See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Showcase Gig, the startup best known for its mobile wallet and CRM (customer relationship management) platform’O:der‘ (pronounced ‘order’), announced yesterday that it has developed a new ordering system called ‘Smart O:der’ in association with United & Collective, the company behind several Japanese restaurant chains. The new system will start operating tomorrow at the 3rd Burger hamburger restaurants in Aoyama and Roppongi Hills shopping complex in Tokyo. The video below shows how the system works. When you download the ‘O:der’ app to a smartphone and associate your credit card information with your account, you can order food and pay the bill using the app before you go to a ‘Smart O:der’ system-enabled restaurant. Before the introduction of this new system, users could order in advance but had to pay the bill at the restaurant. When you place an order and make payment using the app, your order will then be transmitted to the restaurant. Upon arrival at the restaurant, a sensor device installed there will detect your arrival and notify the kitchen staff to start preparing your food. With this system you will not need to wait long for your food or wait in…
At yesterday’s press briefing: Showcase Gig CEO Takefumi Nitta (right), United & Collective CEO Hideya Sakai (left)
Tokyo-based Showcase Gig, the startup best known for its mobile wallet and CRM (customer relationship management) platform’O:der‘ (pronounced ‘order’), announced yesterday that it has developed a new ordering system called ‘Smart O:der’ in association with United & Collective, the company behind several Japanese restaurant chains.
The new system will start operating tomorrow at the 3rd Burger hamburger restaurants in Aoyama and Roppongi Hills shopping complex in Tokyo. The video below shows how the system works.
When you download the ‘O:der’ app to a smartphone and associate your credit card information with your account, you can order food and pay the bill using the app before you go to a ‘Smart O:der’ system-enabled restaurant. Before the introduction of this new system, users could order in advance but had to pay the bill at the restaurant.
When you place an order and make payment using the app, your order will then be transmitted to the restaurant. Upon arrival at the restaurant, a sensor device installed there will detect your arrival and notify the kitchen staff to start preparing your food. With this system you will not need to wait long for your food or wait in a long line to pick up your “to go” meals. United & Collective tested the system at their restaurants and found it could double their order processing speed during lunch peak hours.
Coinciding with this announcement, Showcase Gig rolled out a new feature that allows retailers to give users digital loyalty customer stamps or reward coupons using the beacon-based noncontact type authentication system for iOS, which is the first of its kind in the world, they explained.
The company is planning to add a new service allowing users to pick up their orders at a restaurant at the time appointed in advance.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based mobile app developer Nagisa introduced an Android version of its movie app Slide Movies today.[1] The app allows you to create a movie by only choosing several still images. It can focus on a face in every frame using the face recognition technology on smartphones, in addition to providing a ‘realistic feel’ by inserting animated frames in the movie. Since its launch back in December, an iOS version of the app has surpassed 1.7 million downloads. According to Nagisa’s CEO Yoshiyuki Yokoyama, they have developed the Android version in response to a high demand from users. He told us that they have received over 10,000 pre-registrations for the Android version on their teaser site. Some of our readers may recall that the company was offering a promotion campaign in partnership with Japanese convenience store chain Lawson, which gave you reward coupons when you created a movie clip using their TV commercial song and uploaded it to the service. Since receiving proposals from many companies, they are planning to offer the next marketing promotion of this type in July. While most of their users are Japan-based for now, they will start global expansion to coincide…
Tokyo-based mobile app developer Nagisa introduced an Android version of its movie app Slide Movies today.[1] The app allows you to create a movie by only choosing several still images. It can focus on a face in every frame using the face recognition technology on smartphones, in addition to providing a ‘realistic feel’ by inserting animated frames in the movie.
Since its launch back in December, an iOS version of the app has surpassed 1.7 million downloads. According to Nagisa’s CEO Yoshiyuki Yokoyama, they have developed the Android version in response to a high demand from users. He told us that they have received over 10,000 pre-registrations for the Android version on their teaser site.
Some of our readers may recall that the company was offering a promotion campaign in partnership with Japanese convenience store chain Lawson, which gave you reward coupons when you created a movie clip using their TV commercial song and uploaded it to the service. Since receiving proposals from many companies, they are planning to offer the next marketing promotion of this type in July.
While most of their users are Japan-based for now, they will start global expansion to coincide with the launch of the Android version. In addition to users from Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Taiwan, they’ve seen a gradual increase in downloads from Brazil, so they will also begin targeting the Latin American region from now on.
