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Bowel movement notifier D Free wins Tokyo pitch event, moves on to Pioneers Festival in Vienna

Masaru Ikeda 2015.03.31

See the original story in Japanese. Pioneers Festival is a startup conference held annually in Vienna, Austria. The festival started in 2011, and the fifth edition will be held 28-29 May. A qualifier was held in Tokyo last weekend to select the Japanese delegation for the conference, where D Free, the team developing a bowel movement tracking device under the same name, won the top award. Let’s have a quick rundown on startups that had good results in the competition. Judges for the competition were: Nikola Pavesic, CEO of Justa.io Vickie Paradise Green, Founder of Paradigm / Chairman of the board at Run for the Cure® foundation Tadaaki Kimura, CEO of Addlight Shingo Potier de la Morandière, co-founder of Impact HUB Tokyo Tim Romero, former representative director of Engine Yard, K.K., Host of Disrupting Japan podcast Impact Hub Community Award winner: D Free D Free is a wearable device that predicts the timing of bowel movements. Using ultrasonic waves it predicts how much time a person has until the feces will stimulate the sacral bone, which triggers the urge to defecate. In this way, users will not have to rush to the bathroom as it will free them from worries…

pioneers-festival-tokyo-2015-winner-featuredimage — The D Free team wins Impact Hub Community Award.
Japan Airlines gives them complimentary mileages for covering their trip from Tokyo to Vienna.

See the original story in Japanese.

Pioneers Festival is a startup conference held annually in Vienna, Austria. The festival started in 2011, and the fifth edition will be held 28-29 May.

A qualifier was held in Tokyo last weekend to select the Japanese delegation for the conference, where D Free, the team developing a bowel movement tracking device under the same name, won the top award.

Let’s have a quick rundown on startups that had good results in the competition.

Judges for the competition were:

Nikola Pavesic, CEO of Justa.io
Vickie Paradise Green, Founder of Paradigm / Chairman of the board at Run for the Cure® foundation
Tadaaki Kimura, CEO of Addlight
Shingo Potier de la Morandière, co-founder of Impact HUB Tokyo
Tim Romero, former representative director of Engine Yard, K.K., Host of Disrupting Japan podcast

Impact Hub Community Award winner: D Free

D Free is a wearable device that predicts the timing of bowel movements. Using ultrasonic waves it predicts how much time a person has until the feces will stimulate the sacral bone, which triggers the urge to defecate. In this way, users will not have to rush to the bathroom as it will free them from worries about the risk of fecal incontinence. It will help non-handicapped persons, as well as Parkinson’s disease patients, the physically challenged, and the elderly, who might be hard to make it to the bath room and forced to wear a diaper, helping them get back their human dignity.

The device’s learning feature complements individual differences and improves accuracy. They will start marketing to self operators in early 2016, followed by nursing care homes and hospitals in third quarter 2016.

2nd place award winner: Mister Suite

Mister Suite is an outsourcing service for small inn owners and hosts of short-term lodging facilities such as AirBnB. Instead of these hosts and owners, Mister Suite provides a variety of services such as guest relations, handing keys to guests, and room cleaning. In the year of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, while 20 million foreign visitors are expected to come to Tokyo, available hotel rooms are increasing at a pace of 1,800 rooms every year so lodging facilities for 3.7 million visitors will be lacking annually. On the other hand, the vacancy rate of residences in Tokyo is as high as 17%, so the Mister Suite team wants to these vacant rooms to be used as lodging facilities.

Their online booking system integrates with a dispatching system of room cleaners, and it will show when a room is available for a new guest after a guest leaves. The company wants to expand to small hotels, Japanese inns, hot spring inns, and other sharing economy businesses.

3rd place award winner: Wovn.io

Wovn.io instantly turns a website into a multilingual environment only by adding a single Javascript code to the website source. There are three billion internet users in the world, but 70% are non-English speakers. So Wovn.io helps websites reach out to these non-English speaking users.

