See the original story in Japanese. Tokushima, Japan-based Amegumi announced on Wednesday that it has fundraised a total of 20 million yen (about $183K US) from angel investors Shogo Kawada (DeNA Co-founder) and Yuzuru Honda (FreakOut Founder). This follows the company’s previous funding last year (funding round and amount unknown) from Skyland Ventures and angel investor Shinji Yamamoto (former Far East Asia Co-Chairperson for AT Kearney and former Representative in Tokyo for Bain & Company). Amegumi has developed Sunblaze OS, a smartphone operating system focused on supporting minimal functions. The company aims to develop inexpensive smartphones at around 5,000 yen (about $46 US) for markets such as Asia and Africa, specializing in users who do not use games or watch videos, and are satisfied with social network, search and other minimal functions. Amegumi completed the Sunblaze OS prototype in December of last year, and said that funds raised this time will be used to add talented people to its team who can be responsible for OS development and sales. Amegumi plans to utilize EMS (Electronics Manufacturing Service) in China to manufacture smartphones, but it faces the challenge of building sales networks around the world. It will search for possible alliances…
L to R: Shogo Kawada, Eisuke Tokiwa (Founder/CEO of Amegumi), and Yuzuru Honda Image credit: Amegumi
Tokushima, Japan-based Amegumi announced on Wednesday that it has fundraised a total of 20 million yen (about $183K US) from angel investors Shogo Kawada (DeNA Co-founder) and Yuzuru Honda (FreakOut Founder). This follows the company’s previous funding last year (funding round and amount unknown) from Skyland Ventures and angel investor Shinji Yamamoto (former Far East Asia Co-Chairperson for AT Kearney and former Representative in Tokyo for Bain & Company).
Amegumi has developed Sunblaze OS, a smartphone operating system focused on supporting minimal functions. The company aims to develop inexpensive smartphones at around 5,000 yen (about $46 US) for markets such as Asia and Africa, specializing in users who do not use games or watch videos, and are satisfied with social network, search and other minimal functions. Amegumi completed the Sunblaze OS prototype in December of last year, and said that funds raised this time will be used to add talented people to its team who can be responsible for OS development and sales.
Amegumi plans to utilize EMS (Electronics Manufacturing Service) in China to manufacture smartphones, but it faces the challenge of building sales networks around the world. It will search for possible alliances through open innovation in the future, especially with leading telcos, ad agencies, app developers, IoT product developers and other companies.
A smartphone prototype running on the Sunblaze OS Image credit: Amegumi
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Crowd Realty, which provides the real estate-specific crowdfunding platform under the same name, announced in late December that it has fundraised from Mitsubishi Estate (TSE: 8802), Shinsei Corporate Investment, Shinsei Bank, and Mizuho Capital. This is a follow-on of the series A round that the company announced last month (which raised a total of 350 million yen from Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ Bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and Kabu.com Securities), and the amount of money procured this time around was 230 million yen (about $2.1M US). The total procurement for the series A round combined with last month’s is 580 million yen (around $5.2M US). Crowd Realty was established in December of 2014. The company secures seed funding (estimated to be in the tens of millions of yen) from Global Brain in November of 2015, followed by 20 million yen (about $181K US) from the SBI FinTech Fund in December of 2016. Regarding the meaning behind the funds raised this time, Crowd Realty Founder & CEO Takeshi Kito explained through a comparison to REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) in an interview for The Bridge. With REIT, when an estate (issuer) intends to raise funds, an…
The webpage of “Kyomachiya No. 2 Fund” that made use of Umamachi, Kyoto’s historical townhouses Image credit: Crowd Realty
Tokyo-based Crowd Realty, which provides the real estate-specific crowdfunding platform under the same name, announced in late December that it has fundraised from Mitsubishi Estate (TSE: 8802), Shinsei Corporate Investment, Shinsei Bank, and Mizuho Capital. This is a follow-on of the series A round that the company announced last month (which raised a total of 350 million yen from Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ Bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and Kabu.com Securities), and the amount of money procured this time around was 230 million yen (about $2.1M US). The total procurement for the series A round combined with last month’s is 580 million yen (around $5.2M US).
Crowd Realty was established in December of 2014. The company secures seed funding (estimated to be in the tens of millions of yen) from Global Brain in November of 2015, followed by 20 million yen (about $181K US) from the SBI FinTech Fund in December of 2016.
