news

Japan’s Vinclu, holographic virtual assistant developer, acquired by Line

SCORE 1,873

Takeshi Hirano 2017.03.02

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Vinclu, the Japanese startup developing a holographic virtual assistant called Gatebox, has announced that it will start co-developing solutions using Clova, the artificial intelligence (AI) platform developed by Japanese messaging company Line and its Korean parent company Naver. Coinciding with this, Line unveiled that it will take a major stake in Vinclu although financial details have not been disclosed. Upon this acquisition, Jun Masuda, CSMO (Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer) of Line, joined the management board of Vinclu on March 1st while Primal Capital’s Hiroshi Sasaki will retain the startup’s strategic advisor position. The Clova AI platform was just unveiled at Mobile World Congress 2017, underway now in Barcelona. Aiming to catch up with competitors like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, the Naver and Line consortium are planning to introduce AI-enabled solutions in Japan and Korea this summer, with products like the Clova app and the Wave smart speaker. See also: Gatebox, holographic virtual assistant, launches pre-orders for geeks in Japan, US Japan’s Vinclu gains $768K in funding to develop hologram assistant for smart living The Clova platform consists of Clova Brain and Clova Interface, each of which is respectively relevant to the…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Vinclu, the Japanese startup developing a holographic virtual assistant called Gatebox, has announced that it will start co-developing solutions using Clova, the artificial intelligence (AI) platform developed by Japanese messaging company Line and its Korean parent company Naver. Coinciding with this, Line unveiled that it will take a major stake in Vinclu although financial details have not been disclosed.

Upon this acquisition, Jun Masuda, CSMO (Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer) of Line, joined the management board of Vinclu on March 1st while Primal Capital’s Hiroshi Sasaki will retain the startup’s strategic advisor position.

The Clova AI platform was just unveiled at Mobile World Congress 2017, underway now in Barcelona. Aiming to catch up with competitors like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, the Naver and Line consortium are planning to introduce AI-enabled solutions in Japan and Korea this summer, with products like the Clova app and the Wave smart speaker.

See also:

The Clova platform consists of Clova Brain and Clova Interface, each of which is respectively relevant to the eyes/mouth and the ears of humans. While a hardware device like the Wave smart speaker secures interfaces that allow the platform to communicate with users, Vinclu’s Gatebox is considered to be defined in that layer.

According to the statement from Line, the company signed a partnership with Sony Mobile Communications in the smart product development and with Takara Tomy (TSE:7867) in the smart toy development, in addition to one with Vinclu in the home robot development. Going forward Vinclu will leverage the Clova platform to develop various applications such
as news updates and calendar-based content offerings, voice command-based home control and Audiobook playback.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japanese geo-analytics startup Nightley secures $1.1M funding in series A round

Nightley

Masaru Ikeda 2017.03.01

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Nightley, the Japanese startup developing geo-analytics solutions, announced on Monday that they raised a total of 130 million yen (around $1.2 million US) from Nissay Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, and Legend Partners in a series A round. This follows their previous funding of an undisclosed sum from NetAge and Altovision (now known as Experian Japan) in a seed round back in May of 2011. Yutaka Ishikawa, previously of NetAge, founded Nightley in 2011. Initially, the company operated the Milcle app which facilitated communication between shop operators and customers, but then pivoted their business to data collection and analysis specializing in location information. In addition to Inbound Insight, a tool capable of analyzing the behaviors of visitors for inbound businesses launched in July of 2015, they have released a series of services including ABC Lunch, an app that connects users and regional restaurants using SNS big data; ZouZou, a tourism support app for visitors to Japan; and Pokémon GO Insight, which shows popular areas for Pokémon GO on a map. See also: Tokyo Office Tour: Nightley brings behavioral consumer data to geo-analytics Of these, in particular the B2B service Inbound Insight contributes to the…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Nightley, the Japanese startup developing geo-analytics solutions, announced on Monday that they raised a total of 130 million yen (around $1.2 million US) from Nissay Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, and Legend Partners in a series A round. This follows their previous funding of an undisclosed sum from NetAge and Altovision (now known as Experian Japan) in a seed round back in May of 2011.

Yutaka Ishikawa, previously of NetAge, founded Nightley in 2011. Initially, the company operated the Milcle app which facilitated communication between shop operators and customers, but then pivoted their business to data collection and analysis specializing in location information. In addition to Inbound Insight, a tool capable of analyzing the behaviors of visitors for inbound businesses launched in July of 2015, they have released a series of services including ABC Lunch, an app that connects users and regional restaurants using SNS big data; ZouZou, a tourism support app for visitors to Japan; and Pokémon GO Insight, which shows popular areas for Pokémon GO on a map.