Since its launch nine months ago, the service has translated 120,000 web pages for users. Website owners can choose from machine translation and human translation, and the former uses Google Translate while the latter relies on crowdsourced translation service Gengo. They are working on the next update that will allow users to easily integrate into major content management systems such as WordPress and Drupal.

See also:

Japan’s WOVN.io unveils premium plans, offers multilingual support for enterprise websites

The following startups did not win but gave interesting pitches.

Tamecco

Tamecco is a platform that applies Amazon.com’s recommendation user experience to the face-to-face shopping scene. Using an artificial intelligence-based mobile app to collect consumer behavior data, the platform allows store owners to recommend items at storefronts and distribute rewards, such as discount coupons, to potential customers on what they like or where they are.

Tamecco targets franchises of beauty salons, massage shops, ramen restaurants, and other retail businesses. The platform has been installed at selected outlets of Yoshinoya restaurants, a standing sushi bar chain, and Re.Ra.Ku massage places. Unlike typical iBeacon-based technologies that cannot serve Android users, Tamecco perfectly captures iPhone users as well as Android users. It is easy to use so that even the elderly, who are less familiar with mobile apps, can take advantage of it.

See also:

Japanese customer loyalty app Tamecco attracts investment of nearly $1M

Jandi

Jandi is a cloud-based communication platform for enterprise use. Slack is popular in this space, but the Jandi team claims that Slack does not always meet the demand from business in Asia as it was developed in Western countries. With offices in Tokyo, Taipei, and Seoul, the Jandi team wants to differentiate itself from other communication platforms.

In November, the company fundraised $2 million from Softbank Ventures Korea, China’s Cherubic Ventures, and Korea’s Ticket Monster CEO Hyun-sung Shin.

Paygate

Paygate has developed a credit card payment system. Using a strategy that differentiates itself from similar payments platforms like Square or Coiney, Paygate targets the payment needs of big retail companies, which tend to require higher system reliability and security, providing devices accepting IC chip-embedded credit cards. The company provides payment SDKs (software development kits) in compliance with the PCI-DSS certification, which allows developers to easily develop apps with payments functions without applying for certification.

See also:

14 standout financial solution startups from Japan

FlashTouch

Typical NFC-based authentication systems or payments systems require users to have a smartphone with a higher operation system version and a mobile app for each of the systems. FlashTouch uses a mobile web browser and delivers a user’s authenticity via light flashing patterns from his or her mobile screen to a light-signal receiving device, which are typically located at storefronts so that it enables mobile payments, identification, smart key authentication, and other purposes. Based on the patent-approved technology, the company provides the solution for $20 per ID (required on every receiving device) every month.

Odigo

Odigo is a trip planning and experience sharing platform for foreign visitors to Japan, where local photographers and authors introduce hidden attractions, destinations, and sightseeing spots. The company plans to monetize receiving budget from local governments for their tourism promotion.

Zest

Zest has developed an auto dispatch and scheduling system for staffers in various industries, and is currently validating its usability in the building inspection industry. The service is available for one-tenth the cost of similar products, and users only have to pay $100,000 for installation and $2,000 for monthly usage. Zest plans to set up an office in Singapore to expand into the Asian market.

Swingnow

Swingnow is a platform that aims to streamline messaging, calendar management, and contact management. It consists of three mobile apps – Swingmail, Swingcal, and Swingbooks – all available on the iTunes AppStore in English-speaking and Nordic countries, but only Swingmail has been launched in Japan.

pioneers-festival-tokyo-2015-judges — A presenter doing Q&As with judges

pioneers-festival-tokyo-2015-andreas-tschas-andre-casaclang — Pioneers Festival founder Andreas Tschas (right), Pioneers Tokyo qualifier organizer Andre Casaclang (left)

Edited by Kurt Hanson
Proofread by “Tex” Pomeroy

news

Japan’s adaptive learning tech startup Polyglots secures estimated $292,000 in seed round