Crowd Realty Founder & CEO Takeshi Kito Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Regarding the meaning behind the funds raised this time, Crowd Realty Founder & CEO Takeshi Kito explained through a comparison to REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) in an interview for The Bridge. With REIT, when an estate (issuer) intends to raise funds, an investment bank intervenes to provide access to the market (investor). In real estate crowdfunding, Crowd Realty aims to create an environment where real estate properties and markets (investors) can trade.
The Real Estate Specified Joint Enterprise Act was partially revised in 2017, and as long as it is within the scope of small recruitment, the environment for new entrepreneurs to enter real estate crowdfunding has been set up. Kito believes that a number of successive new entrants may join real estate crowdfunding much like what occurred several years ago in the field of general crowdfunding.
When this happens, Crowd Realty will not only act as a real estate crowdfunding company, but also as a platform that can participate in the market on behalf of other real estate crowdfunding companies. As more and more businesses participate, the market for real estate crowdfunding will become increasingly liquid. As the name direct financing indicates, Kito said he would like to aim for the formation of a P2P market, which connects real estate properties directly with investors.
To realize Kito’s vision it becomes necessary to develop and introduce a dApp (decentralized app) so that proper transactions are guaranteed even in the absence of an authority. Kito is not one to be swayed by buzzwords, and during the interview he avoided terms like Blockchain and smart contracts, but in reality it seems these techniques will become the nucleus for the realization of Dapps.
Business collaboration scheme with major investors joining this round Image credit: Crowd Realty
In order to be a platformer, neutrality is required for all businesses that trade on that platform. Crowd Realty has so far procured funds from multiple companies and VC firms across varying industries, and such a background seems to be affecting the company. If the liquidity of securities cannot be secured in the market, transactions will not be established, but in the world of crowdfunding, it will become important for the company to foster communities that are frequently talked about with ICO (initial coin offering).
In the future, Crowd Realty would like to directly or indirectly engage in the formation of international nonprofit groups and consortiums to optimize the ecosystem, distributed networks, global institutions and regulations.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Lancers, the Japanese startup providing a major crowdsourcing platform under the same name, announced last month that it had raised 1 billion yen (about $9 million) from Persol Holdings (TSE:2181) and Shinsei Bank (TSE:8303). Concluding business partnership contracts with both companies concurrently, Lancers will commence its new financing business targeting freelance workers. According to Lancers, the current number of freelancers in Japan is 11.22 million comprising 17% of the entire working population, showing a 5% increase from last year. It is said that more and more Japanese workers are coming to choose a ‘new work style’ which is neither full-time nor contract work. On the other hand, Persol Group, one of the investors this time, has developed various businesses that enhance job mobility of the Japanese working population, by using temporary staff company Tempstaff (TSE:2476) or staffing agency Persol Career (TSE:4757, formerly known as Intelligence) that it owns. While the two companies had been affiliated through investment via Persol Career, by adding Shinsei Bank into this framework, they aim to develop and provide a new loan service to individual workers who need equipment investment or education / training upon starting new business. At…
Tokyo-based Lancers, the Japanese startup providing a major crowdsourcing platform under the same name, announced last month that it had raised 1 billion yen (about $9 million) from Persol Holdings (TSE:2181) and Shinsei Bank (TSE:8303). Concluding business partnership contracts with both companies concurrently, Lancers will commence its new financing business targeting freelance workers.
According to Lancers, the current number of freelancers in Japan is 11.22 million comprising 17% of the entire working population, showing a 5% increase from last year. It is said that more and more Japanese workers are coming to choose a ‘new work style’ which is neither full-time nor contract work. On the other hand, Persol Group, one of the investors this time, has developed various businesses that enhance job mobility of the Japanese working population, by using temporary staff company Tempstaff (TSE:2476) or staffing agency Persol Career (TSE:4757, formerly known as Intelligence) that it owns.
While the two companies had been affiliated through investment via Persol Career, by adding Shinsei Bank into this framework, they aim to develop and provide a new loan service to individual workers who need equipment investment or education / training upon starting new business.
At the press conference held last April, Lancers announced that its sales in 2016 exceeded 2.1 billion yen and then revealed a new concept of Open Talent Platform as its business strategy out of an otherwise conventional online work matching platform. It presented several action plans for gearing up of its service operation as part of the concept, such as start of individual skill matching platform Pook or the spin-off of Quant for corporate customers.