CEO Yokoyama explained how they will evolve the market from here:
We’re planning to add a new feature to the iOS version of the Slide Movies app soon, which allows you to splice a movie clip with other clips. We’ll introduce a series of movie creation apps intended for several different usages rather than putting many features in one app.
They are targeting 5 million downloads with the both iOS and Android versions by the end of 2014.
This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese. Osaka-based Galaxy Agency, the startup that operates online peer-to-peer parking lot sharing platform Akippa and several online job sites, announced today it has fundraised from DeNA (TSE:2432) and several angel investors including Shokei Suda, co-founder of Japanese internet service company Enigmo (TSE:3665). Details of the investment have not yet been disclosed but it’s likely be several hundred thousand US dollars. This follows their previous funding of 65 million yen (about $650,000) from Japanese investment firm Jafco back in September 2012. Akippa helps customers find an available parking space online. When you book a time slot for it using your desktop or smartphone, you will be allowed to park your car there by paying up to 500 yen ($5) a day. It also allows parking lot owners to easily manage their venues via the platform as well. At the time of its launch back in April, Akippa started offering over 30,000 available parking lots nationwide. Using the funds raised at this time, the company plans to intensify efforts to acquire new users, such as by offering discount codes to their existing users when their friends sign up for the service….
This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese.
Osaka-based Galaxy Agency, the startup that operates online peer-to-peer parking lot sharing platform Akippa and several online job sites, announced today it has fundraised from DeNA (TSE:2432) and several angel investors including Shokei Suda, co-founder of Japanese internet service company Enigmo (TSE:3665). Details of the investment have not yet been disclosed but it’s likely be several hundred thousand US dollars. This follows their previous funding of 65 million yen (about $650,000) from Japanese investment firm Jafco back in September 2012.
Akippa helps customers find an available parking space online. When you book a time slot for it using your desktop or smartphone, you will be allowed to park your car there by paying up to 500 yen ($5) a day. It also allows parking lot owners to easily manage their venues via the platform as well.
At the time of its launch back in April, Akippa started offering over 30,000 available parking lots nationwide. Using the funds raised at this time, the company plans to intensify efforts to acquire new users, such as by offering discount codes to their existing users when their friends sign up for the service.
Galaxy Agency CEO Genki Kanaya explained how they will proceed with the business:
We’ll be focused on providing more parking lots in areas in high demand as well as user acquisition. […] Our platform is a web app for now, but we’re planning to hire several engineers to develop native apps for mobile. We’ll introduce an iOS app early next month, and an Android version will also follow soon.
The company is planning to partner with car-rental and car-sharing companies because their typical users have no parking space at home but frequently use rental or sharing services for short outings. It will be interesting to see how they will fare in the shared-economy industry.
This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese. Aratana, the startup that provides most solutions needed to launch an e-commerce site, announced earlier this week that it has acquired security solution startup Gehirn (named after ‘brain’ in German) and logistics company Terminal. Since its launch back in 2007, Aratana has been serving over 5,000 companies with e-commerce solutions such as Cagolab (customizable e-commerce suite) and Sketch Page (e-commerce site design tool). Some of our readers may recall that the company fundraised 550 million yen (about $5.5 million) from Japan’s Docomo Ventures and recruiting company LiveSense (TSE:6054) last year. Using the funds raised at that time, they took over Japanese fashion and culture news publishing company Honeyee.com last year. With the acquisition at this time, they aim to solidify their edge and provide a more flexible but secured platform for their users. Coinciding with the acquisition, Gehirn’s CEO Daiki Ishimori joined the board of Aratana Group as CTO and will focus on increasing the skill level of engineers at Aratana as well as managing the security business at Gehirn. Born in 1990, Ishimori started running his own server at home when he was attending an elementary school. Subsequently…
From the left: Aratana CEO Shinji Hamauzu, Gehirn CEO Daiki Ishimori
This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese.
Aratana, the startup that provides most solutions needed to launch an e-commerce site, announced earlier this week that it has acquired security solution startup Gehirn (named after ‘brain’ in German) and logistics company Terminal.
Since its launch back in 2007, Aratana has been serving over 5,000 companies with e-commerce solutions such as Cagolab (customizable e-commerce suite) and Sketch Page (e-commerce site design tool). Some of our readers may recall that the company fundraised 550 million yen (about $5.5 million) from Japan’s Docomo Ventures and recruiting company LiveSense (TSE:6054) last year. Using the funds raised at that time, they took over Japanese fashion and culture news publishing company Honeyee.com last year.