Junya Mori 2015.03.31

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Polyglots, a Japanese startup that developed an English newsreader app under the same name, has secured funding from East Ventures in a seed round. Funding details have not been disclosed but it’s likely worth around 35 million yen or $292,000. The mobile app is available for iOS and Android, allowing Japanese users to learn English while reading news updates with many useful features such as managing unfamiliar English words in the app. Polyglots’ adaptive learning engine enables the app to offer optimized content for each user according to his or her learning progress. Since its launch eight months ago, the app has attracted over 140,000 users through viral marketing. The company plans to use the funds to strengthen their business foundation and increase the variety of content. Translated by Masaru Ikeda Edited by Kurt Hanson Proofread by “Tex” Pomeroy

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Polyglots, a Japanese startup that developed an English newsreader app under the same name, has secured funding from East Ventures in a seed round. Funding details have not been disclosed but it’s likely worth around 35 million yen or $292,000.

The mobile app is available for iOS and Android, allowing Japanese users to learn English while reading news updates with many useful features such as managing unfamiliar English words in the app.

Polyglots’ adaptive learning engine enables the app to offer optimized content for each user according to his or her learning progress. Since its launch eight months ago, the app has attracted over 140,000 users through viral marketing. The company plans to use the funds to strengthen their business foundation and increase the variety of content.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by Kurt Hanson
Proofread by “Tex” Pomeroy

news

Asia’s mobile flea market app Duriana raises $2.5 million from Beenos, others

Junya Mori 2015.03.31

See the original story in Japanese. Duriana Internet, a Malaysia- and the Philippines-based startup that provides mobile flea market app Duriana, has secured $2.5 million from Japanese internet company Beenos (TSE:3328) and existing investors, as well as Austria-/Singapore-based VC firm Alps Ventures. Beenos takes an over 10% stake in Duriana upon this round. In view of Beenos’ investment in this sector, the company invested in Fablic, the Japanese startup behind flea market app Fril, back in August of 2012. Duriana has listed over 600,000 items to date, providing an escrow system called Duriana Safe Payments, which assures safety for peer-to-peer transactions between users. Translated by Masaru Ikeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

See the original story in Japanese.

Duriana Internet, a Malaysia- and the Philippines-based startup that provides mobile flea market app Duriana, has secured $2.5 million from Japanese internet company Beenos (TSE:3328) and existing investors, as well as Austria-/Singapore-based VC firm Alps Ventures.

Beenos takes an over 10% stake in Duriana upon this round. In view of Beenos’ investment in this sector, the company invested in Fablic, the Japanese startup behind flea market app Fril, back in August of 2012.

Duriana has listed over 600,000 items to date, providing an escrow system called Duriana Safe Payments, which assures safety for peer-to-peer transactions between users.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

news

Mining closets for unused items, Japan’s Sustina wants to create sharing economy for fashion

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2015.03.30

Led by AirCloset where professional stylists select what to wear for users and the Laxus rental service specifically for luxury handbags, fashion rental service is now a hot market. The newest launch in March for this area is Sustina being offered by Omnis. Sustina’s mobile app is already available for iOS on iTune AppStore and for Android on Google Play. Reusing clothing in the closet that never get worn again Where Sustina differentiates itself from other services is that it offers a ‘wear-sharing’ service that handles used clothings and bags coming direct from users, at a monthly price of 5,800 yen (about $49). Just like XZ (pronounced ‘closet’), an online fashion community, it aims to reuse clothes that have been languishing in the back of user closets. It is most similar to being a monthly-subscription version of pre-pivoted Material Wrld, the New York-based luxury fashion trade-in company. Omnis COO Takashi Saito explained: I’ve came up with Sustina as a solution to the current state of many clothes, bags and accessories stored well-nigh unused as a consequence of mass-production and mass-consumption started in the late 20th century. Renting up to five items at once, for “Mix & Match” wearing Renting and…

Led by AirCloset where professional stylists select what to wear for users and the Laxus rental service specifically for luxury handbags, fashion rental service is now a hot market. The newest launch in March for this area is Sustina being offered by Omnis. Sustina’s mobile app is already available for iOS on iTune AppStore and for Android on Google Play.