The loan business to individuals announced this time is an extension of the concept, and is expected to be a system enabling individual workers to receive credit examination or third-party evaluation as with full-time workers. Specifically, they plan to visualize individual workers’ skill or work style as ‘Talent Score’ based on evaluation data accumulated by Persol Group or Lancers, and input it into business activities leveraging Shinsei Bank’s financial know-how.
Yohsuke Akiyoshi, CEO of Lancers, explained that the firm will jointly develop Talent Score as an evaluation criterion for the establishment of ‘Lancer Economies’:
Our cumulative fundraised amount is 2.3 billion yen (about $21 million) including this round. I see the two companies as partners to establish Talent Score together in order to increase freelancers’ working option under the framework of Open Talent Platform.
With Persol Holdings, we will jointly develop an evaluation system of freelancer’s work style and skill. Even in Lancers or Persol, full-time workers taking up freelance works as side jobs have been appearing.
Akiyoshi said the kind of workers that are expected to benefit most through this business partnership is those who hold full-time jobs and freelance work concurrently, called ‘parallel worker’:
Conventionally, work contents or performance evaluation were completely separated between the main job and the extra job.
However, in the economic area we are going to create, users can receive higher salary in their main job reflecting feedback of the subsidiary job performance at Lancers, or vice versa.
With the other partner Shinsei Bank, Lancers plans to carry out activities related to credit examination based on the score, according to Akiyoshi:
We also develop Talent Score with Shinsei Bank. Although Lancers has own unique data, the bank has a strength in individual credit data in terms of quality and quantity.
By cooperating with the institution, we will upgrade Talent Score and invest in Lancers users who are scored at a certain level, in order to change the current situation where it is harder for freelancers to borrow money than full-time workers. Imagine how we can improve their work style together as well as their life generally.
With respect to the concept of scoring individuals, Japan’s Crowd Works had also announced a similar lending service called Crowd Cash. The two players seem to lead the construction of infrastructure surrounding the Japanese new work style now in formation.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based SmartHR, the Japanese startup offering a cloud-based personnel management service under the same name, announced today that it has raised 1.5 billion yen (about $13.3 million US) in a series B round. This round was conducted through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) formed by 500 Startups Japan with participation from Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance, ad agency Nissen (TSE:6543), three unnamed institutional investors and corporate venture capitals, as well as angel investors. See also: Japan’s cloud-based personnel management tool SmartHR secures $5M from WiL, others At the press briefing at SmartHR’s new office in Tokyo, James Riney, Head of 500 Startups Japan, explained about how useful the new funding scheme is for startups, especially for their management: When a startup is raising funds, their management usually needs to be committed to that effort for three to six months to secure it. (In case of SmartHR,) I told Miyasa-san (CEO of SmartHR) to believe us that we’ll definitely gather investors in his stead. Ryo Tamaki, who previously worked for Tokyo-based startup incubator Samurai Incubate but recently joined SmartHR as CFO, said that the new scheme enabled them to secure funding in as short…
L to R: Takayuki Sumi (Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance), Yohei Sawayama (Managing Partner, 500 Startups Japan), Shoji Miyata (CEO, SmartHR), James Riney (Head, 500 Startups Japan), Ryo Tamaki (CFO, SmartHR) Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Tokyo-based SmartHR, the Japanese startup offering a cloud-based personnel management service under the same name, announced today that it has raised 1.5 billion yen (about $13.3 million US) in a series B round. This round was conducted through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) formed by 500 Startups Japan with participation from Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance, ad agency Nissen (TSE:6543), three unnamed institutional investors and corporate venture capitals, as well as angel investors.
At the press briefing at SmartHR’s new office in Tokyo, James Riney, Head of 500 Startups Japan, explained about how useful the new funding scheme is for startups, especially for their management:
When a startup is raising funds, their management usually needs to be committed to that effort for three to six months to secure it. (In case of SmartHR,) I told Miyasa-san (CEO of SmartHR) to believe us that we’ll definitely gather investors in his stead.
Ryo Tamaki, who previously worked for Tokyo-based startup incubator Samurai Incubate but recently joined SmartHR as CFO, said that the new scheme enabled them to secure funding in as short as about a month and the labor required was about a quarter of the usual fundraising efforts.