With the acquisition at this time, they aim to solidify their edge and provide a more flexible but secured platform for their users. Coinciding with the acquisition, Gehirn’s CEO Daiki Ishimori joined the board of Aratana Group as CTO and will focus on increasing the skill level of engineers at Aratana as well as managing the security business at Gehirn.
Born in 1990, Ishimori started running his own server at home when he was attending an elementary school. Subsequently he attended the Security Camp training program run by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, where he got huge knowledge and experience about the server security.
In 2008, he moved into limelight since he pointed out mistakes in the hacking scene in Japanese TV drama series Bloody Monday, and later was hired by Japanese computer security company Cyber Defense Institute at his age of 18. He’s been providing consulting services in the computer security field to governmental institutions and major corporations in Japan, and subsequently established his own company Gehirn back in 2010.
When I visited Gehirn’s office, they were displaying the earthquake early warning (EEW) system that they have developed.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Clear, the startup best known for promoting subscription-based Japanese sake service Sakelife and acting as a consultant for a Japanese sake restaurant in Shibuya, launched a news site focused on Japanese sake called Saketimes today. Japan is receiving more attention from the world because Japanese cuisine has been added to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list as well as the country is hosting the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The Japanese government’s cabinet office launched a project called ‘Enjoy Japanese Kokushu‘ last year and started promoting export of Japanese sake products to the global market. The company aims to give people a more enjoyable drinking experience by sharing useful tips and interesting stories about the products. Since Japanese sake products are made at local breweries around the country, we may expect the company to partner with them and provide increased opportunities to taste many different local flavors.
Tokyo-based Clear, the startup best known for promoting subscription-based Japanese sake service Sakelife and acting as a consultant for a Japanese sake restaurant in Shibuya, launched a news site focused on Japanese sake called Saketimes today.
The company aims to give people a more enjoyable drinking experience by sharing useful tips and interesting stories about the products. Since Japanese sake products are made at local breweries around the country, we may expect the company to partner with them and provide increased opportunities to taste many different local flavors.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Astamuse, the company behind the online platform for researchers and workers in the intellectual property field, announced today it has launched the English edition of the service for the global audience. The platform is serving over 1 million users in Japan with: Patent application data which have been filed over the last 20 years in Japan Over 10.5 million cases of technical information categorized in more than 38 different technical fields Analysis of about 300,000 Japanese companies in their technological strength These have been available only in Japanese until today, but the company launched the global edition to promote Open Innovation activities in developed countries and Reverse Innovation activities in developing countries using Japanese advanced technologies. It is understood that the company aims to help workers worldwide involved in intellectual property connect with each other by providing Japanese users with a translation of intellectual property-related documents from the US and European countries, and vice versa for Western users. From my perspective, I often see many cases where I need technological expertise. So I think the platform of intelligence like Astamuse.com will definitely contribute to business people and reporters as well as workers in…
Tokyo-based Astamuse, the company behind the online platform for researchers and workers in the intellectual property field, announced today it has launched the English edition of the service for the global audience. The platform is serving over 1 million users in Japan with:
Patent application data which have been filed over the last 20 years in Japan
Over 10.5 million cases of technical information categorized in more than 38 different technical fields
Analysis of about 300,000 Japanese companies in their technological strength
These have been available only in Japanese until today, but the company launched the global edition to promote Open Innovation activities in developed countries and Reverse Innovation activities in developing countries using Japanese advanced technologies.
It is understood that the company aims to help workers worldwide involved in intellectual property connect with each other by providing Japanese users with a translation of intellectual property-related documents from the US and European countries, and vice versa for Western users.
From my perspective, I often see many cases where I need technological expertise. So I think the platform of intelligence like Astamuse.com will definitely contribute to business people and reporters as well as workers in the R&D industry.
