news

Japan’s SmartDrive unveils vehicle analytics solution, poised for operational testing

SmartDrive

Takeshi Hirano 2014.07.15

This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese. Our readers may recall that we recently reported on Japanese stealth startup SmartDrive. The startup has been developing vehicle tracking and bigdata analytics solutions, and fundraised tens of millions yen (or a few hundreds thousands dollars) from Japanese startup investment fund Anri back in February. The company unveiled the details of their service and announced today that it will launch a test operation by nstalling their device in test vehicles next month. The test will be conducted for one month in Kashiwa-no-ha Smart City, a new city in suburban Tokyo. SmartDrive will distribute their device to about 20 testers in the area and ask them to track the condition of their cars and driving data, which will be used to improve the product. Health tracking app for your car Their solution is comprised of a small accessory and a smartphone app. By connecting the accessory to an OBD (on-board diagnostics) interface to a car, it will be synced via BlueTooth with the app on a smartphone. Various metrics, like fuel efficiency or engine stats, will then be transferred to your smartphone. This process is similar to health tracking apps…

This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese.

Our readers may recall that we recently reported on Japanese stealth startup SmartDrive. The startup has been developing vehicle tracking and bigdata analytics solutions, and fundraised tens of millions yen (or a few hundreds thousands dollars) from Japanese startup investment fund Anri back in February.

The company unveiled the details of their service and announced today that it will launch a test operation by nstalling their device in test vehicles next month. The test will be conducted for one month in Kashiwa-no-ha Smart City, a new city in suburban Tokyo.

SmartDrive will distribute their device to about 20 testers in the area and ask them to track the condition of their cars and driving data, which will be used to improve the product.

Health tracking app for your car

Their solution is comprised of a small accessory and a smartphone app. By connecting the accessory to an OBD (on-board diagnostics) interface to a car, it will be synced via BlueTooth with the app on a smartphone. Various metrics, like fuel efficiency or engine stats, will then be transferred to your smartphone. This process is similar to health tracking apps that obtain data via body sensors.

We’ve seen several startups like Y Combinator-backed Automatic (launched in 2013) and New York-based Dash Labs (launched back in June 2013) as well as several Kickstarter campaigns like this and that providing similar tracking solutions using the OBD interface.

Bigdata solution on top of people’s driving records

SmartDrive does not have a clear business model, but CEO Retsu Kitagawa aims to monetize it via B2B2C.

For example, if an auto insurer, or a car dealer uses the SmartDrive solution and lets customers use it, they will be able to get details from customers’ vehicles and provide a cheaper insurance package or better follow-up services. US auto insurer Progressive provides an OBD device called SnapShot to better serve customers. The more types of cars these companies can acquire data from, the more fields the solution can be applied to.

SmartDrive is repeating stress tests to prepare for the operational test. We will feature them as soon as more details become available.

news

P2P-based content distribution network MistCDN wins at KDDI incubator’s Demo Day

KDDI Mugen Labo

Masaru Ikeda 2014.07.14

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based KDDI Mugen Labo, the tech incubator of Japan’s second largest telco, hosted a demo day event today, where five startups that graduated from the fifth batch of the incubator’s program showcased their achievements over the last several months. MistCDN, a P2P-based content distribution network leveraging the WebRTC technology, won the top prize at the event. Here’s a quick rundown on what the five teams have been working on. MistCDN by Mist Technologies (The best prize and the ‘best engineer’ prize winner) MistCDN is a content distribution network designed to distribute rich content. Unlike conventional CDN services, it obtains content from another user nearby in the network topology browsing the same content that you want to browse, so it requires no edge server or network. The company launched a live streaming service using the MistCDN technology today. Filme by Coto-Coto (The ‘Family Ties’ prize and the ‘Audience’ prize winner) Mothers like to videotape their children, but many complain that they have no time to edit and share the videos. To address this issue, Filme edits your video clips, creates a DVD, and delivers it to you or other family members periodically. All you have…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based KDDI Mugen Labo, the tech incubator of Japan’s second largest telco, hosted a demo day event today, where five startups that graduated from the fifth batch of the incubator’s program showcased their achievements over the last several months.