See also:

Tokyo Office Tour: Nightley brings behavioral consumer data to geo-analytics

Of these, in particular the B2B service Inbound Insight contributes to the company’s sales. This service collects and analyzes data based on posts published on SNS such as Twitter and Weibo, and clients can then get a taste of user tendencies (facilities visited, types of movement, routes taken) based on nationality. The company offers a premium service with more than 4,000 clients including major advertising companies, convenience stores, rail companies, and marketing research companies.

It appears that after one and a half years since the launch, the company will expand the variation of services offered through Inbound Insight.

He explained:

Nightley CEO Yutaka Ishikawa

We started with an SNS (social network service-based) analysis plan. From there we have expanded the variations using stats other than SNS, for example, partnering with NTT DoCoMo to collect anonymous data from inbound tourists (users of roaming in), and negotiating with the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry to gather and analyze data on the trends of visitors to Japan.

We are putting out a plan with Val Laboratory [known as Ekisupaato, the expert on stations] that multiplies station data and location analysis data, as well as developing a plan with the Mitsubishi Research Institute, who are skilled in tourism analysis, that can predict the future of inbound visitors.

For a diagnostic plan of priorities, for example, if you input the address list of a chain of stores, you can see which store has a large number of Chinese tourists, so providers know whether introducing the Alipay terminal is a priority or not.

They have also advanced statistically visible content by tracing the trends based on the price of the accommodations chosen by users, making it possible to see where users with more money are choosing, as well as the routes backpackers are taking. Recently, there are also increasing numbers of automobile and rental car companies, etc., requesting analyses of their raw trend data from customers, including location information, in order to obtain context from the data.

Nightley plans to use the funds raised this time around to expand their app and location intelligence business. Specifically, they are looking to improve and increase the plans for Inbound Insight, targeting companies looking to promote visiting foreigners to Japan and companies providing solutions for inbound actions.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka

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3 Southeast Asian AI startups that could work well in Europe

Zeroth.ai

The Bridge 2017.02.26

This guest post is authored by Mark Bivens. Mark is a Silicon Valley native and former entrepreneur, having started three companies before “turning to the dark side of VC.” He is a venture capitalist that travels between Paris and Tokyo (aka the RudeVC). You can read more on his blog at http://rude.vc or follow him @markbivens. The Japanese translation of this article is available here. Last Friday I had the pleasure of attending the remote webcast of Zeroth.ai accelerator’s class pitch day. Here in The Bridge you’ll find a more comprehensive recap of the event. In contrast, I’ll hone in on three AI startups which struck me as particularly relevant for the European market. Rocco.ai – an AI-powered social media manager. Rocco’s key selling point is improving the efficiency of managing myriad social media campaigns in the saturated space of platforms. Sounds worthwhile. However, I could already imagine another killer app: tweak the Rocco bot to suffer through the countless productivity-sapping meetings which are all-too-common in many Southern European business environments. Impress.ai – an AI-powered candidate screening tool for employers. One of Europe’s strengths is is deep base of diverse talent in the job-seeking pool. Hiring managers are inundated with…

This guest post is authored by Mark Bivens. Mark is a Silicon Valley native and former entrepreneur, having started three companies before “turning to the dark side of VC.” He is a venture capitalist that travels between Paris and Tokyo (aka the RudeVC). You can read more on his blog at http://rude.vc or follow him @markbivens. The Japanese translation of this article is available here.

Last Friday I had the pleasure of attending the remote webcast of Zeroth.ai accelerator’s class pitch day.

Here in The Bridge you’ll find a more comprehensive recap of the event. In contrast, I’ll hone in on three AI startups which struck me as particularly relevant for the European market.

Rocco.ai – an AI-powered social media manager. Rocco’s key selling point is improving the efficiency of managing myriad social media campaigns in the saturated space of platforms. Sounds worthwhile. However, I could already imagine another killer app: tweak the Rocco bot to suffer through the countless productivity-sapping meetings which are all-too-common in many Southern European business environments.