The SPV scheme Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Shoji Miyata, CEO of SmartHR, revealed several figures seeing the growth of his business such as 17.1% of monthly sales growth rate and 6.28 times of YoY user growth rate, plus 9,300 corporate users with 99.3% of user persistency rate.
The latest funds are intended to be used for advertising (airing TV commercial, attending exhibitions, running online and transportation ads) and system development (hiring and employing developers). In addition to the current service menu, the company expects to develop up-sell products and a one-stop platform serving surrounding related solutions together, while driving potential customers to financial services such as company pension plans and “benefit-your-locality” tax scheme businesses.
SmartHR CEO shows the press user growth and persistency rate. Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
The Japanese startup Dely, which runs video-centric culinary media Kurashiru, announced today that it has raised 3.35 billion yen (about $30 million US) from Softbank, YJ Capital (investment arm of Yahoo Japan), Akatsuki and United. YJ Capital and United have taken part in the previous round. In terms of the funding amount, the latest round let Dely beat its main rival Every, the company behind Delish Kitchen, which had recently secured $18 million in last year’s end. According to disclosed figures, Dely has raised more than $60 million in total while Delish Kitchen has secured about $50 million to date. Dely will use the funds to strengthen hiring and marketing efforts, while undertaking new businesses build-up and putting acquisition of other companies into consideration. Coinciding with the announcement, the company unveiled that their mobile app has surpassed 10 million downloads last month. Dely was established in April of 2014. In September of the same year the Tokyo-based company received funding from Anri and began a food delivery business as the inaugural service. However, after judging the outlook for such services difficult, around February of 2016 the firm pivoted to video curation media, which became the model for their current business….
Kurashiru Image credit: Dely
The Japanese startup Dely, which runs video-centric culinary media Kurashiru, announced today that it has raised 3.35 billion yen (about $30 million US) from Softbank, YJ Capital (investment arm of Yahoo Japan), Akatsuki and United. YJ Capital and United have taken part in the previous round.
In terms of the funding amount, the latest round let Dely beat its main rival Every, the company behind Delish Kitchen, which had recently secured $18 million in last year’s end. According to disclosed figures, Dely has raised more than $60 million in total while Delish Kitchen has secured about $50 million to date.
Dely will use the funds to strengthen hiring and marketing efforts, while undertaking new businesses build-up and putting acquisition of other companies into consideration. Coinciding with the announcement, the company unveiled that their mobile app has surpassed 10 million downloads last month.
Dely was established in April of 2014. In September of the same year the Tokyo-based company received funding from Anri and began a food delivery business as the inaugural service. However, after judging the outlook for such services difficult, around February of 2016 the firm pivoted to video curation media, which became the model for their current business.
Tokyo-based Folio, the Japanese startup offering an online asset management platform, announced today that it has raised 7 billion yen (about $63 million US) in a series A2 round. Participating investors are Line, Goldman Sachs, Dentsu Ventures, Mitsui & Co., SMBC Venture Capital, DCM Ventures and Draper Nexus Ventures. With previous funds in a seed round and a series A round conducted last year, the company has raised a total of 9.1 billion yen (about $82 million US) since its launch. Apart from the funding, Folio has partnered with messaging giant Line to give access to the startup’s investment services for the massive user base of 71 million monthly active users in Japan on the the latter’s messaging platform. Foilo also says it will launch an in-house R&D department focused on developing services leveraging Machine Learning, Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT for short, also known as blockchain) and other emerging technologies. See also: Japan’s Folio secures $16 million to help non-savvy investors better trade stocks Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
Tokyo-based Folio, the Japanese startup offering an online asset management platform, announced today that it has raised 7 billion yen (about $63 million US) in a series A2 round. Participating investors are Line, Goldman Sachs, Dentsu Ventures, Mitsui & Co., SMBC Venture Capital, DCM Ventures and Draper Nexus Ventures. With previous funds in a seed round and a series A round conducted last year, the company has raised a total of 9.1 billion yen (about $82 million US) since its launch.
Apart from the funding, Folio has partnered with messaging giant Line to give access to the startup’s investment services for the massive user base of 71 million monthly active users in Japan on the the latter’s messaging platform. Foilo also says it will launch an in-house R&D department focused on developing services leveraging Machine Learning, Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT for short, also known as blockchain) and other emerging technologies.
