and there are features that encourage users to share photos after lunch and exchange questions with each other.
The service uses Facebook credentials for login, but users remain anonymous in the service. Mako said that being anonymous would let users feel more comfortable about interacting.
The fee for Class will be free for a while. They plan to develop a paid system to charge for new classes later on. Mako expects that the Class experience can lead to real-life events and the company can monetize from there.
Class aims to reach 100,000 users in its first six months and 1 million users by the end of 2014. The app can be downloaded via the website.
See the original story in Japanese. How much time is needed to launch a function on our smartphone? You will typically need to unlock it with a password or fingerprint, and then tap the screen two or three times. That takes five to 10 seconds at least. But now there’s a wearable device that proposes to cut this time significantly using NFC technology. It is called HALOband, and it was invented by the Shanghai-based startup of the same name. The wrist band is made of silicone and has three NFC chips. Two chips can read patterns of how you touch your smartphone to the band, for example, touch once to chip A, and then twice to chip B. In this way, it provides an alternative to actions like unlocking your phone, instead of the conventional identification methods using a password or fingerprint. You can also set other actions to launch other function, using different patterns. On Kickstarter, the company has already raised $1 million, reaching their first goal, but they’re still trying to raise another $1 million to add new functions. The video below shows you how it works. This would be especially useful for daily joggers and cyclists who…
How much time is needed to launch a function on our smartphone? You will typically need to unlock it with a password or fingerprint, and then tap the screen two or three times. That takes five to 10 seconds at least. But now there’s a wearable device that proposes to cut this time significantly using NFC technology. It is called HALOband, and it was invented by the Shanghai-based startup of the same name.
The wrist band is made of silicone and has three NFC chips. Two chips can read patterns of how you touch your smartphone to the band, for example, touch once to chip A, and then twice to chip B. In this way, it provides an alternative to actions like unlocking your phone, instead of the conventional identification methods using a password or fingerprint. You can also set other actions to launch other function, using different patterns.
On Kickstarter, the company has already raised $1 million, reaching their first goal, but they’re still trying to raise another $1 million to add new functions. The video below shows you how it works. This would be especially useful for daily joggers and cyclists who have difficulty controlling a smartphone when on move.
See the original story in Japanese. Japanese social illustration service Pixiv recently announced its new e-commerce platform, Booth. It was officially launched last week, opening stores of nine prominent artists to sell their works online. We’d like to take a closer look at it right now. Artists’ works could be things like decorative postcards, hand towels, clear file folders, t-shirts, and smartphone cases (see below). After signing up on the platform, you can receive updates from your favorite artists when have new works available. When you buy an item, your purchase action will be posted on the artist’s wall, which encourages other users following that artist to buy as well [1]. For artists, the platform lets you set a selling price or distribute their items to users for free, for evaluation or promotion purposes. Booth’s ‘Warehouse service’ packages, and ships your products on your behalf. The storage charge is free to keep items up to six months, and the shipping and handling charge is 700 yen (about $7), regardless of where in Japan your recipient is located. The goal is to meet all your e-commerce needs online, letting you concentrate on your creative activities. Their dashboard for artists is smartly…
Japanese social illustration service Pixiv recently announced its new e-commerce platform, Booth. It was officially launched last week, opening stores of nine prominent artists to sell their works online. We’d like to take a closer look at it right now.
Artists’ works could be things like decorative postcards, hand towels, clear file folders, t-shirts, and smartphone cases (see below). After signing up on the platform, you can receive updates from your favorite artists when have new works available. When you buy an item, your purchase action will be posted on the artist’s wall, which encourages other users following that artist to buy as well [1].
For artists, the platform lets you set a selling price or distribute their items to users for free, for evaluation or promotion purposes. Booth’s ‘Warehouse service’ packages, and ships your products on your behalf. The storage charge is free to keep items up to six months, and the shipping and handling charge is 700 yen (about $7), regardless of where in Japan your recipient is located. The goal is to meet all your e-commerce needs online, letting you concentrate on your creative activities.
Their dashboard for artists is smartly designed, and it’s easy to check how much revenue you’ve make on the platform. Because of Pixiv’s huge user community and integration with social media, I think the company will succeed in differentiating from competitors doing similar businesses.