Impress.ai – an AI-powered candidate screening tool for employers. One of Europe’s strengths is is deep base of diverse talent in the job-seeking pool. Hiring managers are inundated with résumés in countries which have punishingly high unemployment rates. Impress.ai’s tool strikes me as a remedy to optimizing these hiring processes. One open question for bots like these is how do we ensure that our human biases do not become integrated into the AI tools humans build?

Sero.ai – a clever application for deep learning to improve rice crop yields. By taking photos of their rice fields with their smartphones, farmers can obtain AI-driven analytics and disease diagnoses in real-time in order to optimize usage of pesticides, fertilizers, water, and energy on their crops. This led me to thinking: would a similar application be appropriate for vineyards? For example, could a winemaker minimize pesticide usage based on an AI-informed recommendation of insect susceptibility? Or perhaps even the harvest date could be optimized? It would seem to me that a startup from one of the major wine regions in France, Italy, or even Germany would have some legitimacy in this area.

To reiterate what I had mentioned in my predictions post, I believe 2017 will be a breakout year for the deployment of AI applications. By this I mean that AI companies will start to master the processes of expectation management and social engineering in order to bring AI across the chasm of consumer perception. This excites me as an investor.

[On a related note: my favorite venue for meeting AI entrepreneurs in Tokyo is the aptly-named Deus Ex Machina, a surf shop that doubles as a café (or vice versa). If you appreciate AI (or even just a well-balanced Gibraltar, albeit brewed by a human), Deus is worth a stop. If you bump into me there, I’m probably meeting with an AI entrepreneur, so please introduce yourself. However, please don’t “out” me as a VC since the staff of the Deus only know me as the California surfer dude.]

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Japan’s Mixi acquires Compath.me, Tokyo startup behind family photo service Kiddy

Masaru Ikeda 2017.02.22

Tokyo-based Compath.me, the startup behind family photo service Kiddy, announced on Monday that it had been recently acquired by Japanese internet company Mixi (TSE:2121). Financial terms regarding the deal have not been disclosed but Compath.me’s founder and CEO Hiromichi Ando plus his some colleagues will join Mixi upon the acquisition. Mixi’s ‘Vantage Studio’ department, the new business development team directly led by Mixi co-founder and chairman Shinji Kasahara, has been offering a family photo service called Mitene (meaning ‘Check out this!’ in Japanese) since 2015. The company announced earlier this month that the app has acquired over 1 million users. According to the statement from Compath.me, the Kiddy app is expected to be merged into the Mitene app soon with the user migration. The Kiddy app will be completely shutting down in late April. Meanwhile, Mixi recently started broadcasting TV commercials across Japan to boost user acquisition for the Mitene app (see video below). Compath.me was originally launched back in 2011, graduating from Tokyo-based startup incubator Open Network Lab. Starting with a photo-sharing app aiming to help users discover locations and events around them, they subsequently pivoted to the family photo service in 2013.Compath.me was originally launched back in 2011,…

Tokyo-based Compath.me, the startup behind family photo service Kiddy, announced on Monday that it had been recently acquired by Japanese internet company Mixi (TSE:2121). Financial terms regarding the deal have not been disclosed but Compath.me’s founder and CEO Hiromichi Ando plus his some colleagues will join Mixi upon the acquisition.

Mixi’s ‘Vantage Studio’ department, the new business development team directly led by Mixi co-founder and chairman Shinji Kasahara, has been offering a family photo service called Mitene (meaning ‘Check out this!’ in Japanese) since 2015. The company announced earlier this month that the app has acquired over 1 million users. According to the statement from Compath.me, the Kiddy app is expected to be merged into the Mitene app soon with the user migration. The Kiddy app will be completely shutting down in late April.

Meanwhile, Mixi recently started broadcasting TV commercials across Japan to boost user acquisition for the Mitene app (see video below).

Compath.me was originally launched back in 2011, graduating from Tokyo-based startup incubator Open Network Lab. Starting with a photo-sharing app aiming to help users discover locations and events around them, they subsequently pivoted to the family photo service in 2013.Compath.me was originally launched back in 2011, graduating from Tokyo-based startup incubator Open Network Lab. Starting with a photo-sharing app aiming to help users discover locations and events around them, they subsequently pivoted to the family photo service in 2013.

Compath.me has fundraised an undisclosed sum in a seed round from DG Incubation (the company operating Open Network Lab as well as the investment arm subsidiary of Digital Garage), Architype and Netprice.com (now known as Beenos, TSE:3328). Subsequently the startup raised 50 million yen (about $492,000) from Japanese internet company United (TSE:2497) in May of 2014.

