See the original story in Japanese. The round in the title was updated based on the claim from App-CM (May 13th, 2016). Tokyo-based App-CM, the Japanese startup developing in-line video ads platform for smartphones, today announced that it has secured about $140 million yen (about $1.2 million) from Yeahmobi and several angel investors in a series A seed round. Yeahmobi is one of the world’s largest ad networks based out of China. App-CM was founded by Atsufumi Otsuka whom we previously introduced in our story about mobile video-viewing app Vimet. After launching App-CM, Otsuka handed over the management of Emet Creation, which developed the Vimet app, to So Yanagimoto, president and representative director of Emet, so he could devote himself to developing a video player engine for mobile at App-CM. Typical video ad networks for mobile use the CSS Sprites format to display in-line ads in a mobile web browser. The format makes sense in terms of allowing users to stay in a web browser while viewing video ads without switching to other video viewer apps. However, it displays a video clip consisting of independent still images in a manner similar to playing a flip book animation, its data volume…
App-CM team on the roof of their office located opposite the University of Tokyo. CEO Atsufumi Otsuka stands second from the left in the back row. (Courtesy: App-CM)
The round in the title was updated based on the claim from App-CM (May 13th, 2016).
Tokyo-based App-CM, the Japanese startup developing in-line video ads platform for smartphones, today announced that it has secured about $140 million yen (about $1.2 million) from Yeahmobi and several angel investors in a series A seed round. Yeahmobi is one of the world’s largest ad networks based out of China.
App-CM was founded by Atsufumi Otsuka whom we previously introduced in our story about mobile video-viewing app Vimet. After launching App-CM, Otsuka handed over the management of Emet Creation, which developed the Vimet app, to So Yanagimoto, president and representative director of Emet, so he could devote himself to developing a video player engine for mobile at App-CM.
Typical video ad networks for mobile use the CSS Sprites format to display in-line ads in a mobile web browser. The format makes sense in terms of allowing users to stay in a web browser while viewing video ads without switching to other video viewer apps. However, it displays a video clip consisting of independent still images in a manner similar to playing a flip book animation, its data volume being typically larger than that of QuickTime or MPEG video format because frame-to-frame delta compression is not applied.
To address this issue, App-CM has developed an original video format based on VP9, an open-source video compression codec originally developed by Google. Corresponding to in-stream video ads protocol VAST, the new format enables compression of up to one-tenth to one-twentieth in data volume compared to typical formats which are conventionally used for mobile video ad networks. During the first launch, a video viewing plug-in compatible to the App-CM format will be installed on a viewer’s mobile web browser. A video clip, which typically weighs 4 megabytes on average in a conventional video format, can be compressed down to 200 kilobytes while the compression efficiency depends on how many frames are sub-sampled out of 30 frames per second in the typical NTSC video format (see the video below).
Having been adopted on over 200 mobile media websites in Japan, App-CM leverages its unique video-player technology without requiring a large data traffic, planning to expand to emerging markets where mobile broadband is available on an uncertain basis. In addition to the expansion into the Chinese market in cooperation with Yeahmobi, App-CM will be in a hurry to expand into the Indian market based on a partnership with Green House Ventures (GHV), the Indian local startup accelerator that the mobile video company partnered with last month.
Represented by CTO Miki Yagita, many students from Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo, has joined the engineering team to develop the App-CM platform. In order to strengthen the engineering resources, App-CM recently relocated its headquarters to opposite the Red Gate (aka Akamon) of the University of Tokyo. They are currently applying for a patent on their AI-powered optimized ad distribution algorithm and mobile video player engine.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based BHI, the Japanese startup behind mobile solutions focused on protecting users from information overload, announced last week the iOS version 2.0 of to-do management app Swingdo. This app was originally released last year-end, but it has been quickly upgraded for four added functions of interest. The new functions are: If a task is registered in the app with being associated with a specific location, a user will be recommended to deal with it as priority by a GPS-enabled feature when he/she comes in there. A function to list unreplied emails. A “Like” icon for completing to-do tasks and a “paper airplane” icon for completing mail tasks. An enhanced integration to its sister app Swingmail upon creating tasks in Swingdo that leverages e-mail reply history in Swingmail. In addition to this iOS version, a Chrome extension of Swingdo was released during February. Therefore, the basic function of Swingdo can be used not only on mobile but on desktop. To-do updates will be synchronized between the Chrome extension and the iOS version. BHI CEO Yasuhiro Himukashi explained: Many users of Swingdo said they needed an interface, even as an extension, usable on desktop, so we…
Tokyo-based BHI, the Japanese startup behind mobile solutions focused on protecting users from information overload, announced last week the iOS version 2.0 of to-do management app Swingdo. This app was originally released last year-end, but it has been quickly upgraded for four added functions of interest.
The new functions are:
If a task is registered in the app with being associated with a specific location, a user will be recommended to deal with it as priority by a GPS-enabled feature when he/she comes in there.
A function to list unreplied emails.
A “Like” icon for completing to-do tasks and a “paper airplane” icon for completing mail tasks.
An enhanced integration to its sister app Swingmail upon creating tasks in Swingdo that leverages e-mail reply history in Swingmail.
In addition to this iOS version, a Chrome extension of Swingdo was released during February. Therefore, the basic function of Swingdo can be used not only on mobile but on desktop. To-do updates will be synchronized between the Chrome extension and the iOS version.
BHI CEO Yasuhiro Himukashi explained:
Many users of Swingdo said they needed an interface, even as an extension, usable on desktop, so we responded to this by offering a Chrome extension
The world’s top 3 to-do managers including Wunderlist are also used on Chrome Extension and smartphone by their users, so we followed their examples.
The exciting news is that they will release the desktop version of Swingdo for Mac in April and an Android version in May.
Meanwhile, we go back to June of 2013 when Swingdo’s antecedent was introduced with its (still) current sister app, Swingmail. They have modified the engine three times since they launched Swingmail for improved efficiency in messaging, and for automatic extraction / creation of task.
Himukashi said,
To be honest, the first- and second-generation engines were failures. Automated task creator leveraging email is globally still rare. The logic to associate / unassociate a contact or a history with each task was very difficult.