MistCDN, a P2P-based content distribution network leveraging the WebRTC technology, won the top prize at the event. Here’s a quick rundown on what the five teams have been working on.

MistCDN by Mist Technologies (The best prize and the ‘best engineer’ prize winner)

kddi-mugen-labo-6th-demoday-mistcdn — Shintaro Tanaka

MistCDN is a content distribution network designed to distribute rich content. Unlike conventional CDN services, it obtains content from another user nearby in the network topology browsing the same content that you want to browse, so it requires no edge server or network. The company launched a live streaming service using the MistCDN technology today.

Filme by Coto-Coto (The ‘Family Ties’ prize and the ‘Audience’ prize winner)

kddi-mugen-labo-6th-demoday-filme — Shingo Kadomatsu

Mothers like to videotape their children, but many complain that they have no time to edit and share the videos. To address this issue, Filme edits your video clips, creates a DVD, and delivers it to you or other family members periodically. All you have to do is videotape a 30-second clip every day and upload it to the Filme website. We consider this a version of the Kiddy family photo delivery service.

QuaQua by Ducklings (The ‘New Workstyle’ prize winner)

kddi-mugen-labo-6th-demoday-quaqua — Norikazu Takagi

QuaQua is a marketplace for handmade jewelry. Users post a photo of their designs before manufacturing it. Once a design earns enough votes to make a profit, a user can start making, thus reducing the loss risk. While QuaQua initially aimed to establish a marketplace for general handmade crafts, they pivoted to jewelry because of potential competition.

Macaron by SPWTECH (The ‘Key of Beauty’ prize winner)

kddi-mugen-labo-6th-demoday-macaron — Keita Yoshida

Macaron is a fashion and beauty information-focused curation app for young females. Curated by 12 female university students, the app provides useful tips for women on how to be more fashionable and attractive. Its iOS app will be released soon, and its Android app will be out by year-end.

Repro (The ‘Global Create’ prize)

kddi-mugen-labo-6th-demoday-repro — Yusuke Hirata

Repro is an analytics solution that allows game developers to improve their apps to increase user retention rates. By integrating the Repro SDK, developers can see how users play their app as well as how they look during game play. Twelve developers have adopted Repro’s analytics solution for 16 apps.

Along with this event, KDDI Mugen Labo announced it now accepting applications for the 7th batch of its incubation program. The deadline is August 15th. Apply here.

news

Japan’s education and human resources companies launch edtech acceleration program

Junya Mori 2014.07.12

This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese. Viling Venture Partners, the investment arm of Japanese educational business company Viling Holdings, and human resource company Slogan jointly launched startup acceleration program ‘Slogan Viling Ventures‘ on Friday. The first batch of the program will start at the end of this month. Qualified startups or entrepreneurs can participate in the program for three months, and their demo day will take place in late October. Villing Holding CEO Shuhei Morofuji explained why they launched the program: The education industry has big room to improve with information technology. As we understand, education is to encourage people to keep living actively together with our society. However, many public and private education initiatives are making efforts toward an unintended direction. We are developing several approaches to make the Japanese educational system much better, including launching our own kindergartens or schools and developing educational products. Through this development process, we learned many players want to disrupt this industry using information technology. By supporting them, we will have a greater impact on the market. That’s why we launched Viling Venture Partners. Participants can obtain the following benefits by participating in the acceleration program: Up to…

This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese.

Viling Venture Partners, the investment arm of Japanese educational business company Viling Holdings, and human resource company Slogan jointly launched startup acceleration program ‘Slogan Viling Ventures‘ on Friday.

The first batch of the program will start at the end of this month. Qualified startups or entrepreneurs can participate in the program for three months, and their demo day will take place in late October.

Villing Holding CEO Shuhei Morofuji explained why they launched the program:

The education industry has big room to improve with information technology. As we understand, education is to encourage people to keep living actively together with our society. However, many public and private education initiatives are making efforts toward an unintended direction.

We are developing several approaches to make the Japanese educational system much better, including launching our own kindergartens or schools and developing educational products. Through this development process, we learned many players want to disrupt this industry using information technology. By supporting them, we will have a greater impact on the market. That’s why we launched Viling Venture Partners.