Reusing clothing in the closet that never get worn again

Where Sustina differentiates itself from other services is that it offers a ‘wear-sharing’ service that handles used clothings and bags coming direct from users, at a monthly price of 5,800 yen (about $49). Just like XZ (pronounced ‘closet’), an online fashion community, it aims to reuse clothes that have been languishing in the back of user closets. It is most similar to being a monthly-subscription version of pre-pivoted Material Wrld, the New York-based luxury fashion trade-in company.

Omnis COO Takashi Saito explained:

I’ve came up with Sustina as a solution to the current state of many clothes, bags and accessories stored well-nigh unused as a consequence of mass-production and mass-consumption started in the late 20th century.

Renting up to five items at once, for “Mix & Match” wearing

Renting and purchasing can all be done within the app. It allows one to choose up to 5 items to rent, with no shipping fee or dues, and provides an option enabling purchase of the items as well. Further 5 items can only be rented or purchased after one returns or purchases the previous 5.

Also, if one sells unwanted clothing items, one can exchange it into Sustina’s original vouchers. It could be used for purchasing clothes and might possibly be used for monthly rental fees. Exchanging clothes with vouchers will add 10% more monetary value than paying with other monetary instruments.

Currently Sustina offers more than 40 brands of female clothing such as Aquagirl, Snidel, Rose ud, See by Chloe, Stunning Lure, and Estnation.

“Mixed-culture” team takes on challenges

Omnis, the company behind Sustina, was founded by four members with different backgrounds like apparel jobs, IT engineers, video and music directors. This diversified team, each member being strong in different areas, is keen to expand Sustina and its opportunities in store.

The planned app release at the end of March will be preceded by a trial run, exclusive to a small community of test users. Ominis wishes to brush up its services based on the needs of users and utilization methods.

Translated by Sumi Yo via Mother First
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
Proofread by Masaru Ikeda

news

Japan’s Uluru now targets fashion retailers, helps corralling customers with tablet app

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2015.03.29

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Uluru is best known for its cloudsourced platform using housewives called Shufti. The company launched a tablet-based member registration system called Kamimage, focused on helping retailers let their customers sign up for their loyalty program without paper. Uluru recently launched ‘Kamimage for Fashion‘, the member registration system specifically designed for fashion retailers. See also: Japan’s crowdsourcing plaform Shufti raises $5.8 million Recognizing high demand in fashion retailing industry Kamimage was developed with the aim to supplant papers used for surveys and membership registrations with handwriting at stores. It only takes an hour minimum to digitalize the stylus-written information, like name and home address, on customized forms. Receiving many feedbacks on digitalizing surveys and member-registration forms for Uluru’s outsourced business, the company developed the app to cut printing cost and time needed to digitalize customer information. It was first intended for events, show house exhibitions and in-home care scenes, but through its operation, they realized that a huge demand can be found in the apparel industry. In the past, apparel stores had to ask their customers to scan URL or QR codes on shop cards to access shop web pages in order to…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based startup Uluru is best known for its cloudsourced platform using housewives called Shufti. The company launched a tablet-based member registration system called Kamimage, focused on helping retailers let their customers sign up for their loyalty program without paper. Uluru recently launched ‘Kamimage for Fashion‘, the member registration system specifically designed for fashion retailers.

See also:

Japan’s crowdsourcing plaform Shufti raises $5.8 million

Recognizing high demand in fashion retailing industry

Kamimage was developed with the aim to supplant papers used for surveys and membership registrations with handwriting at stores. It only takes an hour minimum to digitalize the stylus-written information, like name and home address, on customized forms.

Receiving many feedbacks on digitalizing surveys and member-registration forms for Uluru’s outsourced business, the company developed the app to cut printing cost and time needed to digitalize customer information. It was first intended for events, show house exhibitions and in-home care scenes, but through its operation, they realized that a huge demand can be found in the apparel industry.