In addition to Swingdo, the company continues to update SwingMail and recently added new functions such as displaying only important emails and muting unimportant ones.
Although BHI secured series A round funding in April of 2014, the company has yet to disclose its amount and investors.
Translated by Minako Ambiru via Mother First Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. According to Japan’s Hobby White Paper 2014 published by the Hobby Association of Japan, the market size of domestic handicraft items is estimated to be 867.3 billion yen (about $7.8 billion). Among these, the market size of handicrafts traded through C2C (consumer to consumer) transactions via the Internet has been reported at 69.8 billion yen (about $627 million). In Japan, various players such as Minne, Tetote or Creema have been competing on this market. See also: Japan’s Creema launches iOS app, gives users instant access to handmade items sellers Thai handmade marketplace Blisby raises $300K from DeNA, East Ventures, 500 Startups Handmade item marketplace Anders brings new Japanese-flavored designs every Monday Under such a situation, a game change has been wrought by Japan’s Iichi, running a handicraft e-commerce platform under the same name, and Taiwan-originated Pinkoi, the latter running one of the biggest designer markets in Asia. The two outfits announced last week an agreement as to a business partnership. With this partnership, Iichi implements a capital increase through third-party share increase with Pinkoi as the subscriber. As a result, Pinkoi becomes the top shareholder of Iichi, with Iichi CEO Kentaro Iinuma joining Pinkoi…
L to R: Kentaro Iinuma (CEO of Iichi), Peter Yen (CEO of Pinkoi)
According to Japan’s Hobby White Paper 2014 published by the Hobby Association of Japan, the market size of domestic handicraft items is estimated to be 867.3 billion yen (about $7.8 billion).
Among these, the market size of handicrafts traded through C2C (consumer to consumer) transactions via the Internet has been reported at 69.8 billion yen (about $627 million). In Japan, various players such as Minne, Tetote or Creema have been competing on this market.
Under such a situation, a game change has been wrought by Japan’s Iichi, running a handicraft e-commerce platform under the same name, and Taiwan-originated Pinkoi, the latter running one of the biggest designer markets in Asia. The two outfits announced last week an agreement as to a business partnership.
Iichi
With this partnership, Iichi implements a capital increase through third-party share increase with Pinkoi as the subscriber. As a result, Pinkoi becomes the top shareholder of Iichi, with Iichi CEO Kentaro Iinuma joining Pinkoi as a board member and named CEO of Pinkoi Japan.
Iichi started service under a business support program among Hakuhodo DY (TSE: 2433) group companies, and was officially established in 2011 with financial support from Hakuhodo (ad agency), Hakuhodo DY Media Partners (ad agency), Murashiki (cross-border e-commerce operator) and Kayac (TSE:3409, Yokohama-based internet service giant).
Iichi plans to globally develop its handicrafts marketplace business as a joint venture between Pinkoi and the Hakuhodo group. It will engage in the management of both Iichi and Pinkoi Japanese version services.
Pinkoi
Pinkoi is a Taiwan-originated startup established in 2011. As a marketplace for design products to connect designers and customers throughout the world but mainly in Asia, it has grown to be one of the biggest Asian players with 2 million monthly users.
Pinkoi has expanded its service in 77 countries including Taiwan, Hong Kong, the US, China, Japan and Thailand, covering 5 languages and 12 currencies. It has fundraised a total of $11.1 million from Sequoia Capital and Infinity Venture Partners.
Since we wanted to develop our business overseas from the onset, we had already prepared an English version. But some difficulties in local marketing came to light.
Although espying the difficulties, I recognized that high value placed on products from Japan and saw the Asian market as a business opening for cross-border EC services. Peter and I talked about such things over two days last October.
Meanwhile, Pinkoi had been thinking of ways to expand into Japan.
Notes Pinkoi’s CEO Peter Yen:
Since around 2014, we had gradually started research activities in Japan. Making teams and meeting designers, we started to investigate what issues they had and what we could do for them.
In these process, I met Iinuma-san and decided to cooperate with Iichi for our larger vision. We are going to support designers in Japan to advance into the world, not just remain domestic.
Iinuma adds:
Pinkoi’s ability to create services and to advance globalization is what Iichi needed. On the other hand, while Pinkoi wanted to access Japan’s manufacturing market, it is not easy to directly access Japanese creators from overseas. As Iichi plays that part, we can create an ideal complementary relationship.
After this agreement, Iichi’s team will handle the management of both Iichi and Pinkoi in Japan. Since the characteristics of users differ between the two, the team has to develop services in each category. As for marketing in Japan, it aims to improve user recognition together with Hakuhodo.
If the two manage the services hand-in-hand henceforth, the synergy in the context of not only business but also the companies’ culture may become rather important.
Yen agreed on this point:
We both have two cultures. The first one is being a ‘people-first’ community. We are providing value to design-conscious people seeking products with good design.
The second one is the quality of design. Not anybody can sell one’s products on Pinkoi. It is not open but is being curated. Specifically, only one in ten can be registered as a crafter.
Through the curation for designers, Pinkoi is filled with various products where design-conscious people can find what they are really looking for.
A community formed by both designers who have high quality and users who seek their products leads to the value of Pinkoi. The Pinkoi CEO told me that the most important thing for maintaining this status is to have passion to support designers.
Sharing such similar mindsets as to treating crafters kindly, and an attitude to pursue design quality or passion in the team, Iichi and Pinkoi were able to reach this agreement.
The emphasis on the community and the quality of design which is common to both companies will translate into a competitive edge of the services.
Peter continued:
We get top designers in various countries to participate in Pinkoi’s community, so that the community can gain unifying power and attract more designers.
As a result, a lot of design-conscious users are attracted to purchase these designers’ products. While they have good eyes for fashion, good designers want to sell the products to the users as well.
Our advantage is having both the top designers and the design-conscious users.
Iinuma continued:
I think Japanese crafters or designers excel in their abilities. As they enter Pinkoi’s community, the unifying power of the community will be raised further.