Participants can obtain the following benefits by participating in the acceleration program:

Up to 200,000 yen ($2,000) grants
Complimentary usage of a co-working space
Support for hiring new people
Access to advisors, mentors, and other talented people
Experience and knowledge for scale-up your business from scratch
Polishing up an educational business plan, introducing potential partners
Advice for global business expansion

They will take a hands-on approach rather than funding in helping startups and entrepreneurs, but we understand that Slogan Viling Ventures may invest in high-profile startups at the time of the demo day opportunity.

This acceleration program is intended for Japanese startups and entrepreneurs who are developing services for the Japanese market. The application deadline for the first batch is July 25, 2014.

news

Japan’s ‘viral mills’ Curazy raises $1 million from three investment firms

Curazy

Masaru Ikeda 2014.07.12

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based BitGather, the startup that operates viral content site Curazy, announced earlier this week that it has fundraised 100 million yen (approximately $1 million) from CyberAgent Ventures, DeNA, and Skyland Ventures. Coinciding with this announcement, the company rebranded its company name from BitGather to Laugh Tech. They will use the fund to hire new writers and editors, and are also planning to introduce a mobile app for iOS and Android in mid-August. Curazy has been focused on curating funny news topics from around the world. Since its launch in January, it has acquired over 5 million monthly unique users and over 19 million monthly page views. According to Laugh Tech’s co-founder and CEO Shinnosuke Ito, what’s unique about them is that they have a primary base of readers in their 30′s, and its male to female ratio is almost 50/50. He elaborated: We aim to deliver content that can be a substitute to TV variety shows. We have a bit more female readers than male readers. I assume that’s because we are not dependent on indecent topics to generate user traffic. Our traffic peak comes after 8pm on weekdays, especially around 10pm. For curation…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based BitGather, the startup that operates viral content site Curazy, announced earlier this week that it has fundraised 100 million yen (approximately $1 million) from CyberAgent Ventures, DeNA, and Skyland Ventures. Coinciding with this announcement, the company rebranded its company name from BitGather to Laugh Tech. They will use the fund to hire new writers and editors, and are also planning to introduce a mobile app for iOS and Android in mid-August.

Curazy has been focused on curating funny news topics from around the world. Since its launch in January, it has acquired over 5 million monthly unique users and over 19 million monthly page views. According to Laugh Tech’s co-founder and CEO Shinnosuke Ito, what’s unique about them is that they have a primary base of readers in their 30′s, and its male to female ratio is almost 50/50. He elaborated:

We aim to deliver content that can be a substitute to TV variety shows. We have a bit more female readers than male readers. I assume that’s because we are not dependent on indecent topics to generate user traffic. Our traffic peak comes after 8pm on weekdays, especially around 10pm.

For curation sites like Curazy, a big problem is operating costs, which are likely to increase in proportion to the growth of their business. Curazy has a several-person team for content curation. To publish more articles and differentiate themselves from other viral content sites, hiring writers and saving operating costs are key issues for the company.

Laugh Tech is developing an analytics tool called Hot Pages. Metrics from this are based on the number of Facebook likes or retweets that published articles earn. It is unclear how they can analyze quantitatively these metrics by associating them with elements in an article, but they say it helps figure out the kind of articles that are more likely to attract readers and contribute to traffic growth. With this foolproof system, even the “humorless” can curate humorous news, allowing the company to hire new curators from a larger pool of “less capable yet cheaper” personnel.

I think the business model of viral content sites is similar to that of private TV networks in Japan, which have been pursuing this business model for the last 60 years. A typical broadcaster creates a number of TV programs to attract as many viewers as possible for the lowest production costs with the aim of consuming as much time of viewers as possible.

It will be interesting to see how Curazy can make the most of their strength in this space.

news

Japan’s construction job matching platform Tsukulink raises $500,000 from Nissay Capital