See also:

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japanese C2C marketplace app Mercari to acquire Asia-focused auction site Smaoku

Masaru Ikeda 2017.02.20

Japanese C2C(consumer-to-consumer) marketplace app producer Mercari announced today that it will acquire Zawatt, the startup behind a Japan-based online auction site catering in brand goods, called Smaoku. The deal takes effect as of Feb.27 but financial details thereof have not been disclosed. Smaoku (short for Smart Auction) allows users to buy/sell authentic second-hand items vis-a-vis other users. Last May, English and traditional Chinese interfaces became usable in addition to the Japanese one, aiming to serve U.S., Hong Kong, Taiwanese and Singaporean buyers. Since being established in May of 2011, Zawatt has released several web services including WebScope (social list bulletin board) and Ohako (karaoke companion finder). The company launched Smaoku in October of 2013 and won KDDI Mugen Labo’s 5th batch demo day with the ‘real-time auction’ concept that makes users feel as if they are at a real auction site when buying items online. In 2015, Zawatt raised 250 million yen(USD 2 million) from IMJ Investment Partners (IMJ-IP), plus China’s SIG Asia Investments and its partner VC firm MS Capital of Japan. Upon the acquisition at this time, Zawatt co-founder and CEO Daisaku Harada will join Mercari while Smaoku will continue to be run by the current staff. See…

Japanese C2C(consumer-to-consumer) marketplace app producer Mercari announced today that it will acquire Zawatt, the startup behind a Japan-based online auction site catering in brand goods, called Smaoku. The deal takes effect as of Feb.27 but financial details thereof have not been disclosed.

Smaoku (short for Smart Auction) allows users to buy/sell authentic second-hand items vis-a-vis other users. Last May, English and traditional Chinese interfaces became usable in addition to the Japanese one, aiming to serve U.S., Hong Kong, Taiwanese and Singaporean buyers.

Since being established in May of 2011, Zawatt has released several web services including WebScope (social list bulletin board) and Ohako (karaoke companion finder). The company launched Smaoku in October of 2013 and won KDDI Mugen Labo’s 5th batch demo day with the ‘real-time auction’ concept that makes users feel as if they are at a real auction site when buying items online.

In 2015, Zawatt raised 250 million yen(USD 2 million) from IMJ Investment Partners (IMJ-IP), plus China’s SIG Asia Investments and its partner VC firm MS Capital of Japan.

Upon the acquisition at this time, Zawatt co-founder and CEO Daisaku Harada will join Mercari while Smaoku will continue to be run by the current staff.

See also:

Japan’s Smart Auction is a destination for fashionable working ladies

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Cities of Japan’s Fukuoka, Taiwan’s Taipei agree on mutual startup support initiatives

Masaru Ikeda 2017.02.19

See the original story in Japanese. Municipal governments of Japan’s Fukuoka and Taiwan’s Taipei earlier this month signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) on mutual support by Japanese and Taiwanese startups upon expanding their businesses to the respective markets. Fukuoka Mayor Soichiro Takashima visited the Taipei City Hall to sign the MoU with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, which was followed by a joint press briefing. Taipei City has established Taiwan Startup Hub and other incubation facilities to encourage entrepreneurship among the younger generation while Fukuoka City has set up several similar venues such as Startup Cafe (planned to be moved soon to the former Daimyo Elementary School site from the current Tenjin area premise in Fukuoka’s city center). Some of our readers may recall that Fukuoka City held a competition to choose Taiwanese startups to be invited to the former at Taiwan Startup Hub back in July of 2016. Mayor Takashima said that Fukuoka City has introduced these nine Taiwanese startups to a major Japanese department store and other firms through business collaboration and matchmaking opportunities like Fukuoka Startup Selection. Along Mayor Takashima, startup founders and entrepreneurs from Fukuoka were participate in the MoU signing ceremony. Taipei City Mayor Ko…

Fukuoka city mayor Soichiro Takashima and Taipei city mayor Ko Wen-je shake hands after signing the MoU.
Image credit: Fukuoka City Office

See the original story in Japanese.

Municipal governments of Japan’s Fukuoka and Taiwan’s Taipei earlier this month signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) on mutual support by Japanese and Taiwanese startups upon expanding their businesses to the respective markets. Fukuoka Mayor Soichiro Takashima visited the Taipei City Hall to sign the MoU with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, which was followed by a joint press briefing.