In Asia including Taiwan, Hong Kong and Thailand, handicrafts or design products have been gathering more attention. Pinkoi and Iichi empower designers in Japan, and assist them to advance into the emerging Asian market.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based internet company Cocon, previously known as Panda Graphics, announced this week the acquisition of Ierae Security, a Japanese internet security diagnosis startup. Although the company has not yet disclosed the transaction value, Ierae Security became a wholly-owned Cocon subsidiary upon Cocon buying up the company’s total outstanding shares. Ierae Security was founded in 2011 by Makoto Makita, a security engineer, who started up a security diagnosis team at SoftBank (TSE:9984) and CyberAgent (TSE:4751). The company’s competitive edge is vulnerability assessment for web/smartphone apps and IoT (Internet of Things) among others, and they offer security consulting to security system vendors and leading companies in Japan. Their clients include Cybertrust Japan, Sammy Networks, CyberAgent and S&P (not Standard & Poor’s but a Japanese mobile gaming developer), in addition to Photosynth, which is behind smart lock solution Akerun as well as other firms. See also: Japan’s Akerun smart lock to start shipping soon, expecting to reach 10,000 orders in a year Meanwhile, as indicated by the company’s former name, Cocon is derived from Panda Graphics, an illustration-focused crowdsourcing platform. The company, established in February of 2013, secured 140 million yen from East Ventures and Opt in…
Tokyo-based internet company Cocon, previously known as Panda Graphics, announced this week the acquisition of Ierae Security, a Japanese internet security diagnosis startup. Although the company has not yet disclosed the transaction value, Ierae Security became a wholly-owned Cocon subsidiary upon Cocon buying up the company’s total outstanding shares.
Ierae Security was founded in 2011 by Makoto Makita, a security engineer, who started up a security diagnosis team at SoftBank (TSE:9984) and CyberAgent (TSE:4751). The company’s competitive edge is vulnerability assessment for web/smartphone apps and IoT (Internet of Things) among others, and they offer security consulting to security system vendors and leading companies in Japan. Their clients include Cybertrust Japan, Sammy Networks, CyberAgent and S&P (not Standard & Poor’s but a Japanese mobile gaming developer), in addition to Photosynth, which is behind smart lock solution Akerun as well as other firms.
Meanwhile, as indicated by the company’s former name, Cocon is derived from Panda Graphics, an illustration-focused crowdsourcing platform. The company, established in February of 2013, secured 140 million yen from East Ventures and Opt in July of 2014 while also raising undisclosed-amount funds from China’s SIG Asia Investments and this company’s closely-related Japanese firm, MS Capital. After entering into a capital tie-up with Tokyo-based 3DCG production Mox Mortion in June of 2014, and with UI/UX design agency Ohako in January of 2015, they purchased crowdsourcing platform Voip covering the voice-acting sector in May of 2015. Thus, they are active for tie-ups and acquisitions involving startups.
Ierae Security moved their headquarters to Cocon’s office in September 2015; therefore we can presume the process of this acquisition is based on their continued and close cooperative relationship.
When asked about the business synergies between two companies upon this acquisition, Yuya Kuratomi, CEO at Cocon, explained that the company is dealing with many game developers, and the demand for security solutions against cheating and such has increased. They aim to offer mobile app security solution and also expect mutual introductions among their clients.
This business expansion method, in which startups invest in or acquire another startups, has been recently seen in the case of Japan’s c2c (consumer to consumer) marketplace app Mercari or our neighbor South Korea’s Yello Mobile. How will Cocon develop their business? This is going to be very interesting.
Translated by Minako Ambiru via Mother First Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
This is a guest post authored by Mayumi Ishikawa. She is working as a writer and public relations manager for FabCafe, the fabrication studio by Tokyo-based digital creative agency Loftwork. This is part of our coverage of The Bridge Fes 2016. See the original story in Japanese. In collaboration with e27, Singapore-based startup news blog covering the startup scene in Southeast Asia, five startups from Japan and the Asia Pacific region delivered their pitch at The Bridge Fes, The Bridge’s flagship showcase event which took place in Tokyo last month. This session was emceed by Antti Sonninen, CEO of Slush Asia. PawnHero (the Philippines) PawnHero provides locals with pawnshop services online. In the Philippines, there are about 18,000 pawnshops nationwide but their typical monthly interest is as high as 10 percent. Only jewelries and such articles can be accepted for pawning while bringing articles to a pawnshop is usually time-consuming. PawnHero allows one to get a rough estimate by sending a snapshot of an item for pawning via their smartphone. When one is satisfied with the price presented, one can send it to the PawnHero center by courier so one can get the cash when PawnHero completes evaluating the exact…
This is a guest post authored by Mayumi Ishikawa. She is working as a writer and public relations manager for FabCafe, the fabrication studio by Tokyo-based digital creative agency Loftwork.
In collaboration with e27, Singapore-based startup news blog covering the startup scene in Southeast Asia, five startups from Japan and the Asia Pacific region delivered their pitch at The Bridge Fes, The Bridge’s flagship showcase event which took place in Tokyo last month.
This session was emceed by Antti Sonninen, CEO of Slush Asia.
PawnHero (the Philippines)
PawnHero provides locals with pawnshop services online. In the Philippines, there are about 18,000 pawnshops nationwide but their typical monthly interest is as high as 10 percent. Only jewelries and such articles can be accepted for pawning while bringing articles to a pawnshop is usually time-consuming.
PawnHero allows one to get a rough estimate by sending a snapshot of an item for pawning via their smartphone. When one is satisfied with the price presented, one can send it to the PawnHero center by courier so one can get the cash when PawnHero completes evaluating the exact price. Dealing with $645 worth’s per hour in the Philippines, the company plans to expand to China and Vietnam.
The company provides users with cards so that they can withdraw money at a teller machine, use it for paying utility bills, make e-commerce purchases, mobile top-up and money remittance to other people. Making the most of this service, PawnHero Chairman David Margendorff says that he wants to promote financial inclusion in emerging markets.
WOVN.io (Japan)
WOVN.io instantly turns a website into a multilingual environment just by adding a single Javascript code to a website source. The platform has translated over 120,000 webpages to date. Jeff Sandford, co-founder of WOVN.io, demonstrated how instantly users can do so on the stage.
When website owners simply enter the URL for their website following signing up for the service, WOVN.io will fetch the content of the website and list elements comprising it such as buttons and texts on a screen. The owners can choose from two types of translation – machine translation using Google Translate and human-powered crowdsourced translation using Gengo, supporting up to more than 26 languages.