This guest post is authored by Masanori Hashimoto, co-founder and CEO of Nulab, the Fukuoka-based startup behind SaaS (software as a service) platforms like Backlog, Cacoo and Typetalk. In addition to managing his startup, he has been involved in various local initiatives encouraging entrepreneurship such as Oreoka.com and Myojo Waraku. See the original story in Japanese. Fukuoka-based Maisin & Co., the Japanese startup developing a programmer tool called Boostnote, recently announced that it has rebranded into BoostIO and raised an undislosed sum from Japanese seed round-focused startup funds Anri and F Ventures in addition to six angel investors. Participating angel investors include several key players on the local startup scene in the western Japan city of Fukuoka such as Shinji Hamauzu (CEO of Aratana) and Shuhei Hiya (Tech Lead of Tsumug, Former Head of Uhuru Technical Rockstars). Junji Murakami, one of the Myojo Waraku startup festival organizers, is helping increase angel investors in the city because he thinks not only VC funds but also angel investors are crucial upon building the local startup community. Other angel investors participating in this round were Masao Ito (CEO of User Local), Shinichi Iwata (Japan head of Atomico and former President of Skype Japan),…
This guest post is authored by Masanori Hashimoto, co-founder and CEO of Nulab, the Fukuoka-based startup behind SaaS (software as a service) platforms like Backlog, Cacoo and Typetalk.
In addition to managing his startup, he has been involved in various local initiatives encouraging entrepreneurship such as Oreoka.com and Myojo Waraku.
L to R: Anri Samata (founder of Anri), Kazumasa Yokomizo (CEO of BoostIO CEO), Choi Junyoung (BoostIO CTO) Image credit: BoostIO
Fukuoka-based Maisin & Co., the Japanese startup developing a programmer tool called Boostnote, recently announced that it has rebranded into BoostIO and raised an undislosed sum from Japanese seed round-focused startup funds Anri and F Ventures in addition to six angel investors.
Participating angel investors include several key players on the local startup scene in the western Japan city of Fukuoka such as Shinji Hamauzu (CEO of Aratana) and Shuhei Hiya (Tech Lead of Tsumug, Former Head of Uhuru Technical Rockstars). Junji Murakami, one of the Myojo Waraku startup festival organizers, is helping increase angel investors in the city because he thinks not only VC funds but also angel investors are crucial upon building the local startup community.
Other angel investors participating in this round were Masao Ito (CEO of User Local), Shinichi Iwata (Japan head of Atomico and former President of Skype Japan), Yusuke Sato (President of FreakOut Holdings) and an unnamed angel investor.
Angel investors participating in this round Image credit: BoostIO
With native apps for platforms including Macintosh, Windows, Linux, Android and iOS, Boostnote allows system developers to save and share their source codes online. The open source project was launched in beta under the previous name of Boost back in 2015 but it has succeeded in engaging contributors from around the world to build up a global community.
Programmers worldwide are now participating in development and improvement of Boostnote, which is also so loosely operated as a warm community that their users can help each others solve questions and bugs. Going forward, the team expects to provide more versatile solutions while verifying technical issues.
Boostnote Image credit: BoostIO
Boostnote is characterized by its global spread in both developers and users since almost all developers and 82% of users are based outside Japan. With user access from more than 200 countries, the service has seen a good growth by taking the “global-first” strategy from Day One. In view of a notebook app, many of us will first come up with Evernote but the app has become complicated and heavy because of too many functions that are overloaded and eventually churn existing users. I wish Boostnote maintains simplicity yet still excites programmers.
The BoostIO team has strength not only in software development but also as to community of open source programmers that they have been steadily building. Their co-founders CEO Kazumasa Yokomizo and CTO Choi Junyoung are looking at future workstyle through open source activities while having started stepping toward the next growth under the stealth mode. Just after they finished a meeting with their investors, I had a chance to talk with them. They looked full of energy and told me:
I want to make big things happen within 2018.
Happy new year to all!
Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based MiddleField, operating the auto parts database website Garage, announced back in December that it had raised 250 million yen ($2.2 million) from Femto Growth Fund 2.0. The detail of the investment including share ratio is not disclosed. Femto Growth Fund 2.0 is managed by Femto Growth Capital where Tetsuya Isozaki acts as General Partner. Garage provides information about auto parts from engine to exterior by category / manufacturer, used for dressing-up or tuning-up of autos for race or enjoyment. When a user chooses a car model on the website, the car is displayed by linking with information about each additional part, allowing him / her to make inquiries for purchasing. Currently, Garage covers 1,500 brands and is tied up with 300 shops which deal with attachable aftermarket parts. Garage does not only provide auto parts information, but also intermediates between purchase wishers and shops supporting mounting work to allow users to get reservation. Shota Nakayama, CEO of MiddleField, says most of its users visit Garage by smartphone: Like other industries, the major inflow path is the search with smartphone shifted from magazine in this field as well, and 80% of our users visit…
Tokyo-based MiddleField, operating the auto parts database website Garage, announced back in December that it had raised 250 million yen ($2.2 million) from Femto Growth Fund 2.0. The detail of the investment including share ratio is not disclosed. Femto Growth Fund 2.0 is managed by Femto Growth Capital where Tetsuya Isozaki acts as General Partner.
Garage provides information about auto parts from engine to exterior by category / manufacturer, used for dressing-up or tuning-up of autos for race or enjoyment. When a user chooses a car model on the website, the car is displayed by linking with information about each additional part, allowing him / her to make inquiries for purchasing.
Garage Image credit: MiddleField
Currently, Garage covers 1,500 brands and is tied up with 300 shops which deal with attachable aftermarket parts. Garage does not only provide auto parts information, but also intermediates between purchase wishers and shops supporting mounting work to allow users to get reservation. Shota Nakayama, CEO of MiddleField, says most of its users visit Garage by smartphone:
Like other industries, the major inflow path is the search with smartphone shifted from magazine in this field as well, and 80% of our users visit Garage with smartphone. The purchase wishers of auto parts tend to take enough time to consider which parts to choose within the budget. Although they formerly used to collect information mainly from magazines, magazines are not suitable for carrying and covering information only about a part of auto makers, so that they have come to search with smartphone.
The author of this article also likes cars and have purchased such magazines covering parts information (have not attached parts though). As the main information gathering means having shifted from magazine to smartphone, a certain format is needed to overcome problems such as underdevelopment of shops’ website or complexity of information about attachment means or costs, and Garage aims to fill in the blank. According to Nakayama, the firm plans to renew the website early this year.
MiddleField was founded in December of 2015 by Nakayama, who had experienced business development in the racing team Lexus Team Sard which participated in many races, and have developed auto-related media Motorz.
In 2017, with Garage, the firm took part in the Asahi Shimbun Accelerator Program, an acceleration program by the Japanese major newspaper company Asahi Shimbun. After its Demo Day, the service was showcased at Incubate Camp 10th held by Incubate Fund or StarBurst managed by ProtoStar, and was highly evaluated by investors.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Jiraffe announced today that it had launched a so-called “honesty” app for 40 English-speaking markets. The app, dubbed Japan’s answer to Sarahah, is called Peing – QuestionBox with the aim to to help users collect “honest” anonymous feedback from their friends, co-workers and neighbors. Peing was initially launched for Japanese users by freelance engineer Seseri (his real name has not been disclosed) back in November last year. The service saw about 200 million page views in a month from November 2017 to December 2017, and was subsequently acquired by Jiraffe last month. According to the company’s CEO Teruaki Aso, they expect the English version will target U.S., UK, Hong Kong, India and other English-speaking markets because even the original Japanese version has seen user access from Mainland China since its Launch. Aso said in a recent interview with The Bridge: The overseas expansion is challenging for us. But the rapid launch of the English version was made possible since the app has adopted a global platform like Twitter (for user authentication process). The company plans to integrate with other platforms like China’s Weibo, and also to support Instagram formats and Chinese language to…
Tokyo-based Jiraffe announced today that it had launched a so-called “honesty” app for 40 English-speaking markets. The app, dubbed Japan’s answer to Sarahah, is called Peing – QuestionBox with the aim to to help users collect “honest” anonymous feedback from their friends, co-workers and neighbors.
Peing was initially launched for Japanese users by freelance engineer Seseri (his real name has not been disclosed) back in November last year. The service saw about 200 million page views in a month from November 2017 to December 2017, and was subsequently acquired by Jiraffe last month.
According to the company’s CEO Teruaki Aso, they expect the English version will target U.S., UK, Hong Kong, India and other English-speaking markets because even the original Japanese version has seen user access from Mainland China since its Launch.