See the original story in Japanese. ZenFotomatic is a cloud-based automated photo cropping and enhancement tool and was recently introduced by an Osaka-based startup called Glams. Since its beta launch back in September 2013, the service has acquired more than 1,200 accounts from Japan as well as over 600 accounts from abroad. Photos often need to be color corrected or trimmed before uploading to a website, regardless of how much carefully you consider camera settings like resolution or white balance when you take a photo. It is not difficult to enhance one or two photos manually. But for apparel e-commerce sites that list a number of item photos this task can be very time-consuming and even hinder their regular business operations. Glams has also its own online store in Japan’s largest online shopping mall Rakuten. In suffering from busy, yet non-productive, routine tasks every day, the Osaka outfit came up with the idea developing ZenFotomatic to improve the situation. The company’s co-founder and CEO Daisuke Miura told us a bit about it. Unlike big fashion e-commerce sites, in-mall online stores have to list a new item as soon as it arrives. Because the earlier you can list it, the higher…
ZenFotomatic is a cloud-based automated photo cropping and enhancement tool and was recently introduced by an Osaka-based startup called Glams. Since its beta launch back in September 2013, the service has acquired more than 1,200 accounts from Japan as well as over 600 accounts from abroad.
Photos often need to be color corrected or trimmed before uploading to a website, regardless of how much carefully you consider camera settings like resolution or white balance when you take a photo. It is not difficult to enhance one or two photos manually. But for apparel e-commerce sites that list a number of item photos this task can be very time-consuming and even hinder their regular business operations.
Glams has also its own online store in Japan’s largest online shopping mall Rakuten. In suffering from busy, yet non-productive, routine tasks every day, the Osaka outfit came up with the idea developing ZenFotomatic to improve the situation. The company’s co-founder and CEO Daisuke Miura told us a bit about it.
Daisuke Miura
Unlike big fashion e-commerce sites, in-mall online stores have to list a new item as soon as it arrives. Because the earlier you can list it, the higher rank in a search result your item will be listed in. So it’s more likely for you to acquire potential buyers.
However, the photo enhancement process is very tough for online stores, especially for the ones with a small team like us. We are a five-person team but were often forced to work overnight for enhancing photos. We thought that more than a few online merchants have the same problem. To address it, I was jestingly discussing with New Zealander engineer Blain Hosford in my team, and he subsequently completed ZenFotomatic.
If you set a certain threshold in the app, it can automatically detect the boundary of a object and its background in a photo using a proprietary algorithm, which is obviously the core technology. It has no feature yet to learn user preference, but if you claim that your picture is inappropriately processed, it will be transferred to the Glams engineering team and they will analyze it to optimize the algorithm.
Their service prices start from 2,500 yen (almost $25) for enhancing 100 photos. The service is originally designed for small-sized and shorthanded online stores, but now even several big e-commerce companies are using it as well, so it seems like they also have a monthly flat rate pricing plan for such heavy users.
We understand that they maintain its focus on the Japanese market for now but wants to begin global expansion as money can be raised while an appropriate operating officer in addition to good engineers can be hired. The Glams CEO added:
The e-commerce ratio in Japan is as low as 3%, which is obviously lower than that of the US (5 to 7%) and UK (9%). I think there will be more opportunities available outside the country. Our service is non-verbal so we really want to reach out to the global market in the future.
Image composite feature
The company recently added a new feature that allows you to composite your preferred images very easily. For online store owners, it makes you easier to add stickers or logos to a number of your existing photos in a batch operation.
When I heard about this feature for the first time, I couldn’t understand why there is a need for it because from the developer’s perspective, I thought these image composite features are usually supported on the e-commerce platform side. In a response to my question, Miura explained:
Our potential users are small and medium-sized online store owners. Many of their stores are located in a big online mall, where they have no way to generate composited images dynamically. They usually complete processing images on their desktops and upload such completed static images to the website. So we added the feature and enabled users to complete these processes in a batch operation on the ZenFotomatic cloud.
Talking about e-commerce solutions, we like to imagine big ones designed for big e-commerce players. But I think Glams added this feature in order to provide more convenience to in-mall store owners.
I often hear from Japanese e-commerce company NetPrice.com’s CEO Teruhide Sato, who’s best known for having invested in payments processors and logistics operators in Turkey, India, and Indonesia, that there’s a common pattern for the e-commerce industry in the process of spreading in any country. Now we see several fulfillment services for e-commerce operators in developing countries, so we may probably expect ZenFotomatic to become one of the standards and an essential item for all e-commerce players around the world soon.