The team is aiming to make all websites around the world accessible by anyone on the planet, surmounting language barriers.
SELLinALL (Singapore)
SELLinALL is a cloud-based system that allows retailers to submit their merchandise to nine different e-commerce platforms including Amazon, eBay and Facebook, manage these inventories in an integrated manner.
Founded by engineers and others who had been working for the Singapore office of eBay for ten years, SELLinALL wants to expand into the entire Asian market while extensively exploring potential local partners, according to the company’s founder Vikraman Ilango.
BorderPass (Malaysia)
Upon foundation of the ASEAN Economic Community late last year, market expansion and human mobility in the region became facilitated, causing much congestion at international airports. BorderPass is a solution for simplifying the immigration process at airports within the region for ASEAN inhabitants, enabling them to set foot on foreign soil without forming a long queue.
BorderPass records profiles and travel history of users. When they book a flight to a certain country, their profiles and history are transferred to the country’s immigration authority in advance so that they can streamline the process when entering the country. Making the most of image recognition technology, the platform can recognize faces of travelers at passport control to help the authority fulfill their duties.
Aiming to be adopted at airports in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Bangkok, the company’s plans to conduct pilot programs with two airline companies and four airports in the three relevant countries.
Cropital (the Philippines)
Cropital is a crowdfunding platform for farmers in the Philippines. Ruel Amparo, CEO and founder of Cropital, explained by citing the story of a local farmer using the service. The farmer is 56 years old with a monthly income of less than $50 but has a lot of debts. There are about 10 million farmers in the Philippines, but two thirds of them such as the cited farmer are forced to live below the poverty line.
Cropital allows backers to choose farmers and gardens to invest in. Leveraging the funds from backers, farmers can invest in farm equipment and productivity improvement. Benefits from that will be returned to the backers after harvesting crops.
Regarding the distribution ratio of the revenue given by the Cropital platform, farmers and backers take 70% and 20% respectively while Cropital holds 10% as commission plus 5% transaction fee. It also has an aspect of a social impact investment to improve the local society in the Philippines. Thanks to community partners helping farmers launch their crowdfunding campaign, farmers don’t need to have a high IT literacy to use it.
Following these five pitches, this session’s MC Antti Sonninen, CEO of Slush Asia, introduced this year’s Slush Asia event taking place on 13th and 14th of May in Tokyo’s suburb. Slush Asia became one of Asia’s largest global startup events and attracted more than 3,000 people attending the one-day event last year. He claimed that this year’s event will be larger than that of last year, scheduling a big hackathon event for startups from 6th to 8th of May.
See the original story in Japanese. Fukuoka-based Sefuri, the Japanese startup that provides the Yamap app for mountain climbers and hikers, announced today that it has fundraised 170 million yen (about $1.5 million) in series A funding round. This round was led by Japanese mobile gaming publisher Colopl (TSE:3668), with participation from Daiwa Corporate Investment and Fukuoka-based VC firm Dogan. Sefuri claims that they will continue being focused on improving their services rather than pursuing profitability for over an year from now at least, so the funds will be used for operation during the period. Yamap is a mobile app that allows users to check where they are without mobile data access as well as provides a platform for sharing posts and updates about mountain climbing and hiking with other users. Since its launch back in March of 2013, the app has acquired 260,000 downloads, 160,000 registered users, 2.2 million photos and 9 million monthly page views to date. In July, the company launched an insurance service for hikers, Yamap Geers (a price comparison site that reviews outdoor gears), and .Hyakkei (an online media site focused on outdoor activities). They recently partnered with manufacturers of camera, smartphones and smartwatches to…
Fukuoka-based Sefuri, the Japanese startup that provides the Yamap app for mountain climbers and hikers, announced today that it has fundraised 170 million yen (about $1.5 million) in series A funding round. This round was led by Japanese mobile gaming publisher Colopl (TSE:3668), with participation from Daiwa Corporate Investment and Fukuoka-based VC firm Dogan. Sefuri claims that they will continue being focused on improving their services rather than pursuing profitability for over an year from now at least, so the funds will be used for operation during the period.
Yamap is a mobile app that allows users to check where they are without mobile data access as well as provides a platform for sharing posts and updates about mountain climbing and hiking with other users. Since its launch back in March of 2013, the app has acquired 260,000 downloads, 160,000 registered users, 2.2 million photos and 9 million monthly page views to date. In July, the company launched an insurance service for hikers, Yamap Geers (a price comparison site that reviews outdoor gears), and .Hyakkei (an online media site focused on outdoor activities). They recently partnered with manufacturers of camera, smartphones and smartwatches to diversify revenue streams.
The user community of the Yamap platform recently participated in a joint development project of camera accessories for outdoor use in association with Olympus’ open-platform camera Air A01(as showcased at CP+ show in Yokohama, for example). In addition, the Yamap app will be pre-installed on Kyocera’s outdoor smartphone Torque and Casio’s smartwatch WSD-F10 (on sale in late March).
The Yamap app preinstalled on Torque.The Yamap app preinstalled on WSD-F10.
Yoshihiko Haruyama, CEO of Sefuri, claims that they have categorized their business development phases into three categories: 1. offering easy-to-use and convenient measures, 2. offering exciting and novel experiences, and 3. becoming a good partner for users. They will be focused on Phase 2 from now on where his team wants to add new functions like giving users stickers upon reaching the top of a mountain or access a FireChat-like streetpass communication among users. We expect that Sefuri will soon add geolocation-based gamified experiences to the app with support from Colopl which is novel in this category.
Furthermore, Sefuri has been conducting a field test in Niseko, a renowned ski resort on the northernmost island of Hokkaido, in partnership with a local tourism association where the company is offering visiting skiers an offline map through the app to prevent them from straying off a set course (especially back country ones) in aaddition to letting them enjoy discovering as to how they may typically enjoy experiences in the resort by leveraging big data analysis. Since these updates are provided in English as well, more than 400 updates have been posted by domestic and inbound overseas visitors.