In the past, apparel stores had to ask their customers to scan URL or QR codes on shop cards to access shop web pages in order to register themselves. However, since the appearance of iPhone, Android and such, the process has become more complex – frequently resulted in warding off the customers without their ever reaching the registration process. Furthermore, it is not efficient to digitalize the paper documents even during free time, to say the least. So the newly-introduced platform be the solution for existing issues like these.

Corralling customers through use of hand-input at storefronts

With the ‘Kamiage for Fashion’ platform, the information handwritten on tablets can be digitalized in about an hour. It doesn’t only cut various costs like printing, space for storing paper forms, time and human resources for data input, but the data can also be used for immediate customer relationship management (CRM) analyses.

Additionally, it may utilize the camera on the tablet to link customer information with images of purchased items and receipts, while also linking and sharing customer information with the store’s e-commerce site or CRM system using the Uluru API (application program interface). While there are conventional services using OCR, Uluru leverages crowdsourced workforce from the Shufti platform to let the Kamimage service provide more accurate data input to differentiate from any “pursuing” rivals.

Retailers can start using ‘Kamimage for Fashion’ fairly easily. After registering e-mail address, password and other necessary information, just pay for monthly plans ranging from 5,000 to 30,000 yen ($42 to $252) with credit card and one’s ready to go. If no tablet device is yet available, an iPad rental for the stores from 2,500 yen per month is available.

Uluru’s first-year sales goal is 70 million yen (about 588,000). The company is also looking to develop a customer and transaction management system for storefronts, helping retailers integrate their customer information with direct-marketing systems and other services.

Translated by Sumi Yo via Mother First
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
Proofread by Masaru Ikeda

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Japanese fashion commerce giant Zozotown buys e-commerce solutions provider Aratana

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2015.03.25

See the original story in Japanese. Start Today (TSE:3092), a company that provides Japan’s largest fashion commerce site Zozotown, announced today that it has acquired e-commerce solution provider Aratana. Aratana was launched with the aim to create new jobs for 1,000 people in Miyazaki, a coastal city on Japan’s Kyushu Island. Since its launch in 2007, the company has served more than 800 Japanese companies to develop their e-commerce sites. Meanwhile, Start Today has been helping apparel brands develop e-commerce sites in addition to operating Zozotown, Start Today’s flagship fashion commerce site. Through the partnership, Aratana will help Start Today offer their e-commerce site development services to apparel brands. As reported last year, Aratana is comprised of more than 100 engineers, with a 24-year-old security hacker as CTO at the head of the list. The company will maintain its independent business operations with their personnel structure unchanged after the acquisition. Start Today acquired DIY e-commerce solution startup Stores.jp in 2013. It will be interesting to see how the tie-up will bring synergy to both companies. Translated by Masaru Ikeda Edited by Kurt Hanson Proofread by “Tex” Pomeroy

See the original story in Japanese.

Start Today (TSE:3092), a company that provides Japan’s largest fashion commerce site Zozotown, announced today that it has acquired e-commerce solution provider Aratana.

Aratana was launched with the aim to create new jobs for 1,000 people in Miyazaki, a coastal city on Japan’s Kyushu Island. Since its launch in 2007, the company has served more than 800 Japanese companies to develop their e-commerce sites.

Meanwhile, Start Today has been helping apparel brands develop e-commerce sites in addition to operating Zozotown, Start Today’s flagship fashion commerce site. Through the partnership, Aratana will help Start Today offer their e-commerce site development services to apparel brands.

As reported last year, Aratana is comprised of more than 100 engineers, with a 24-year-old security hacker as CTO at the head of the list. The company will maintain its independent business operations with their personnel structure unchanged after the acquisition.