Their business model for the platform resembles that of US-based Society6 and Taiwan-based Fandora Shop. ↩
See the original article in Japanese Early this year, we reported on 14 Japanese startups that provide accounting or financial services. Many of them have launched new services or raised funds this year. The recent news that Hottolink, the company behind Hottoscope, went public on the TSE Mothers market shows that this field is rapidly growing. One of the startups we mentioned in that article, Crowd Cast, was founded in 2011 to develops financial solutions for small businesses, including its cloud-based accounting app, BizNote (iOS／Android). The company recently announced a new app for startups called BizNote Expense, which is to be released next month. If you follow the Japan startup scene, you might wonder how the app is different from alternatives like Freee or Money Forward. This field is no longer a Blue Ocean market, so how can Crowd Cast differentiate from competitors? We spoke with Takashi Hoshikawa, the company’s CEO and founder, about their future strategy. After Hoshikawa worked at Microsoft and Digital Equipment Corporation as a project manager, he enrolled in business school to acquire an MBA in 2009. Since then, he had been considering the idea of starting an accounting service. In the fall of 2011, he…
Early this year, we reported on 14 Japanese startups that provide accounting or financial services. Many of them have launched new services or raised funds this year. The recent news that Hottolink, the company behind Hottoscope, went public on the TSE Mothers market shows that this field is rapidly growing. One of the startups we mentioned in that article, Crowd Cast, was founded in 2011 to develops financial solutions for small businesses, including its cloud-based accounting app, BizNote (iOS／Android). The company recently announced a new app for startups called BizNote Expense, which is to be released next month.
If you follow the Japan startup scene, you might wonder how the app is different from alternatives like Freee or Money Forward. This field is no longer a Blue Ocean market, so how can Crowd Cast differentiate from competitors? We spoke with Takashi Hoshikawa, the company’s CEO and founder, about their future strategy.
CEO Takashi Hoshikawa
After Hoshikawa worked at Microsoft and Digital Equipment Corporation as a project manager, he enrolled in business school to acquire an MBA in 2009. Since then, he had been considering the idea of starting an accounting service. In the fall of 2011, he won first prize at the Yayoi App Contest, operated by Yoyoi, Japan’s largest accounting software company. He succeeded in raising 25 million yen ($250,000) from Yayoi in May of 2013.
In addition to raising funds from Yayoi, Crowd Cast has a business partnership with the company. While Yayoi has 74% market share of accounting software in Japan, Crowd Cast focuses on streamlining the process of entering expenses during the accounting process. Hoshikawa explained:
We developed a smartphone app, BizNote Expense, whose feature is focused on entering expenses. By letting employees enter expenses on their smartphones, BizNote Expense reduces work for those in charge of accounting. In small businesses, this is often the CEO himself. Utilizing the network I built while I was at Microsoft, the app was developed in Europe and has a sophisticated design. Development is almost finished. After minor adjustment of the UI/UX, we plan to release the product in January.
The data entered on the app can be viewed on the BizNote dashboard, used in Yayoi’s package software or on its online cloud-based platform for tax returns. Yayoi and Crowd Cast each have different strengths, and they can both enhance their core competencies.
The unknown market for expenses processing
According to Hoshikawa, in the area of expense processing, there are a number of key players:
For large companies with more than 1000 employees, Concur is the biggest competitor. Initial fee: 2.5 million yen ($25,000), Monthly fee: around 500,000 yen ($5000).
For middle-size companies with 200 to 1000 employees, there are about 10 software companies offering services, including Rakurakuseisan. Average initial fee: 30,000 yen ($300), monthly fee: around 10,000 ($100).
For small companies with less than 200 employees, there are several companies like Expensify and Shoeboxed. Monthly fee: 1000 – 10,000 yen
(Note that the listed fees here are just for a reference. They could differ depending on the conditions.)
Crowd Cast aims to expand its client base among small companies with less than 200 employees. Hoshikawa adds:
For these kinds of companies, few of them have an independent department for accounting. In many cases, the management or workers in the general affairs department take care of accounting. With BizNote Expense, companies can automate everything from processing expenses to collecting to accounting, and as a result, they can save time to focus on more important matters.
The fee for BizNote Expense starts from 390 yen ($4) per month. The smartphone app is intentionally minimal in order to provide a reasonable price for small companies, and to make it easy for workers to use.
I had one simple question as I spoke with Hoshikawa. If the expense processing platform is tied up with Yayoi, why doesn’t Yayoi develop such a platform on its own? Could not such a big company form a project team with experienced engineers, and develop a platform quicker and better?
But developing a smartphone app or establishing a cloud service business model is not really what Yayoi is typically good at. Major companies in this kind of situation can find an advantage to tie up with startups. That is open innovation.
Accounting systems differ drastically across regions because of different accounting standards and tax systems. Yayoi used to be under Intuit, but later broke away in 2003 in a management buyout, and was subsequently acquired by livedoor. One of the reasons that Intuit and Yayoi couldn’t find synergies was the difference of accounting systems between countries.
But expense processing doesn’t differ much by country, so that means BizNote Expense could expand globally with minimum localization efforts. The Crowd Cast website already has both Japanese and English versions.
While Crowd Cast has tied up with Yoyoi in Japan, it could be possible for them to partner with Intuit in the future. As more and more startups operate across borders, this solution by Crowd Cast could help make business much more convenient.