Upon this funding, The Bridge asked Haruyama about his business exit strategy. He told us that he’s aiming at an IPO by summer of 2020, however he will be exploring other exit options including M&A while considering a way to provide a positive impact on their users and services. He said the company wants to get involved in supporting inbound tourism demands at globally popular destinations in Japan such as another renowned ski resort Hakuba Area and the southern world heritage Yakushima Island.
See the original story in Japanese. The awareness of “Health and Productivity Management” in which corporations can expect better results in management upon focusing on employees’ health, has recently been enhanced. The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has tied up with Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) and announced “Health and Productivity Stock Selection”: corporations considering employee health in terms of management and strategically work thereupon. Meanwhile, employee stress check-ups have been mandatory since last December in Japan. Corporations have to deal with various health items but most of them do not have sufficient measures against these due to lack of resources. Tokyo-based healthcare startup iCARE has released Carely, a newly developed healthcare platform for corporates in resolving this situation. In addition, the company recently announced that it has secured 100 million yen (about $880,000) from Japanese VC firm Incubate Fund. iCare was founded by three students at the Keio University Graduate School of Business Administration. Launch back in June of 2011, the company had been conducting the activities for the iCARE platform for over the first two years while continuing their previous jobs. They subsequently introduced a medical record management platform called Catchball in 2013. At that time,…
The awareness of “Health and Productivity Management” in which corporations can expect better results in management upon focusing on employees’ health, has recently been enhanced. The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has tied up with Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) and announced “Health and Productivity Stock Selection”: corporations considering employee health in terms of management and strategically work thereupon.
Meanwhile, employee stress check-ups have been mandatory since last December in Japan. Corporations have to deal with various health items but most of them do not have sufficient measures against these due to lack of resources.
Tokyo-based healthcare startup iCARE has released Carely, a newly developed healthcare platform for corporates in resolving this situation. In addition, the company recently announced that it has secured 100 million yen (about $880,000) from Japanese VC firm Incubate Fund.
iCare was founded by three students at the Keio University Graduate School of Business Administration. Launch back in June of 2011, the company had been conducting the activities for the iCARE platform for over the first two years while continuing their previous jobs. They subsequently introduced a medical record management platform called Catchball in 2013.
At that time, people were still less interested in health management and cloud tools.
recalls Yamada Yota, CEO of iCARE. Yamada, an occupational physician, general internist and psychotherapist, asked corporates to adopt the Catchball platform when offering the medical service.
The awareness of health management or cloud tools has changed with the times. At the same time, they have developed the Carely platform. The team’s awareness of the issues has not changed since they launched the Catchball platform. Health information of employees is dispersed and discontinued if the representative changes. They aim to improve this inefficiency which even occupational physicians cannot understand, and to visualize such health information.
Carely dashboard
Carely offers centrally integrated management on cloud, visualization and analysis of employees’ health information. Companies can manage personnel / labor information including their attendance, results of medical / stress check-ups and information of occupational physician’s consultation.
By visualizing employees’ personal health information, Carely can specifically respond to users’ needs via chat function based on the health data when a problem occurs or they need to consult a specialist. With this chat function, doctors and public health nurses respond to employees’ health issues based on personal health data. They also provide the content of health-related information such as health guidance after medical checkup or stress check-up via chat.
Carely is, so to speak, an “online infirmary.” Corporates can use the platform for tiresome scheduling of employees’ medical checkup with medical centers or conducting stress check-up and it becomes a medical touchpoint for the employees. In addition to these system uses, iCARE provides Carely PRO which offers health agent service or consulting for health and productivity management. To promote the practical use of Carely they carry out the tasks related to the medical checkup and the stress check-up that are the company’s obligations.
Checkup data is managed on Carely as health information and is utilized for health consulting chats. Moreover, it thoroughly supports the industrial hygienic activities contributing to the health and productivity management such as starting up a system of industrial hygiene or operating daily health committee. Health items are largely divided into the physical and the mental, and each of these are divided into three steps: medical examination task, related task like agent services and consulting task. To date, there is no other platform which covers all of these tasks, told Yamada.
The field of ‘related task’ including agent services is a very difficult part to improve in terms of efficiency and systemization as the task is mostly within the purview of medical centers and thus can be communicated only by fax. Therefore, health platform developers have not worked on this field. We will brush up on our operation in this sector while offering Carely service.
iCARE’s Yamada (left) receives an award at Rising Expo 2014, the annual startup showcase event by CyberAgent Ventures in Tokyo.
The management team at iCARE has experience dealing with business improvement or in enhancing efficiency for the medical sector and leading companies. By optimizing their experience and know-how, they aim to improve their operation of Carely. Their business model has several operational weak points that need to be improved. The related task as mentioned above is one of these, and how the doctors as well as public health nurses respond to chat consulting is also an important point which requires meticulous improvements.
Yamada says,
The time slots employees consult via chat are not during business hours but before/after work or during break time. Therefore, we offer the consulting service for those time periods in addition to holidays upon arranging the work schedule of doctors.
Currently we are repeating the tests to ensure the quality of our service. The advantage of this chat consulting is that we can implement PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Action) by leveraging the history of chat text. It becomes easier to improve the service by visualizing the ‘black boxed’ points of telephone consulting.
Carely has already been introduced into several companies. Rizap, a well-known Japanese chain of weight-loss gyms, is also one of them. According to Rizap, the consultation rate of employees’ medical checkups has been improved from 50% to more than 90%, since they introduced Carely.
iCARE is prioritizing the brush-up of their service for the moment, and will aim to acquire 100 companies. Carrying out a medical act is not part of iCARE’s goal; the fact is under Japanese law they cannot engage in medical practice. The company has a concept of “cloud hospital” which offers programs related to “prevention and improvement” via cloud. They consolidate the health care data held by corporations, and conduct medical consulting via chat based on health data. In the future, they estimate that they will be able to recommend solutions that meet user’s demands.
By brushing up on Carely, this cloud service will enable small and mid-sized companies that cannot afford to invest in employee health issues, to carry out health support activities. With this fundraising, iCARE will enhance their system of management, development and marketing, while improving their service.