Tsukulink

Takeshi Hirano 2014.07.11

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Handsshare, the startup behind construction industry-focused job matching platform Tsukulink, announced today that it has fundraised about 50 million yen (about $500,000) from Japanese investment firm Nissay Capital. The platform lists jobs like those of skilled laborers in the construction industry such as carpenters, builders and the like for corporate and individual construction developers. Since its beta launch in May 2013, the company has acquired about 650 developers and lists about 300 construction projects. While the platform is something like a bulletin board, the company will use the funds to develop the platform so that participating construction developers can use it to market to potential customers. I’ve known the platform for some time, and I initially thought that it would be difficult to monetize it because many people in such industries as food, retailing, and construction are digitally challenged. However, Tsukulink CEO Minoru Saito launched this business because resources and workloads are not appropriately allocated and he wanted to improve the situation. Co-founder Tatsuo Uchiyama knows this fact very well because he’s been working as a steeplejack for over ten years. Saito explained: Uchiyama’s friend and fellow construction worker died of overwork. While…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Handsshare, the startup behind construction industry-focused job matching platform Tsukulink, announced today that it has fundraised about 50 million yen (about $500,000) from Japanese investment firm Nissay Capital.

The platform lists jobs like those of skilled laborers in the construction industry such as carpenters, builders and the like for corporate and individual construction developers. Since its beta launch in May 2013, the company has acquired about 650 developers and lists about 300 construction projects.

While the platform is something like a bulletin board, the company will use the funds to develop the platform so that participating construction developers can use it to market to potential customers. I’ve known the platform for some time, and I initially thought that it would be difficult to monetize it because many people in such industries as food, retailing, and construction are digitally challenged.

However, Tsukulink CEO Minoru Saito launched this business because resources and workloads are not appropriately allocated and he wanted to improve the situation. Co-founder Tatsuo Uchiyama knows this fact very well because he’s been working as a steeplejack for over ten years. Saito explained:

Uchiyama’s friend and fellow construction worker died of overwork. While some people break down from overwork, others suffer from a lack of work and have to find part-time work to make a living.

He told us that the growing penetration of smart phones has helped improve the use of digital tools in this industry because a smart phone is easier to use than a PC.

I think the digitalization of labor industries will be a major trend in the next few years, because we’ve seen good examples of it like Toreta (restaurant), LeNet (laundry), Raksul (printing), and Cyta.jp (private schools).

news

Japan’s ‘Uber for logistics’ launches food delivery service in central Tokyo

Dely

Miyako Yoshizawa 2014.07.10

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Dely recently launched a food delivery service on a beta test basis, which allows food orders and deliveries to bem ade from select restaurants. Orders are made via mobile phone, but the service is currently only available in the central Tokyo. In partnership with 30 restaurants, the service allows users to order a variety of cuisine ranging from Italian to Japanese to Turkish to Thai – all at your fingertips. Dely CEO Yusuke Horie explains what motivated him to start this business: Typical food delivery services have a limited menu. We provide a variety of food so that we will overturn the fixed concept you have for food delivery services. We would like to make food service more available among the younger generation who merely order food deliveries. Because young women are a key customer base, Dely also serves a healthy menu, such as acai bowl and vegetable salads. Only cash payment is available now, but they plan to start accepting credit cards in the near future. To place an order a user enters an address to designate the delivery location, but this process will be improved in the next version, which…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based startup Dely recently launched a food delivery service on a beta test basis, which allows food orders and deliveries to bem ade from select restaurants. Orders are made via mobile phone, but the service is currently only available in the central Tokyo.

In partnership with 30 restaurants, the service allows users to order a variety of cuisine ranging from Italian to Japanese to Turkish to Thai – all at your fingertips. Dely CEO Yusuke Horie explains what motivated him to start this business:

Typical food delivery services have a limited menu. We provide a variety of food so that we will overturn the fixed concept you have for food delivery services. We would like to make food service more available among the younger generation who merely order food deliveries.

Because young women are a key customer base, Dely also serves a healthy menu, such as acai bowl and vegetable salads.

Only cash payment is available now, but they plan to start accepting credit cards in the near future. To place an order a user enters an address to designate the delivery location, but this process will be improved in the next version, which will detect a user’s location via the GPS function of a mobile phone.

Enabling small restaurants to offer food delivery service

Restaurants don’t pay an initial setup fee or monthly fee to participate in Dely. However, they will need to pay a commission based on the amount of orders received though the platform. To start accepting orders, participating restaurants will need containers designed for food delivery. Horie highlighted the work involved in offering a typical food delivery service:

When a restaurant starts a delivery service, they have many things to do, such as train delivery staff and buy motorcycles. They will need sufficient revenue to invest in the start of a delivery service, so only big chain restaurants offer it. We want to provide more opportunities to small restaurants.