The iOS version of BizNote Expense will be available for download in January, and the Android version is to be released in the first quarter of 2014.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Sassor, the startup best known for creating its Energy Literacy Platform (ELP), announced today it has raised an undisclosed sum from Japanese semiconductor company Innotech. For those who are unfamiliar with their product, check out their promotional video below. The startup is a graduate from the first batch of Tokyo’s Open Network Lab incubator back in 2010, raising seed funding from another incubator, Samurai Incubate, that same year. Subsequently they joined China-based hardware accelerator HAXLR8R (pronounced ‘hackccelerator’) as well. The company first started its business by providing power consumption management solutions for households. But eventually, they got an offer from soup franchise Soup Stock Tokyo, which led them to develop a service for restaurants and retailers called ELP for Biz. This corporate version lets you manage power consumption for all your appliances, helping you optimize the energy expenditure in your business operations. Sasser co-founder Takayuki Miyauchi explains: In addition to providing these products, we’ve also been requested to advise corporate staffers how they can improve power consumption. But we don’t have enough people to consult with them face-to-face. So we’re planning to develop a system to automate the consultation process. Their corporate service…
The Sassor team: Co-founder/CEO Shuichi Ishibashi in the middle, co-founder Takayuki Miyauchi is second from the left.
Tokyo-based Sassor, the startup best known for creating its Energy Literacy Platform (ELP), announced today it has raised an undisclosed sum from Japanese semiconductor company Innotech. For those who are unfamiliar with their product, check out their promotional video below.
The startup is a graduate from the first batch of Tokyo’s Open Network Lab incubator back in 2010, raising seed funding from another incubator, Samurai Incubate, that same year. Subsequently they joined China-based hardware accelerator HAXLR8R (pronounced ‘hackccelerator’) as well.
The company first started its business by providing power consumption management solutions for households. But eventually, they got an offer from soup franchise Soup Stock Tokyo, which led them to develop a service for restaurants and retailers called ELP for Biz. This corporate version lets you manage power consumption for all your appliances, helping you optimize the energy expenditure in your business operations. Sasser co-founder Takayuki Miyauchi explains:
In addition to providing these products, we’ve also been requested to advise corporate staffers how they can improve power consumption. But we don’t have enough people to consult with them face-to-face. So we’re planning to develop a system to automate the consultation process.
Their corporate service has been adopted at about 50 retail stores. They’ve also been receiving inquiries about their products from home appliance makers in Japan and the rest of the world.
Innotech, the investor in this round, says their investment is not about the short-term, but rather is about potential business synergies that may happen in the future. It is said that Sassor has learned about logistics and warehouse management from Innotech.
Beyond the Internet of Things, Sassor is now looking beyond clean-tech to become more than a hardware-focused startup.
We expect to keep serving our customers by making the most of our experience in hardware development. We hope to change people’s quality of life through a combination of hardware and software rather than just providing technology-oriented products.
The company has been specializing in visualizing power consumption. But Miyauchi hopes to diversify their business to sectors like the health care industry.
We want to be a company that can create everything from software to hardware, with the ability to design a more whole service.
They are currently hiring new people to serve better more clients across many business sectors.
See the original story in Japanese. Our readers may recall our report from Line’s annual showcase event back in August where the company announced that it was planning to launch a flea market platform. The service went online today, and is available on Android as a trial version. It’s called Line Mall. The new app is fully integrated with the Line messaging app, and Line users can login without any additional sign-up process. But your credentials for the market platform are independent from the messaging platform, and your history of selling and buying items will be never shared with your friends on the messaging platform without your prior approval. On Line Mall, categories of products range from fashion, baby goods, interior items, consumer electronics, toys, hobby items, foods, and beauty products. To sell your own items on the platform, no preliminary review or subscription fee is required. However, to keep users safe from suspicious items, Line’s staffers review your item before listing it on the platform. When receiving a payment, the messaging company stands between the seller and buyer, in order to prevent possible unfair trades. You can also earn rewards points when you buy things from other users on…
Our readers may recall our report from Line’s annual showcase event back in August where the company announced that it was planning to launch a flea market platform. The service went online today, and is available on Android as a trial version. It’s called Line Mall.
The new app is fully integrated with the Line messaging app, and Line users can login without any additional sign-up process. But your credentials for the market platform are independent from the messaging platform, and your history of selling and buying items will be never shared with your friends on the messaging platform without your prior approval.
On Line Mall, categories of products range from fashion, baby goods, interior items, consumer electronics, toys, hobby items, foods, and beauty products. To sell your own items on the platform, no preliminary review or subscription fee is required. However, to keep users safe from suspicious items, Line’s staffers review your item before listing it on the platform. When receiving a payment, the messaging company stands between the seller and buyer, in order to prevent possible unfair trades. You can also earn rewards points when you buy things from other users on the platform.
The company plans to improve the app based on feedback from users, and will release the official version of the app next Spring. It’s expected that the iOS version will also be available soon.
Masaru Ikeda
Junya Mori
Mimee is the cofounder of ThumbsUp, a partner media for The Bridge with whom we often exchange articles. ThumbsUp was founded in 2011 by a team of five, and currently there are seven members who run the Thai and English editions. While Mimee works as a consultant at another company, she operates ThumbsUp, organizes startup events, and hosts an IT-focused TV program call 
Takeshi Hirano
Teppei Wai