Taipei City has established Taiwan Startup Hub and other incubation facilities to encourage entrepreneurship among the younger generation while Fukuoka City has set up several similar venues such as Startup Cafe (planned to be moved soon to the former Daimyo Elementary School site from the current Tenjin area premise in Fukuoka’s city center). Some of our readers may recall that Fukuoka City held a competition to choose Taiwanese startups to be invited to the former at Taiwan Startup Hub back in July of 2016. Mayor Takashima said that Fukuoka City has introduced these nine Taiwanese startups to a major Japanese department store and other firms through business collaboration and matchmaking opportunities like Fukuoka Startup Selection.

Along Mayor Takashima, startup founders and entrepreneurs from Fukuoka were participate in the MoU signing ceremony. Taipei City Mayor Ko said he wanted to invite them to the city’s brand new incubation hotspots such as Center for Innovation Taipei (CIT), Taipei Co-Space and digiBlock, which will be completed in Taipei Metro’s Yuanshan station neighborhood by the end of this year.

While Fukuoka City has unveiled what kind of support can be offered to Taiwanese startups in Japan through the partnership, the press briefing this time around unveiled how the Taipei City Government can help Japanese startups in Taiwan as follows:

Offering overseas business expansion support by partnering of Startup@Taipei and Fukuoka’s Startup Cafe.
Offering financial support including grants to entrepreneurs to set up a business
Offering support for exhibiting at events and conferences in Taipei

L to R: Masanori Hashimoto (CEO of Nulab), Asuka Tsuzuki (President of Tsuzuki Education Group), Shuhei Ishimaru (Director General of Fukuoka Directive Council), Soichiro Takashima (Mayor of Fukuoka City), Ko Wen-je (Mayor of Taipei City), Lin Chin-rong (Deputy Mayor of Taipei City), Lin Chong-jie (Head of Taipei City’s Department of Economic Development Office)
Image credit: Fukuoka City Office

See also:

Cities of Japan’s Fukuoka, France’s Bordeaux shake hands to support drone startups

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s One Tap Buy, mobile-only trading brokerage, secures $13.3M from Mizuho, Softbank, others

One Tap Buy

SCORE 1,827

Masaru Ikeda 2017.02.19

Previously known as MyBanker, Tokyo-based One Tap Buy has been focused on developing a mobile app that specifically helps people manage their savings and investments more easily. The firm announced on Tuesday that it has fundraised 1.5 billion yen (about $13.3 million) from Mizuho Capital, Mobile Internet Capital, Softbank and Mizuho Securities. This follows their previous 1 billion yen funding from Softbank back in July of 2016. Prior to that, the firm also secured an undisclosed sum from Mobile Internet Capital, DBJ Capital and Mitsui Life Insurance’s Sansei Capital, as well as other undisclosed VC firms in June of 2015. Followed by closed beta testing for almost an year, the app was officially launched in last June. The company claims that they have acquired over 150,000 downloads to date, especially from users in their 20s and 30s, while 70% of them have not tried any investment opportunity before. The app allows users to easily choose then buy US-listed stocks and Japanese exchange traded funds rather than using conventional trading platforms. The company says that the new funds will be used to accelerate system development efforts for new services in addition to strengthen marketing efforts to make more people recognize the…

Previously known as MyBanker, Tokyo-based One Tap Buy has been focused on developing a mobile app that specifically helps people manage their savings and investments more easily. The firm announced on Tuesday that it has fundraised 1.5 billion yen (about $13.3 million) from Mizuho Capital, Mobile Internet Capital, Softbank and Mizuho Securities.

This follows their previous 1 billion yen funding from Softbank back in July of 2016. Prior to that, the firm also secured an undisclosed sum from Mobile Internet Capital, DBJ Capital and Mitsui Life Insurance’s Sansei Capital, as well as other undisclosed VC firms in June of 2015.

Followed by closed beta testing for almost an year, the app was officially launched in last June. The company claims that they have acquired over 150,000 downloads to date, especially from users in their 20s and 30s, while 70% of them have not tried any investment opportunity before.