Translated by Minako Ambiru via Mother First Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. There will be a new hub being set up within Tokyo’s startup scene. The hub is named Mistletoe and offered by Taizo Son, the remarkable Japanese serial entrepreneur who has survived the chaotic dawn of Japan’s internet industry. Son explained the reason why he has named it so. A mistletoe tree produces a lot of berries, which is an ideal food for birds during winter. Birds eat mistletoe berries and deface the forest, but then new trees will sprout from the ground and expand the forest. It is better not to position the Mistletoe program as an incubation initiative. It’s neither the pure investment efforts we often saw a few decades ago on Japan’s emerging company market nor a seed accelerator inspired by Y Combinator. Son described the project as a vehicle for co-founding businesses but the fact is that it is not so easy to express in simple terms. I recently had a chance to hear more about the new project from Son. Mistletoe program concept The Mistletoe project is not a so-called incubation program for entrepreneurs but operated in the form of co-founding a business with the business founders having a core…
There will be a new hub being set up within Tokyo’s startup scene. The hub is named Mistletoe and offered by Taizo Son, the remarkable Japanese serial entrepreneur who has survived the chaotic dawn of Japan’s internet industry.
Son explained the reason why he has named it so.
A mistletoe tree produces a lot of berries, which is an ideal food for birds during winter. Birds eat mistletoe berries and deface the forest, but then new trees will sprout from the ground and expand the forest.
It is better not to position the Mistletoe program as an incubation initiative. It’s neither the pure investment efforts we often saw a few decades ago on Japan’s emerging company market nor a seed accelerator inspired by Y Combinator. Son described the project as a vehicle for co-founding businesses but the fact is that it is not so easy to express in simple terms.
I recently had a chance to hear more about the new project from Son.
Mistletoe program concept
Taizo Son in the Mistletoe office Photo by Takeshi Hirano, The Bridge
The Mistletoe project is not a so-called incubation program for entrepreneurs but operated in the form of co-founding a business with the business founders having a core idea or technology. Unlike conventional acceleration programs that typically have a specified time-period or an investment ratio, every project participating in the program will be handled under different case by case criteria.
Son explained:
Under the concept of this program, we will launch a business with its founders together. They need to bring a core technology and idea, but we will found a business with them, set a valuation for it, then work together on product development, fundraising and business development. That’s why we can’t just deal with a few projects per year. If we continue for five years, we would be able to work with more or less around 20 projects at most. […]
We’ll be doing a startup studio business. There’s a startup studio company called Expa in Silicon Valley, which we see as our role model. The company’s founder Garrett Camp is famous for having invested in Uber, and he has curated powerful people leveraging his network to propose the concept: a company which creates new companies.
This method may be close to EIR (entrepreneur-in-residence), intrapreneurship or other similar styles that Japanese tech incubator Beenos (TSE:3328) has adopted, where startups are based in an incubator’s venue and nourished upon receiving mentorship from designers and programmers at the incubator.
Son and his team has rented a 1,300 square meters venue to make the studio possible. He said:
Many of the topics we’re dealing with are still in stealth mode so we can’t disclose them. When launching a business, many of us will do something a half step ahead from now, right? VC firms carry things out one step ahead.
However, our Startup Studio wants to work on things 1.5 to 2 steps ahead. For example, Fintech or Adtech businesses are a half step ahead business. Artificial intelligence and robotics are one step ahead. That’s why we must go beyond these.
The Mistletoe office’s floor plan (upper floor) Image credit: MistletoeThe Mistletoe office’s floor plan (lower floor) Image credit: Mistletoe
While Son says the program will be processed on an issue-driven basis, I was told that it will address people’s bottom line problems such as global food-supply issues, low birthrate and aging society, in addition to logistics issues.
He continued:
We will support novel ideas and entrepreneurs aiming to solve problems from an oblique angle over a mid- or long-range period. That’s why our main focus will be on the research and development businesses. I think an investment amount per project will be larger here than other typical cases.
These are description in text about the Mistletoe program. It’s obviously interesting as content. However, what’s more important here is that the program is conducted by Taizo Son himself.
How on earth can the team change the world gradually? In order to better understand the core context of their strategies, let’s look back at the roots of the project before it was born.
Indigo and Taizo Son
Taizo Son and his team at Indigo (From Newsweek’s coverage of Indigo via Taizo Son’s Blog)
Many of our readers may recall how Son started being involved in the startup community. Son encountered Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang when attending the University of Tokyo, which led him to get involved in a project to launch Yahoo Japan. To prepare for it, Son launched a company called Indigo (currently known as Asian Groove) with ten of his classmates in 1996.
Regarding Indigo, Son was quoted in a book covering the early days of Japan’s internet industry back in 1990s to 2000s. He was as young as 27 years old when this book (Bit Valley Beat) was published.
In 2000, Son says “I’ll launch at least 10 companies this year”. Launching venture businesses in a systematic approach is Indigo’s primary business. Not only big companies but also individuals can bring their ideas to the company. Indigo invests their know-how and funds in prominent ideas.
What do you say? Yes, you see that Son started working on somewhat the original form of the Mistletoe program more than ten years ago.
One companies born out of Indigo is Onsale, currently known as Gungho Online Entertainment (TSE:3765). Having experienced the collapse of the dotcom bubble in early 2000s, he revived the business and IPO-ed the company with hugely popular titles like Puzzle & Dragons and Ragnarok Online by uniting efforts with Kazuki Morishita, the current president and CEO of Gungho.
In my previous interview with Son, he raised Andreessen Horowitz and Alphabet as rivals to Mistletoe. These two companies have a different approach from Mistletoe because they are focused on investment but the three companies have many points in common in terms of illuminating the global community as a new business breeder.
Many of our readers are also familiar with Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, the founders of Andreessen Horowitz, through Ben’s authored book “The Hard Thing about Hard Things.” Netscape and Loudcloud are symbolic entities from the dot-com bubble in the US while Marc and Ben had overcome hardships; meanwhile there is Son in Japan. I can’t help feeling an indescribable charm of life in the fact that these entrepreneurs are working on the same topic at the same period after experiencing the same hardships.
Movida Japan and Taizo Son
An event of Movida Japan in its early days Photo by Takeshi Hirano, The Bridge
Let’s get back to the original topic. Several years have been passed since the launch of Indigo Project where Son and his team were aiming of launching venture businesses successively in a systematic approach. Then he joined his brother’s company Softbank Group, and subsequently got back into the limelight with the launch of Movida Japan in 2011.