Start Today acquired DIY e-commerce solution startup Stores.jp in 2013. It will be interesting to see how the tie-up will bring synergy to both companies.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by Kurt Hanson
Proofread by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s Livesense buys e-commerce fulfillment company Waja for $3.3 million

Takeshi Hirano 2015.03.25

See the original story in Japanese. Livesense (TSE:6054), a Tokyo-based Internet media company known for its job search site with the business model that rewards users when they land a new job, announced today that it will acquire a 71.7% stake in Tokyo-based e-commerce fulfillment company Waja for 400 million yen ($3.3 million). According to Livesense’s statement, this acquisition will help expand their business to the consumer-to-consumer and international e-commerce service sectors. See also: Japanese CEOs from Mixi, Livesense on developing new businesses Waja was launched in 2003 by former Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) employee Koji Koyasu. They are operating three marketplaces: Waja (selling fashion items from overseas markets), Reason Outlet (selling seconds clothes for reasonable prices), and Fashion Charity Project (collecting unused luxury brand items selling them for charity). Translated by Masaru Ikeda Edited by Kurt Hanson Proofread by “Tex” Pomeroy

See the original story in Japanese.

Livesense (TSE:6054), a Tokyo-based Internet media company known for its job search site with the business model that rewards users when they land a new job, announced today that it will acquire a 71.7% stake in Tokyo-based e-commerce fulfillment company Waja for 400 million yen ($3.3 million). According to Livesense’s statement, this acquisition will help expand their business to the consumer-to-consumer and international e-commerce service sectors.

See also:

Japanese CEOs from Mixi, Livesense on developing new businesses

Waja was launched in 2003 by former Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) employee Koji Koyasu. They are operating three marketplaces: Waja (selling fashion items from overseas markets), Reason Outlet (selling seconds clothes for reasonable prices), and Fashion Charity Project (collecting unused luxury brand items selling them for charity).

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by Kurt Hanson
Proofread by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s Atrae launches data-driven talent search platform in partnership with analytics giant

Masaru Ikeda 2015.03.24

See the original story in Japanese. As we approach the end of the Japanese fiscal year, it’s quite understandable that there are plenty of accounting solutions being launched these days, but we are also receiving many updates about the launch of web services for human resources. So human resource technologies, or HR-Tech for short, may be one of this year’s biggest trends along with fintech (financial technologies) and IoT (Internet of Things). Tokyo-based Atrae, previously known as I&G Partners, recently launched a new service for “mining” human resources in partnership with Japanese big data analysis company Brain Pad (TSE:3655). The service is called TalentBase and provides companies with easier access to a pool of talents by leveraging artificial intelligence and big data analytics. When one signs up for TalentBase, one’s profile will be created on the platform including quantitative scores of skills from social, business, and engineering aspects, based on available information associated with the Facebook account. If one’s Facebook account is associated with any of the Japanese knowledge-sharing services such as Qiita, Github, and Creww, more accurate information will be accordingly provided to one’s business profile on the TalentBase platform. TalentBase will create profiles for Facebook friends that one grants permission for third-party access to, so that the number of talent profiles will show exponential growth as the number of registered…

See the original story in Japanese.

As we approach the end of the Japanese fiscal year, it’s quite understandable that there are plenty of accounting solutions being launched these days, but we are also receiving many updates about the launch of web services for human resources. So human resource technologies, or HR-Tech for short, may be one of this year’s biggest trends along with fintech (financial technologies) and IoT (Internet of Things).

Tokyo-based Atrae, previously known as I&G Partners, recently launched a new service for “mining” human resources in partnership with Japanese big data analysis company Brain Pad (TSE:3655). The service is called TalentBase and provides companies with easier access to a pool of talents by leveraging artificial intelligence and big data analytics.

When one signs up for TalentBase, one’s profile will be created on the platform including quantitative scores of skills from social, business, and engineering aspects, based on available information associated with the Facebook account. If one’s Facebook account is associated with any of the Japanese knowledge-sharing services such as Qiita, Github, and Creww, more accurate information will be accordingly provided to one’s business profile on the TalentBase platform.

TalentBase will create profiles for Facebook friends that one grants permission for third-party access to, so that the number of talent profiles will show exponential growth as the number of registered users increases.

On the other hand, the platform will learn the preference of companies seeking employees so they will keep choosing candidates that have the specifications required. Based on vectorized data of people’s business skills, the platform will choose and present the most recommended set of candidates from the pool who may satisfy the requirements for each of these companies.