The app allows users to easily choose then buy US-listed stocks and Japanese exchange traded funds rather than using conventional trading platforms. The company says that the new funds will be used to accelerate system development efforts for new services in addition to strengthen marketing efforts to make more people recognize the service.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

One Tap Buy CEO Hayashi made his pitch at Startupbootcamp FinTech FastTrack in Tokyo in 2015.
Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

Via TechCrunch Japan

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Meet Symmetry Alpha, 3D CAD model browser from Japan that lets you jump into VR metaverse

Masaru Ikeda 2017.02.18

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Dverse, the Japanese startup focused on developing virtual reality (VR) authoring tools, this Tuesday unveiled its VR browser for construction / civil engineering use, named Symmetry Alpha. One can download the browser from the game software distribution platform Steam. The browser was developed based on Unity platform and is currently available for Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. In the future, it will support other platforms such as Oculus Rift, Android Daydream, Samsung Gear or Microsoft HoloLens. It is not easy to express its excellence in words, as with every new VR solution, and yet Symmetry shows an outstanding vision for enabling users to experience a feel of being teleported into the VR world just by importing CAD (computer-aided design) data in SketchUp files. Although there have been other systems that create perspective drawing from CAD data, and in fact design offices or architects have often used them in order to explain design plans to their clients. However, there is a limit for perspective drawing to express 3D data in 2D images, as well as the problem of the blind spots. Symmetry enables users not only to check the outer appearance but also to…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Dverse, the Japanese startup focused on developing virtual reality (VR) authoring tools, this Tuesday unveiled its VR browser for construction / civil engineering use, named Symmetry Alpha. One can download the browser from the game software distribution platform Steam. The browser was developed based on Unity platform and is currently available for Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. In the future, it will support other platforms such as Oculus Rift, Android Daydream, Samsung Gear or Microsoft HoloLens.

It is not easy to express its excellence in words, as with every new VR solution, and yet Symmetry shows an outstanding vision for enabling users to experience a feel of being teleported into the VR world just by importing CAD (computer-aided design) data in SketchUp files. Although there have been other systems that create perspective drawing from CAD data, and in fact design offices or architects have often used them in order to explain design plans to their clients. However, there is a limit for perspective drawing to express 3D data in 2D images, as well as the problem of the blind spots. Symmetry enables users not only to check the outer appearance but also to virtually be positioned inside the object and to obtain a panoramic view.

Since launched back in October of 2014, Dverse had fundraised an undisclosed amount from BonAngels Venture Partners and Villing Venture Partners in July of 2015, followed by $104 million from 500 Startups Japan, Colopl VR Fund, KLab Venture Partners, Adways (TSE:2489), Willgroup (TSE:6089), and Slogan, in addition to angel investor Shogo Kawada, in June of 2016. According to Dverse CEO Shogo Numakura, the firm had conducted contract-planning and development of VR software for operational training use as commissioned by major enterprises, but have been focusing on development of Symmetry since around last January.

This day’s launch is a St. Valentine’s Day present to the world. The support languages are not especially limited to VR, so that it can become a solution without language barriers.

Numakura comments on the firm’s view:

I considered using the same approach as Adobe did for Acrobat; we first offered users the use of our browser for free and let them recognize the usefulness of VR in business. We plan to launch an editor (authoring) tool as a premium service during the third quarter. I expect that VR for business use will go into full swing within a few years.

Numakura also said that it is not easy for VR startups to raise funds or to seek new markets domestically only and that he considers overseas development of Dverse as a solution to these problems. The firm plans to establish local offices in Silicon Beach LA (tech startup community based on from Santa Monica to Venice Beach) in the U.S. and in Shoreditch (the up-north area of London’s Tech City) in the UK within the year, as well as one in China, which is showing great performance by VR startups with an eye to the future.

See also:

The Bridge’s guide to VR hotspots in Tokyo (2017 new year edition)

Although the firm does not plan an exhibition at SXSW (South by Southwest), Numakura told us that his company intends to introduce the browser through participation in various startup events or VR-related conferences which will be held within and outside Japan from this Spring.

How can Dverse change the global construction and civil engineering fields? It behooves a close look at their activities.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s online coding school startup Progate nabs $880K for Asian expansion

Progate

Takeshi Hirano 2017.02.15

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Progate, offering an online code learning service under the same name, announced on Monday that it has secured 100 million yen (about $880,000) in funding from FreakOut Holdings (TSE:6094), DeNA (TSE:2432), and individual investors. Details concerning the payment date and shareholding ratios were not disclosed. In addition to this, the company announced that their number of users has reached 120,000, that it is being used as teaching materials in around 10 high schools in Japan, and they revealed the expansion of their services with “Progate for School” and “Progate for Business.” Progate, which was launched in the summer of 2014 by three students attending the University of Tokyo at that time, has been able satisfy users up to now. However, their competitor Codecademy has secured tens of millions of users on a global scale. Following up on this, Progate’s CEO Masanori Kato revealed plans to release an international version of their service within 2017, with the particular desire to become an influential presence in the Asian region. He said: Although we don’t have clear results yet (regarding tests of the overseas version), considering Progate’s current demographic of 25-34 year olds, which is a…