Looking back at the time, Japanese internet giant Digital Garage (TSE:4819) and its affiliate companies launched Open Network Lab advocating the creation of Y Combinator in Japan while several other VC firms were starting similar acceleration programs. Movida Japan was among these and had been providing a several-month intensive incubation program in cohort batches. In an interview with Japanese business magazine Nikkei Business, Son described how he had launched Movida Japan.
I’ve been dashing forward to gain results while looking at my brother Masayoshi and at the people’s sense of values. […] However I suddenly realized I’m already just before 40 years old. Confucius says one has no doubts at forty. However, I had been always puzzled in my busy minute-by-minute schedule. […] What the heck I should do?
Spending two years, my conclusion was transferring my experience to young entrepreneurs. In addition, I decided to form a startup ecosystem surpassing Silicon Valley in East Asia by 2030.
I asked Son what on earth Movida Japan was. He responded:
What’s the most we have learned through it was having a place rather than us just providing mentoring or support young entrepreneurs. That was where people were polishing each others, aiming to go forward and higher. It was big for us to experience something small from the Silicon Valley startup ecosystem. I was working for Softbank Group during the same period where I could gain much experience and build my network.
When we speak with Son, he often uses this diagram (see below). That was so when I interviewed him at the launch of Movida Japan.
Image credit: Mistoetoe
I’ve been using this diagram before launching Movida Japan. Yet I was wondering what we should start with. But I thought it would sprout out from seeds here (Movida Japan). On the side, in discussions with Fumihara-kun (CEO of Nana Music) over an offline fan meeting, I was conducting billion dollar M&A deals. Such a major gap gave me a great input.
I spent almost three years doing various things from scratch, and could finally organize my thoughts. That’s Mistletoe.
Mistletoe orchestrates innovations
Image credit: Mistletoe
Looking back at what he had been doing at Indigo and Movida Japan, what he’s trying to do won’t change a lot at Mistletoe neither. That’s to create new power and solve social issues. As he mentioned, his thoughts were well organized and his activities slightly upgraded at Mistletoe, where they will ‘integrate’ entrepreneurs with each others.
Son explained:
Every entrepreneur really needs his or her focus to gain success. But solving a big problem is difficult for a single entrepreneur. That’s why we are planning to integrate their skills in solving problems with each others.
Meta Entrepreneur, a superordinate concept that Son addresses, is called “Orchestrates Innovations” at the Mistletoe program. They aim to solve big problems through “chemical reactions” resulting from combining various technologies and expertise. To make these possible, Mistletoe is to provide human resources, goods and capital.
He continued:
Finally we have fixed onto what we want to do. Two missions, orchestrating innovations and forming an ecosystem to accelerate them — that’s just what we should do.
I believe this approach is now possible because the Japanese startup scene has a deeper talent pool of entrepreneurs and investors who have been nourished by Son and the Japanese market these days.
Photo by Takeshi Hirano, The Bridge
Son will celebrate his 20th anniversary this year since launching his first company while attending university. Concluding the interview, I asked him if he has anything unchanged since then. He replied:
I’ve been often expressing a “metaball” company. Appears to be like a globular cluster nebula. They are several objects, they look like one cluster when seen from a distance. At my company Indigo, there was no boundary defining inside or outside the team but everyone was located randomly around me and continued working.
Some people have come to us and then sped away like Halley’s Comet, others are still revolving around us. I’m told that’s the form of a company I had beem aiming for. It may not have changed a lot since my early days.
Translated by Masaru Ikeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Financial Innovation Business Conference (FIBC) is an annual FinTech startup event which has been offered by Information Services International-Dentsu (TSE:4812, ISID) since 20112012. On 26 February, the 6th batch, FIBC 2016 was held in Tokyo, and domestic and international startups gathered there. At FIBC, the Financial Technology startups pitch, the so-called “FinPitch,” is a tradition. After tight battles between 22 teams, a trading platform in which users can develop and share investment algorithm through deep learning, called “Capitalico,” won the top prize. In this article, we pick up on the prize-winning startups only. The following were the judges of “FinPitch”: Masakazu Masujima (Mori Hamada & Matsumoto Law Office, Partner & Lawyer) Mio Takaoka (Executive Director at Monex Group / Managing Director at Monex Ventures) Tetsuya Isozaki (Certified Public Accountant, General Partner at Femto Growth Capital) Makoto Shibata (Principal Analyst, Global Innovation Team, eBusiness & IT Initiatives Division at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ) Hisanori Ogawa (Director, Strategic Research Office at Mizuho Securities) Top Award winner: Capitalico by Alpaca (USA / Japan) Prizes: $120,000 worth of free Microsoft Azure cloud credit, Tickets for 2 people and 1-day exhibition booth pass at Tech in Asia Singapore,…
At FIBC, the Financial Technology startups pitch, the so-called “FinPitch,” is a tradition. After tight battles between 22 teams, a trading platform in which users can develop and share investment algorithm through deep learning, called “Capitalico,” won the top prize. In this article, we pick up on the prize-winning startups only.
The following were the judges of “FinPitch”:
Masakazu Masujima (Mori Hamada & Matsumoto Law Office, Partner & Lawyer)
Mio Takaoka (Executive Director at Monex Group / Managing Director at Monex Ventures)
Tetsuya Isozaki (Certified Public Accountant, General Partner at Femto Growth Capital)
Makoto Shibata (Principal Analyst, Global Innovation Team, eBusiness & IT Initiatives Division at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ)
Hisanori Ogawa (Director, Strategic Research Office at Mizuho Securities)
Top Award winner: Capitalico by Alpaca (USA / Japan)
Prizes: $120,000 worth of free Microsoft Azure cloud credit, Tickets for 2 people and 1-day exhibition booth pass at Tech in Asia Singapore, and artwork by Mr. Iida
Capitalico allows users to develop investment algorithm leveraging the deep-learning technology without having having advanced programming skills. Users can create their own algorithm, and based on it they can receive the trading signals or conduct automated trading. The team is planning to open a marketplace where users can sell their created algorithm during this year.