Atrae director Toshiyuki Oka explained:

We have been prototyping TalentBase behind operating JobShare, our previous talent-seeking platform. As we were able to validate that it was functioning to some extent, we decided to launch a new platform on a revenue-sharing basis with BrainPad, the leading company in the Japanese data analytics sector.

Some functions from JobShare were incorporated into the TalentBase platform, where companies can use functions like job posting, job applications management and results screening for free. If a company wants to find people who are likely to match their needs or receive recommendations from the talent pool, they will be charged a monthly fee of 100,000 yen (or about $820) regardless of how many jobs they post or how many candidates they contact.

While many of the companies using the platform will be startups or IT companies, as a matter of fact all users having their Facebook accounts can create their profile on the platform, hence business and occupational categories are not limited. Atrae wants to acquire 5 to 10 companies using the platform for their hiring platform, in addition to increasing the volume of available user profiles for 10 million people by the end of April.

As DeNA’s venture capitalist James Riney recently pointed out in his blog post, we may not be very good at filling their resume without advisory assistance or appealing their potentials due to one’s own characteristics. In that sense, the trend in tactics for hiring recently entails use of the data-driven approach and artificial intelligence. This may suit the mentality of a typical Japanese person, as gathered from moves by services such as Talentio and Grooves.

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

news

Japanese news curation app developer Gunosy files for IPO

gunosy

Takeshi Hirano 2015.03.24

See the original story in Japanese. Japan’s Gunosy, a Tokyo-based company behind a news curation app under the same name, submitted an IPO application to the Tokyo Stock Exchange and was approved today. The company will be listed on the TSE Mothers Market on 28 April with plans to offer 3.5 million shares for public subscription and to sell 886,500 shares in over-allotment options for a total of 2.41 million shares. The underwriting will be led by Nomura Securities. Its share price range will be released on 8 April, bookbuilding is scheduled to start on 20 April. According to the consolidated statement as of May 2014, they posted a revenue of 359 million Japanese yen ($3.3 million) and an ordinary loss of 1.37 billion yen ($11.4 million). Gunosy was launched in October 2011 by three graduate students at the University of Tokyo, and was incorporated as a joint-stock company in 2012. Serial entrepreneur and investor Shinji Kimura came on to help manage the company as co-CEO in 2013 but subsequently stepped down last September. According to TechCrunch Japan, Kimura’s departure is to avoid the risk of breaching the non-compete clause, which requires him to refrain from competing with other companies…

See the original story in Japanese.

Japan’s Gunosy, a Tokyo-based company behind a news curation app under the same name, submitted an IPO application to the Tokyo Stock Exchange and was approved today. The company will be listed on the TSE Mothers Market on 28 April with plans to offer 3.5 million shares for public subscription and to sell 886,500 shares in over-allotment options for a total of 2.41 million shares. The underwriting will be led by Nomura Securities.

Its share price range will be released on 8 April, bookbuilding is scheduled to start on 20 April. According to the consolidated statement as of May 2014, they posted a revenue of 359 million Japanese yen ($3.3 million) and an ordinary loss of 1.37 billion yen ($11.4 million).

Gunosy was launched in October 2011 by three graduate students at the University of Tokyo, and was incorporated as a joint-stock company in 2012. Serial entrepreneur and investor Shinji Kimura came on to help manage the company as co-CEO in 2013 but subsequently stepped down last September. According to TechCrunch Japan, Kimura’s departure is to avoid the risk of breaching the non-compete clause, which requires him to refrain from competing with other companies in the same sector.