Aso said in a recent interview with The Bridge:
The overseas expansion is challenging for us. But the rapid launch of the English version was made possible since the app has adopted a global platform like Twitter (for user authentication process).
The company plans to integrate with other platforms like China’s Weibo, and also to support Instagram formats and Chinese language to gain more market share in this sector.
See the original story in Japanese. Japan’s Mercari, providing the peer-to-peer marketplace app under the same name, announced in December that it has established Mercari R4D, a Research & Development organization with the aim to deploy emerging technologies to the society. Toshiya Kimura, Manager of Engineering Department at Mercari, was appointed the head of the new initiative. The name R4D stands for ‘Research for Development, Design, Deployment and Disruption.’ Mercari has been utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning technologies so far, and the firm will begin projects for social deployment and commercialization of these technologies in cooperation with other enterprises or educational organizations through the initiative. At this time, eight research themes jointly with Sharp and university laboratories have already been chosen, as follows: Communications with multiple locations utilizing 8K TVs with Corporate R&D Business Unit, Sharp Outletless office with wireless power feed system with Kawahara Lab, The University of Tokyo Deep Hashing Network for similar image search with Ochiai Lab, Tsukuba University 3D form estimation from product image posted on the marketplace with Ochiai Lab, Tsukuba University Background auto-specification from product image with Ochiai Lab, Tsukuba University Trust framework using blockchain with Keio University Internet of Things ecosystem…
Mercari CEO Shintaro Yamada introduces in-house AI research initiative Mercari R4D Image credit: Sekiko Suzuki/The Bridge
Japan’s Mercari, providing the peer-to-peer marketplace app under the same name, announced in December that it has established Mercari R4D, a Research & Development organization with the aim to deploy emerging technologies to the society. Toshiya Kimura, Manager of Engineering Department at Mercari, was appointed the head of the new initiative.
The name R4D stands for ‘Research for Development, Design, Deployment and Disruption.’ Mercari has been utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning technologies so far, and the firm will begin projects for social deployment and commercialization of these technologies in cooperation with other enterprises or educational organizations through the initiative. At this time, eight research themes jointly with Sharp and university laboratories have already been chosen, as follows:
Communications with multiple locations utilizing 8K TVs with Corporate R&D Business Unit, Sharp
Outletless office with wireless power feed system with Kawahara Lab, The University of Tokyo
Deep Hashing Network for similar image search with Ochiai Lab, Tsukuba University
3D form estimation from product image posted on the marketplace with Ochiai Lab, Tsukuba University
Background auto-specification from product image with Ochiai Lab, Tsukuba University
Trust framework using blockchain with Keio University
Internet of Things ecosystem with Cross-tech Design Lab, Kyoto University of Art & Design
Application of quantum annealing technology to art field with Ohzeki Lab, Tohoku University
According to Mercari CEO Shintaro Yamada, the investment amount to these research activities has not been clearly set yet, but it will be at several hundred millions of yen (several millions of dollars)-scale next year. The research themes are chosen from mid-to long-term plans requiring 3 to 5 years, as well as ones utilizing IoT or blockchain technologies having application possibility of social infrastructure.
Research is already being undertaken in the above eight themes and more themes will possibly be added. The commercialization and deployment of research results may be brought about as a Mercari product in the future. Yamada explains the background to the foundation of R4D:
Mercari achieved 100 million downloads just the other day. Meanwhile, we have implemented the wrongful exhibit detection system utilizing AI technology or the auto-estimation of weight of items to the app for the U.S.. One of our purposes is to differentiate the app by technologies through R&D.
The firm plans to enhance its engineer structure to 1000-staffer organization from current 100-staffer one. In addition, it started establishment of an organization capable of scaling by micronizing each function. Kimura explains the firm’s future vision:
As Fujifilm engaged in development of cosmetics, we may start different business in the future and are considering how to make good use of our owned technologies.
As the Japanese artist Sputniko!, a renowned British/Japanese artist and designer, who joined the team as Senior Producer, various direction of deployment can be seen, for example utilizing technologies which are hard to deploy immediately into a form of design or art. The firm focuses on research as well as commercialization and visualization of technology jointly with external research organizations.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
The Bridge
Masaru Ikeda
Takeshi Hirano
Tokyo-based 