See the original story in Japanese. Singapore-based Sova (named after buckwheat noodles in Japanese), the startup that provides cloud-based WordPress hosting service, announced last week that it has secured $3 million in a seed round. Details of the funds have not been disclosed, but it is understood they were raised from an angel investor in Singapore. Why so confident? Sova was launched back in December by Japanese engineer Miyako Itonaga (CEO/CTO) and serial entrepreneuer Takashi Fujimoto (CFO/COO). The company provides cloud-based hosting services focused on the WordPress environment, which allows them to save costs in engineering support for their customers but provide better experience. Fujimoto elaborated how they are trying to differentiate from competitors: Typical service providers build their environment on Amazon Web Services because it’s easy. But if doing so, one remains upon the cloud service in the cost structure. So we developed our own cloud platform; service of the specification that our competitor WP Engine provides for $99 in the US is available from us for as low as $20. Our readers may recall that his aforementioned company WP Engine recently $15 million in the US. We can expect that Sova to fare well in the Asian region…
Singapore-based Sova (named after buckwheat noodles in Japanese), the startup that provides cloud-based WordPress hosting service, announced last week that it has secured $3 million in a seed round. Details of the funds have not been disclosed, but it is understood they were raised from an angel investor in Singapore.
Why so confident?
Sova was launched back in December by Japanese engineer Miyako Itonaga (CEO/CTO) and serial entrepreneuer Takashi Fujimoto (CFO/COO). The company provides cloud-based hosting services focused on the WordPress environment, which allows them to save costs in engineering support for their customers but provide better experience. Fujimoto elaborated how they are trying to differentiate from competitors:
Typical service providers build their environment on Amazon Web Services because it’s easy. But if doing so, one remains upon the cloud service in the cost structure. So we developed our own cloud platform; service of the specification that our competitor WP Engine provides for $99 in the US is available from us for as low as $20.
Our readers may recall that his aforementioned company WP Engine recently $15 million in the US. We can expect that Sova to fare well in the Asian region because we’ve seen no competitors focused on such a niche space.
Adding multilingual options
Many of their users come from Japan and the Southeast Asian regions. To address a latency issue for them, the company’s cloud facilities are located in Singapore and Osaka, Japan. Using the funds raised this time, they plan to set up another facility in Palo Alto to prepare for their expansion to the US market and also add user support offices in Palo Alto and Indonesia to the existing locations in Singapore and Osaka. Fujimoto explained:
Since WordPress accounts for over 20% of all websites in the world, everyone knows how it’s sure to monetize. We’re still as young as six months old, but we’ve been receiving many takeover offers from companies like telcos in Asia and Silicon Valley-based companies expecting expansions to the Asian markets. But we have no intention to accept their offers for now.
Sova is also in talk with a undisclosed Japanese hosting company to provide a white label service for their customers. So you’ll be able to see a WordPress cloud hosting service branded with a major Japanese company pretty soon. The service is currently available in English and Japanese, but plan to add Vietnamese, Chinese, Indonesian, and Spanish to its language options next month.
Launching freemium hosting plan
Earlier this week, the company started accepting applications for their freemium hosting plan called Sova WP Free. Now that they’ve got the funds and a measurable number of paying users, so they thought it’s good to launch the premium plan to gain their awareness amongst potential customers. Fujimoto added:
It’s a freemium service but has a feature to boost the capacity of your environment to withstand up to 1 million daily page views. We’re developing our own ad network platform, which will enables blog owners using our service to monetize their content. It’s also available for mobile browsing. Typical WordPress templates are limited in its variety of design, but we will provide many templates using responsive designs and give users more choices.
We understand that they are trying to secure a series A funding worth an amount ranging from $10 to $15 million by the end of October.
I was curious about how Fujimoto have been working prior to this business. He told me that he started his own business while he was attending Kyoto University. Subsequently he launched an IT business and sold it over to a big Japanese IT company back in 2009. He’s busy flying back and forth between Singapore and Palo Alto for setting up their first office in the US.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Casy (apparently pronounced ‘Carjee’), the startup offering crowdsourced housekeeping services under the same name, was officially launched today and also announced that it has raised an undisclosed sum of investment from Japanese startup incubator Beenos. Both husband and wife in more than 60% of all households in the country. [1] This situation has led to an expansion of the Japanese housekeeping market, which surpassed $960 million in FY2012 and shows nearly a 20% annual growth. [2] Despite the fact that more people think they have to keep a good balance between work and family, only high-income households are using housekeeping services since they can still be as expensive as $40 to $50 per hour. CaSy’s CEO Hiroki Ikeda saw a potential out there because he also has a child but both he and his wife hold jobs. He told us what prompted him to launch the service: I’ve used several housekeeping services, they typically asked me to sign many forms before closing the deal, and I was weary. I felt wary also because I couldn’t understand how they could try to match the personality of a housekeeper they arranged to sent me with…
Tokyo-based Casy (apparently pronounced ‘Carjee’), the startup offering crowdsourced housekeeping services under the same name, was officially launched today and also announced that it has raised an undisclosed sum of investment from Japanese startup incubator Beenos.