They will offer the service for $99/month and will target $240 million sales per year. On 7 March, they will release an iOS app to create algorithm on smartphones with several taps. Capitalico is based on Alpaca’s Labellio, an image recognition deep-learning platform, and Alpaca sold Labellio to Kyocera Communication Systems (KCCS) earlier this year.
ISID Special award winner: I’m IN by SMILABLE (Japan)
Prize: Sphero Android BB-8
It is tiresome to collect small sums of money from a lot of people by bank transfer or crowdfunding. “I’m IN” supports users to collect small sums by leveraging social network functions to realize projects. Conceivable use cases are to send birthday presents jointly with several other people or to collect fees at parties.
In the future, they are planning to apply it to the fields of ticket sales or auction, to open a projects gathering marketplace called Ideamall, to add a new function to enable offering a present from several persons by configuring an “I’m IN” button on the top page of e-commerce platforms and develop mobile apps.
Mitsubishi Estate’s Finolab award winner: Shift Payments by Shift Financial (USA)
Prize: Finolab tenancy rights
Y Combinator-backed Shift Payments issues VISA cards which can be settled using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Users can shop or withdraw money at stores or ATMs accepting the VISA card. The used sum will be debited from users’ wallet such as Coinbase linked to Shift Payments account.
Added to this, it is possible to link all sort of store values such as reward cards to Shift Payments Card. The system is integrated with Dwolla for bank account-to-account remittance service via mobile as well as Mint.com for financial account aggregation and analytics service.
Special Award winner: ConsenSys by Consensus Systems (USA)
Prize: Portable Video Projector Sony LSPX-P1
Consensus Systems is working on Ethereum, the foundation of Decentralized Applications (DApps), and Smart Contract (Contacts realized by electronically securing authenticity). Their solution ConsenSys uses private keys and can prove one’s authenticity with blockchain technology. On the other hand, by using public keys, users can retrieve required personal data items for contracts from a previously registered store and both of the parties concerned in the contract can make sure of their authentic presence for each other, upon using smart contracts.
In a demonstration of ConsenSys, they introduced the procedure to conclude a contract for Total Return Swap (a sort of Swap transaction) between two parties by smart contract, and explained the mechanism to follow the changes of each other’s reputation in transactions.
Special Award winner: Eversafe by Everspin (Korea)
Prize: Portable Video Projector Sony LSPX-P1
Everspin’s Eversafe is a server-side security solution for mobile apps and provides security modules that change with time to mobile app developers. By applying different security modules every time the users start apps, it can prevent hacking of mobile services or apps. There are two types of tariff: selling out to app developers as an on-premise environment OR charging users depending on the number of callouts from the module as a cloud-based service.
As the result of 3,245 hacking tests conducted by the South Korean security agency, they scored perfectly as to evaluation of efficiency. In Korea, they are cooperating with local security solution vendors linke Asiana IDT, Koscom and SK Inforsec, and for the global development they tied up with an a worldwide cloud service vendor although they have not yet disclosed the company name. Currently they are seeking a business partner in Japan.
Sony Bank Innovation Award winner: PlugAir Secure by Beatrobo (Japan)
Prize: Personal 3D Printer MakerBot ReplicatorMini
The total annual amount of phishing damage for individuals is 290 million yen (about $2.6 million) in Japan and has increased 60fold over the last 2 years. The annual damage caused by information leakage from companies are $1.27 billion. The causes of phishing and information leaks are primarily password cracking. As smartphones become used more as touchpoints than PCs, securing the smartphone is an urgent issue.
PlugAir Secure is applied from PlugAir, a music gadget developed by Beatrobo, for security purpose and it functions as a security key by plugging this gadget into the earphone jack of smartphones. It can be used as an authentication tool for various mobile apps or services without inputting password. In one PlugAir, users can put authentication keys for up to 30 different services.
Audience Award winner: Shift Payments by Shift Financials (USA)
Prize: Creation right of promotional video
Description omitted here because it was introduced above.
Including FinTech association affiliated startups, several dozen companies exhibited their booths.FiBC original Dorayaki (Japanese sweets) distributed at exhibit venue.
Tokyo-based LifeRobotics, the Japanese startup behind a cooperative working robot called Coro, announced today that it has closed a series A round having fundraised about 5 million yen ($4.4 million). The company had secured 270 million yen ($2.2 million) before they announced the start of the series A fundraising last November. In addition to existing investors, Japan’s leading industrial electronics manufacturer Koden Holdings, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and Omron Ventures participated in this round to invest 230 million yen ($2 million). Hence, the total amount fundraised in this round has surpassed the company’s initial target of 4 million yen ($3.5 million). LifeRobotics was founded in December 2007 by Dr. Woo-Keun Yoon, who has been studying livelihood-support robot arms at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and other research institutions for over 15 years. His team has been developing cooperative working robots, which allow users to let the robot learn motions using a 3D mouse, or a game pad without complex programming skills. The company is developing a co-robot called Coro for small manufacturing spaces where conventional robots are difficult to position, as well as to improve people’s productivity and to automate manufacturing. LifeRobotics will use the funds…
Tokyo-based LifeRobotics, the Japanese startup behind a cooperative working robot called Coro, announced today that it has closed a series A round having fundraised about 5 million yen ($4.4 million). The company had secured 270 million yen ($2.2 million) before they announced the start of the series A fundraising last November. In addition to existing investors, Japan’s leading industrial electronics manufacturer Koden Holdings, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and Omron Ventures participated in this round to invest 230 million yen ($2 million). Hence, the total amount fundraised in this round has surpassed the company’s initial target of 4 million yen ($3.5 million).
LifeRobotics was founded in December 2007 by Dr. Woo-Keun Yoon, who has been studying livelihood-support robot arms at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and other research institutions for over 15 years. His team has been developing cooperative working robots, which allow users to let the robot learn motions using a 3D mouse, or a game pad without complex programming skills. The company is developing a co-robot called Coro for small manufacturing spaces where conventional robots are difficult to position, as well as to improve people’s productivity and to automate manufacturing.
LifeRobotics will use the funds to boost its technology development and hire sales staff. The company is also hiring software and hardware engineers as well as interns who want a career in robotics.
Masaru Ikeda
Junya Mori
The Bridge
Takeshi Hirano