Giving flexible scheduling options for delivery staff

As soon as an order is placed, a Dely staff member picks it up at the restaurant and delivers it by motorcycle to a home or office. Similarly to drivers using the Uber taxi app, Dely delivery staff are not fulltime workers, but they make themselves available to make deliveries at any time. Horie said he wants to evolve the Japanese distribution market with Dely:

Our delivery staff can take a delivery job at their convenience. We pay them 400 yen (approximately $4) for a delivery. We are developing a mobile app for delivery staff, allowing them to pick up delivery requests at their nearby location.

We don’t want to limit our service in food delivery but enhance it to many other businesses. The number of truck drivers dropped from 920,000 (in 2006) to 860,000 (in 2008) in Japan, while logistics needs are increasing due to the fast growing e-commerce business. We want to prevent the Japanese logistics business from collapsing.

We’ve seen startups like Postmates (San Francisco) and WunWun (New York City) doing a similar business in this space. It will be interesting to see how they can disrupt Japan’s highly regulated logistics market with the Uber-like business concept.

news

Japan’s crowdsourced bookkeeping startup MerryBiz launches web app

MerryBiz

Masaru Ikeda 2014.07.07

See the original story in Japanese. MerryBiz is a Tokyo-based startup that provides a crowdsourced bookkeeping service for companies. The company announced today it has renewed its service line-up and rolled out a web interface. Coinciding with this, the company has rebranded its name from Libv K.K. to MerryBiz Inc. MerryBiz was launched in October 2012 and fundraised 55 million yen ($550,000) from Mitsui Sumitomo Insuarance Venture Capital in May. In their previous service, until today, when you mailed a portion of receipts for company expenses to the company, they subsequently e-mailed back a list of expense records in your preferred file format, such as Excel, CSV, or importable formats for other online accounting platforms like MoneyForward. With the launch of the new web app this time around, you can download these files any time you want, as well as browse scanned images of recorded receipts especially when you, or your accountant, need to confirm evidence for any company expenses you have paid. We’ve seen several startups providing a similar function in this space, such as Dr. Wallet‘s “Receipt Bin” (crowdsourced bookeeping service) or CrowdCast (improving efficiency accounting tasks by a mobile receipt-scanning app). So what’s the advantage of MerryBiz?…

See the original story in Japanese.

MerryBiz is a Tokyo-based startup that provides a crowdsourced bookkeeping service for companies. The company announced today it has renewed its service line-up and rolled out a web interface. Coinciding with this, the company has rebranded its name from Libv K.K. to MerryBiz Inc.

MerryBiz was launched in October 2012 and fundraised 55 million yen ($550,000) from Mitsui Sumitomo Insuarance Venture Capital in May. In their previous service, until today, when you mailed a portion of receipts for company expenses to the company, they subsequently e-mailed back a list of expense records in your preferred file format, such as Excel, CSV, or importable formats for other online accounting platforms like MoneyForward. With the launch of the new web app this time around, you can download these files any time you want, as well as browse scanned images of recorded receipts especially when you, or your accountant, need to confirm evidence for any company expenses you have paid.

We’ve seen several startups providing a similar function in this space, such as Dr. Wallet‘s “Receipt Bin” (crowdsourced bookeeping service) or CrowdCast (improving efficiency accounting tasks by a mobile receipt-scanning app). So what’s the advantage of MerryBiz? In a response to this question, the company’s founder and CEO Hiroki Kudo explained:

For those who are less familiar with bookkeeping, the categorization process of expenses is quite difficult. So we hired certified public accountants with over three years of experience in this field as our crowdsourced workers. We can also accept your requests that are unique to your company, such as a certain type of expense for dining with someone that should be categorized as a meeting expense.

Online accounting platforms like Freee or MoneyForward are becoming popular in the Japanese startup scene. But we understand that MerryBiz will not provide accounting services but will be more focused on bookkeeping services by converting paper-based receipts to digital records. That’s why MerryBiz’s new web app allows you to download files in formats for other Japanese major accounting platforms like MoneyForward, Yayoi Kaikei, and Kaikeio. In the future, I think MerryBiz may introduce an API (application program interface) for integrating with other online services, which will not require you to import or export data files.