Both husband and wife in more than 60% of all households in the country. [1] This situation has led to an expansion of the Japanese housekeeping market, which surpassed $960 million in FY2012 and shows nearly a 20% annual growth. [2]
Despite the fact that more people think they have to keep a good balance between work and family, only high-income households are using housekeeping services since they can still be as expensive as $40 to $50 per hour.
CaSy’s CEO Hiroki Ikeda saw a potential out there because he also has a child but both he and his wife hold jobs. He told us what prompted him to launch the service:
I’ve used several housekeeping services, they typically asked me to sign many forms before closing the deal, and I was weary. I felt wary also because I couldn’t understand how they could try to match the personality of a housekeeper they arranged to sent me with my needs.
Compared to existing services in this field, we were told that CaSy has three key differentiators:
Available for as low as 2,500 yen ($25) per hour – This was made possible by eliminating wasteful processes and improving operations.
Online booking available for 24 hours a day – You can complete your reservation within one to two minutes using your desktop or smartphone. (See Figure at right, click to enlarge)
Stringently selected housekeepers – The company conducts an interview with every single housekeeper before they hire him/her. You can ask them to show you the profile of a housekeeper before you order them to send you him/her. By doing this over again, the more times you use the service, the more accurately they can send you a housekeeper who is likely to fit your needs.
At the time of launch, available services include cleaning living room, bathroom, kitchen, etc. Starting with the central area of Tokyo, they plan to expand service area to more cities gradually and hire more housewives, etc. as housekeepers.
In commemorating the launch, the company is running a promotion campaign where you can get discounts when you or your friend sign up for the service. Ikeda finally explained what they expect to bring users through the service:
We want to assist busy families and working couples in their child care. We are aiming to give people more time with their family members.
According to a report by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. ↩
According to a report by Japan’s Yano Research Institute. ↩
See the original story in Japanese. Japan’s startup-focused investment firm CyberAgent Ventures announced today that it has formed a new fund worth 5 billion yen (about $50 million) called CA Startup Internet Fund No.2. This is because of closing their previous fund CA Startup Internet Fund No.1. Comparing to the previous one worth about $24 million, the new fund is almost double in size and is planned for investment of an amount ranging from $100,000 to $1 million in every single startup they choose. The company’s vice president Tomoki Shirakawa explained how they plan to proceed from here: We’ll keep looking to companies in the internet business space but planning to expand our coverage beyond it. I don’t mean we will lower a threshold. We’ll be on the lookout for interesting startups and try to discuss with more entrepreneurs. Increasing opportunities to meet up with aspiring and active entrepreneurs is one of their focus. As part of such an effort, they will hold a meetup event called Startup Workout on July 2nd, where Takaya Shinozuka, CEO of Japan’s members-only hotel booking site operator Loco Partners, will share his success and failure experiences with an audience. Shirakawa says his team is…
Japan’s startup-focused investment firm CyberAgent Ventures announced today that it has formed a new fund worth 5 billion yen (about $50 million) called CA Startup Internet Fund No.2. This is because of closing their previous fund CA Startup Internet Fund No.1.
Comparing to the previous one worth about $24 million, the new fund is almost double in size and is planned for investment of an amount ranging from $100,000 to $1 million in every single startup they choose. The company’s vice president Tomoki Shirakawa explained how they plan to proceed from here:
We’ll keep looking to companies in the internet business space but planning to expand our coverage beyond it. I don’t mean we will lower a threshold. We’ll be on the lookout for interesting startups and try to discuss with more entrepreneurs.
Increasing opportunities to meet up with aspiring and active entrepreneurs is one of their focus. As part of such an effort, they will hold a meetup event called Startup Workout on July 2nd, where Takaya Shinozuka, CEO of Japan’s members-only hotel booking site operator Loco Partners, will share his success and failure experiences with an audience.
Shirakawa says his team is always looking forward to hearing from entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs. So if you have any good idea in your mind, I’d recommend you not to hesitate to drop him a line.
Junya Mori
Shintaro Eguchi
Masaru Ikeda
Yukari Mitsuhashi