Students at a highschool learning how to code using the “Progate for School” service.
Image credit: Progate

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Progate, offering an online code learning service under the same name, announced on Monday that it has secured 100 million yen (about $880,000) in funding from FreakOut Holdings (TSE:6094), DeNA (TSE:2432), and individual investors. Details concerning the payment date and shareholding ratios were not disclosed.

In addition to this, the company announced that their number of users has reached 120,000, that it is being used as teaching materials in around 10 high schools in Japan, and they revealed the expansion of their services with “Progate for School” and “Progate for Business.”

Progate, which was launched in the summer of 2014 by three students attending the University of Tokyo at that time, has been able satisfy users up to now. However, their competitor Codecademy has secured tens of millions of users on a global scale. Following up on this, Progate’s CEO Masanori Kato revealed plans to release an international version of their service within 2017, with the particular desire to become an influential presence in the Asian region.

Progate co-founder/CEO Masanori Kato
Image credit: Takeshi Hirano

He said:

Although we don’t have clear results yet (regarding tests of the overseas version), considering Progate’s current demographic of 25-34 year olds, which is a large demographic in Southeast Asia, we think this target is consistent. There are many people who are fascinated by learning programming and it could have an even bigger effect on their lives than Japanese users, and we’d like to appeal to this target while taking advantage of the position of FreakOut, who participated in funding this time around.

Kato also remarked on their goal to increase examples created by users in conjunction with their service by adding applied lesson content, thus gradually showing overseas users the value of their service.

Along with the freshness of a business centered on the creation of students, they are worth paying attention to as they challenge the field of programming education which supports future developers who will go on to shape the world. To what extent will they be able to contribute to the developing capabilities of their generation? I would like to report on it again after quantitative information becomes available.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

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Agribuddy snags $730K to help farmers in emerging countries make more money

Agribuddy

Masaru Ikeda 2017.02.10

See the original story in Japanese. Agribuddy, a startup that offers a mobile app to farmers in Cambodia and other emerging countries to provide them with asset management support services, announced on Wedsneday that it has received US$730,000 in funding from the likes of iSGS Investment Works, Yorihiko “Paul” Kato, several additional corporations, funds, and individual investors. The company plans to use the funds raised to further develop products and systems currently under development and to acquire top talent who can play an active part in the world market. Agribuddy provides an Android app of the same name to farmers, who then can register their farmland and crops as users allowing the app to automatically calculate income and expenditure patterns, as well as timing and money amounts. In addition, Agribuddy’s own credit scoring function also provides a service that sets credit limits from banks and other financial institutions for buying agricultural materials. The total agricultural area of Agribuddy’s users has reached just under 190,000 hectares, and they originally started collecting users mainly in Cambodia, but recently they have also begun to accumulate users in neighboring Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, India, etc. This is due to people called “Buddies” stationed in each…

See the original story in Japanese.

Agribuddy, a startup that offers a mobile app to farmers in Cambodia and other emerging countries to provide them with asset management support services, announced on Wedsneday that it has received US$730,000 in funding from the likes of iSGS Investment Works, Yorihiko “Paul” Kato, several additional corporations, funds, and individual investors. The company plans to use the funds raised to further develop products and systems currently under development and to acquire top talent who can play an active part in the world market.

Agribuddy provides an Android app of the same name to farmers, who then can register their farmland and crops as users allowing the app to automatically calculate income and expenditure patterns, as well as timing and money amounts. In addition, Agribuddy’s own credit scoring function also provides a service that sets credit limits from banks and other financial institutions for buying agricultural materials.

The total agricultural area of Agribuddy’s users has reached just under 190,000 hectares, and they originally started collecting users mainly in Cambodia, but recently they have also begun to accumulate users in neighboring Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, India, etc. This is due to people called “Buddies” stationed in each rural village, making it possible to reach out to and collect data from potential users who are not connected to the Internet.

The company won the pitch competition of the Nikkei FinTech Conference held in Tokyo last June.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka

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