The company expects certified public accountant offices to also encourage their clients to use the MerryBiz platform. Kudo told us about this:

Since the accountant market is becoming saturated in Japan, they are very conscious about their competitiveness. New and small accountant offices may be our potential competitors, because they need to receive any tasks including bookkeeping from their clients.

However, mature accountant offices want to provide more value-added services for their clients, so they are likely to outsource bookkeeping operations. Our platform allows them to browse scanned images of receipts as expense evidences of their clients. We’ve been earning a good reputation from accountant offices that are using our service.

The company can improve the routine of their crowdsourced operations with the launch of the new app, which has enabled them to change its pricing to three types of monthly flat rate plans. The plan depends on how many expense records you request for bookkeeping in a month.

I’ve known Kudo for some time. But I realized in the interview that they had not been providing a web interface or mobile app to date. What we can learn from this is that not all tech startups have to have their web interface or mobile app for their business. Especially for B2B services, you can decide not to start developing a web interface or mobile app until your work flow is well streamlined and users validate your service, which greatly helps you to not increase the burn rate.

The launch of the web interface this time around will enable them to partner and integrate with other platforms and may bring them huge business potential.

news

Japan’s lunch delivery service Gochikuru.com raises $27M from office supply retailer Askul

Junya Mori 2014.07.05

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Star Festival, a startup behind bento box delivery and catering service Gochikuru.com, announced today that it has fundraised 2.8 billion yen (about $27.4 million) from and partnered with Japan’s largest office supply mail-order company Askul. Both companies serve corporate users, and will explore a synergy in this partnership by sharing their user bases and business resources. To explore improvement of delivery efficiency and expand delivery coverage, Star Festival will soon start using Askul’s logistics company Bizex to deliver lunch boxes, and Askul will leverage the downtime of Star Festival’s delivery cars to deliver office supplies. Both companies also agreed that the Gochikuru.com lunch box delivery service will be added to a line-up of Askul’s services.

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Star Festival, a startup behind bento box delivery and catering service Gochikuru.com, announced today that it has fundraised 2.8 billion yen (about $27.4 million) from and partnered with Japan’s largest office supply mail-order company Askul.

Both companies serve corporate users, and will explore a synergy in this partnership by sharing their user bases and business resources.

To explore improvement of delivery efficiency and expand delivery coverage, Star Festival will soon start using Askul’s logistics company Bizex to deliver lunch boxes, and Askul will leverage the downtime of Star Festival’s delivery cars to deliver office supplies.

Both companies also agreed that the Gochikuru.com lunch box delivery service will be added to a line-up of Askul’s services.

news

Japanese gaming company Gumi raises $50M, partners with Sega Networks for US market

Gumi

Takeshi Hirano 2014.07.04

See the original story in Japanese. Japanese newspaper Nikkei reported earlier today that Tokyo-based gaming coompany Gumi has funrraised 5 billion yen (approximately $49 million) from Silicon Valley-based investment firm WiL (World Innovation Lab) and other investors. The report says the funding will be completed on July 4th, and Sega Networks, which participated in this round, partnered with Gumi to market service the service in the US. In addition, Alim, the Gumi subsidiary co-founded with Gumi Ventures, Fuji Startup Ventures, and B Dash Ventures, surpassed 1 billion yen ($98 million) in sales as of April 2014, which their smash-hit gaming title Brave Frontier has contributed to. Since its launch back in June 2007, Gumi fundraised about 4.6 billion yen ($45 million) in the past rounds. CEO Hironao Kushimitsu unveiled at a recent conference in Singapore that the company has 650 employees and is preparing for an IPO by the end of this year.

hironao-kunimitsu — Gumi CEO Hironao Kunimitsu

See the original story in Japanese.

Japanese newspaper Nikkei reported earlier today that Tokyo-based gaming coompany Gumi has funrraised 5 billion yen (approximately $49 million) from Silicon Valley-based investment firm WiL (World Innovation Lab) and other investors. The report says the funding will be completed on July 4th, and Sega Networks, which participated in this round, partnered with Gumi to market service the service in the US.