See also:

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by Kurt Hanson
Proofread by “Tex” Pomeroy

news

Japan’s Lifull TraveRing connects travelers and locals, looking to create cycle of hospitality

Lifull TraveRing

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2015.03.20

See the original story in Japanese. According to the Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO), the number of foreign visitors to Japan hit a record high of 13.4 million in 2014. The fact is that the opportunity to see more foreign visitors not only in Tokyo but also in rural travel destinations in Japan has increased. Tokyo-based Lifull TraveRing recently launched a mobile app under the same name, looking to help these foreign visitors better connect with locals. The app is available for iOS on AppStore in more than 130 countries worldwide. Benefit to both sides There have been several services connecting travelers and locals in the former’s destination with each others since before, but what’s unique about the Lifull TraveRing app is that it allows users to participate both as a traveler and as a local. Using the app, one can communicate with locals at destinations during the trip while communicating with travelers in one’s hometown. Lifull TraveRing CEO Yuko Akiyama explained: We want travelers to enjoy communicating with locals in a way that they haven’t experienced in the past trips. On the other side, we want locals to feel happy by providing visitors hospitality in daily lives regardless of having no special skill or knowhow. She told us that they have been receiving sign-ups from both travelers and…

See the original story in Japanese.

According to the Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO), the number of foreign visitors to Japan hit a record high of 13.4 million in 2014. The fact is that the opportunity to see more foreign visitors not only in Tokyo but also in rural travel destinations in Japan has increased.

Tokyo-based Lifull TraveRing recently launched a mobile app under the same name, looking to help these foreign visitors better connect with locals. The app is available for iOS on AppStore in more than 130 countries worldwide.

Benefit to both sides

There have been several services connecting travelers and locals in the former’s destination with each others since before, but what’s unique about the Lifull TraveRing app is that it allows users to participate both as a traveler and as a local. Using the app, one can communicate with locals at destinations during the trip while communicating with travelers in one’s hometown.

Lifull TraveRing CEO Yuko Akiyama explained:

We want travelers to enjoy communicating with locals in a way that they haven’t experienced in the past trips. On the other side, we want locals to feel happy by providing visitors hospitality in daily lives regardless of having no special skill or knowhow.

She told us that they have been receiving sign-ups from both travelers and locals almost at the same ratio. When it comes to this kind of apps connecting travels and locals in travel destinations, many of us are likely to think these are intended for overseas trips or foreign visitors. But the fact is that there are an increasing number of Japanese locals using the app who want to offer travel tips about where they live, especially in Tokyo and Kyoto where the company held app release parties.

Keeping in touch even after travel

We were told that the Lifull TraveRing have been focused on how to give users intuitiveness and a sense of security in the app development process. As a result of their effort to simplify the interface, users can choose a hobby in their profile section simply by tapping on the screen as well as express their gratitude to other users for meaningful communication by sending a ‘Thank U!’ sticker. The number of received ‘Thank U!’ stickers will be displayed in a user’s profile section, so it will work as an indicator for his or her trustworthiness.

Furthermore, a user has to start with Facebook authentication but can’t create an account without a certain number of Facebook friends so that it gives users a sense of security in meeting up with new people on the platform. To assure complete security, the company has also provided users with functions to block and report spam or abuse in the app, just in case.

Akiyama elaborated:

With a mission aiming to connect people in the world with each others through travels, our app allows users to enjoy communicating with locals at your destination, not only during the visit but also after it. So while you can speak with locals during your trip, you can provide them hospitality when they visit your hometown. We aim to create a type of cycle in this way.

Finding the goal of life

Lifull TraveRing is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Next (TSE:2120), the company behind Japan’s largest property search portal Home’s. Lifull TraveRing’s Akiyama attended an overseas training program at the company as the first case from their female employees, and this experience greatly encouraged her to develop the app.

She visited local companies, universities and governmental offices in Finland during the program, where she saw that such a tiny country with just 5.5 million people has gotten over the economic crisis and various startups keep developing new services for the global market.

Akiyama added:

I was moved through interactions with locals in Finland, and I could find the goal of my life thanks to them. We want to help more travelers and more locals connect with each others, aiming to give them wonderful experiences through travels which may change their outlook on life. In order to realize this goal, I want to take great care in developing the service.

See also:

Translated by Kenji Hayakawa via Conyac crowdsourced translation service
Edited by Masaru Ikeda
Proofread by “Tex” Pomeroy

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translation

Impact Hub Community Award winner: D Free

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