In addition, Alim, the Gumi subsidiary co-founded with Gumi Ventures, Fuji Startup Ventures, and B Dash Ventures, surpassed 1 billion yen ($98 million) in sales as of April 2014, which their smash-hit gaming title Brave Frontier has contributed to.

Since its launch back in June 2007, Gumi fundraised about 4.6 billion yen ($45 million) in the past rounds. CEO Hironao Kushimitsu unveiled at a recent conference in Singapore that the company has 650 employees and is preparing for an IPO by the end of this year.

news

Japan’s book abstract app Flier fundraises to enhance their web platform

Flier

Takeshi Hirano 2014.07.03

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Flier, a startup that provides book abstract apps under the same name, announced yesterday that it has fundraised an undisclosed sum from East Ventures, Nishikawa Associates, and Nomad. Since its official launch back in October 2013, the company has acquired over 20,000 users, more than double the 9,000 users as of March 2014. According to the company’s CEO Yasushi Ohga (former CTO), Flier will use the funds to hire engineers and strengthen their in-house engineering capacity. Flier was launched back in June 2013 and graduated from Tokyo-based incubator Movida Japan‘s seed acceleration program. Their team earned a good reputation from an audience at the incubator’s Demo Day back in November, and had acquired 17 corporate accounts before their pitch at the time. However, their business is based on a simple concept, so they may soon hit a ceiling in their growth. As they expand their business, they will have to hire more staff, which will drive up in labor costs. In a response to my question regarding these problems, he explained: Getabstract has 10 million users, mainly in the US and European regions. The market volume in this space is two million users…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Flier, a startup that provides book abstract apps under the same name, announced yesterday that it has fundraised an undisclosed sum from East Ventures, Nishikawa Associates, and Nomad.

Since its official launch back in October 2013, the company has acquired over 20,000 users, more than double the 9,000 users as of March 2014. According to the company’s CEO Yasushi Ohga (former CTO), Flier will use the funds to hire engineers and strengthen their in-house engineering capacity.

Flier was launched back in June 2013 and graduated from Tokyo-based incubator Movida Japan‘s seed acceleration program. Their team earned a good reputation from an audience at the incubator’s Demo Day back in November, and had acquired 17 corporate accounts before their pitch at the time.

However, their business is based on a simple concept, so they may soon hit a ceiling in their growth. As they expand their business, they will have to hire more staff, which will drive up in labor costs. In a response to my question regarding these problems, he explained:

Getabstract has 10 million users, mainly in the US and European regions. The market volume in this space is two million users in Japan, so we still have more room to increase our users. If you look at the Asian market, we can aim to acquire 20 million users in the entire region.

The company has three, full-time writers, and uses about 10 freelance writers to provide over 20 abstracts (for 20 books) every month. They plan to increase it to 50 abstracts every month, but they will use the funds raised at this time not to hire new writers but to strengthen their engineering team to enhance their web service, while details have not yet been disclosed.

translation

Japan’s SmartDrive unveils vehicle analytics solution, poised for operational testing

Health tracking app for your car

Bigdata solution on top of people’s driving records

P2P-based content distribution network MistCDN wins at KDDI incubator’s Demo Day

MistCDN by Mist Technologies (The best prize and the ‘best engineer’ prize winner)

Filme by Coto-Coto (The ‘Family Ties’ prize and the ‘Audience’ prize winner)

QuaQua by Ducklings (The ‘New Workstyle’ prize winner)

Macaron by SPWTECH (The ‘Key of Beauty’ prize winner)

Repro (The ‘Global Create’ prize)

Japan’s education and human resources companies launch edtech acceleration program

Japan’s ‘viral mills’ Curazy raises $1 million from three investment firms

Japan’s construction job matching platform Tsukulink raises $500,000 from Nissay Capital

Japan’s ‘Uber for logistics’ launches food delivery service in central Tokyo

Enabling small restaurants to offer food delivery service

Giving flexible scheduling options for delivery staff

Japan’s crowdsourced bookkeeping startup MerryBiz launches web app

Japan’s lunch delivery service Gochikuru.com raises $27M from office supply retailer Askul

Japanese gaming company Gumi raises $50M, partners with Sega Networks for US market

Japan’s book abstract app Flier fundraises to enhance their web platform

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Health tracking app for your car

Bigdata solution on top of people’s driving records

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