Bridge learned that SynchroLife, the AI-powered social restaurant discovery app developed and managed by Ginkan, will be acquired by Minkabu the Infonoid (TSE:4436), the parent company of Japanese news portal site Livedoor. The terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed. Since Livedoor describes the move as a business transfer rather than a company acquisition, it may be possible that Ginkan will explore establishing another business after the deal. Details are unknown at this time but Bridge has reached out to Ginkan for further details. Launched back in October of 2012, SynchroLife has been dedicated to establishing a community leveraging blockchain technology and its SynchroCoin token to prevent arbitrary bias from influencing the posting of restaurant reviews. Originally launched by Tokyo-based startup AI Pacific, the app has been run by Hong Kong-registered Ginkan since 2015 to support crypto-powered functions. In July of 2019, the company started allowing users to earn tokens by dining at partnering restaurants. The app has earned 10,000 monthly restaurant reviews from users to date, which eventually exceeded 400,000 reviews in total as of August. In Japan, more than 1,800 restaurants are using it to help their marketing effort. Companies like credit card services, gas providers and…
SynchroLife Image credit: Ginkan
Bridge learned that SynchroLife, the AI-powered social restaurant discovery app developed and managed by Ginkan, will be acquired by Minkabu the Infonoid (TSE:4436), the parent company of Japanese news portal site Livedoor.
The terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed. Since Livedoor describes the move as a business transfer rather than a company acquisition, it may be possible that Ginkan will explore establishing another business after the deal. Details are unknown at this time but Bridge has reached out to Ginkan for further details.
Launched back in October of 2012, SynchroLife has been dedicated to establishing a community leveraging blockchain technology and its SynchroCoin token to prevent arbitrary bias from influencing the posting of restaurant reviews.
Originally launched by Tokyo-based startup AI Pacific, the app has been run by Hong Kong-registered Ginkan since 2015 to support crypto-powered functions. In July of 2019, the company started allowing users to earn tokens by dining at partnering restaurants.
The app has earned 10,000 monthly restaurant reviews from users to date, which eventually exceeded 400,000 reviews in total as of August. In Japan, more than 1,800 restaurants are using it to help their marketing effort. Companies like credit card services, gas providers and local sports teams are assisting the startup expand the app’s merchant base.
Offering media services such as Livedoor News and Kstyle, Livedoor boasts 70 million monthly active users and 30 million social network followers. By acquiring the social app, the company intends to diversify its media service coverage into gourmet while offering their existing users with new customer experience and the token economy to increase loyalty. In addition, the company wants to enlarge the app’s user base through driving traffic from their conventional services.
Updated on 4pm, Feb 9th: Adding Zeal’s funding method, as colored in red. Some of our readers may recall that we have covered Tokyo- / Taipei-based HitoBito=人々 (and its Taiwan branch Bande=邦徳), the Japanese/Taiwanese startup behind the ChiChat chat-based marketing platform, when they secured a seed round back in December of 2019. The company was founded in 2015 by Masaya Ishikawa=石川真也, who was involved in launching the digital marketing business at Softbank Mobile and has experience in digital marketing project management for largest distribution companies. In his seed round announcement, Ishikawa said his team was offering chat-based marketing support on social network services for Japanese e-commerce companies in Taiwan and Thailand, and was looking to expand into mainland China with WeChat support. HitoBito was no exception in receiving the impact by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the World Health Organization and Japan’s Health Ministry first reported pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan, China, in January of 2020, meaning that HitoBito were caught up in the global chaos immediately after securing the seed round. HitoBito’s sales from the cross-border commerce sector has decreased by 70% as not only human traffic was restricted but also logistics became severely disrupted. Facing such a difficulty,…
The HitoBito team with their investors in this round. Founder and CEO Masaya Ishikawa sits in the middle of the first row. Image credit: HitoBito
Updated on 4pm, Feb 9th: Adding Zeal’s funding method, as colored in red.
Some of our readers may recall that we have covered Tokyo- / Taipei-based HitoBito=人々 (and its Taiwan branch Bande=邦徳), the Japanese/Taiwanese startup behind the ChiChat chat-based marketing platform, when they secured a seed round back in December of 2019. The company was founded in 2015 by Masaya Ishikawa=石川真也, who was involved in launching the digital marketing business at Softbank Mobile and has experience in digital marketing project management for largest distribution companies. In his seed round announcement, Ishikawa said his team was offering chat-based marketing support on social network services for Japanese e-commerce companies in Taiwan and Thailand, and was looking to expand into mainland China with WeChat support.
HitoBito was no exception in receiving the impact by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the World Health Organization and Japan’s Health Ministry first reported pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan, China, in January of 2020, meaning that HitoBito were caught up in the global chaos immediately after securing the seed round. HitoBito’s sales from the cross-border commerce sector has decreased by 70% as not only human traffic was restricted but also logistics became severely disrupted. Facing such a difficulty, Ishikawa decided to shut down his company’s Thai subsidiary and settle down in Taipei to focus his chat marketing business on serving the Taiwanese market.
In
the first year (2020) after the decision, the company initially focused
on Japanese companies in Taiwan. And then in 2021, they could obtain
more clients thanks to partnership with Taiwan’s largest retail
conglomerate Uni-President Group (統一集団) which eventually led to having
150 clients to date in Taiwan alone. In 2022, the company started
serving companies in Japan from Taiwan-based operations. In addition to
the chatbot mechanism, the company also hires Japanese staff in Taiwan
to follow up on the chatbots, making it possible to operate the service
with one-fourth the man-hours compared to non-AI powered chat marketing
tools operated in Japan.
ChiChat Japanese version Image credit: HitoBito
HitoBito announced on Friday that it has secured a series A round. Participating investors are GxPartners, Star to Asia (亞星通), MTG Ventures, MicroAd (TSE:9553), XCAPITAL, Globis University’s Graduate School of Management, and AIX Tech Ventures. Star to Asia is also one of the local partners mentioned above while MTG Ventures follows their previous investment in a seed round. The amount secured in this round has not yet been disclosed but is supposedly estimated to be around 200-300 million Japanese yen (about $1.6-2.3 million US) according to sources. The Series A round appears not to have been closed yet, and more investors may be added later on.
In the
future, HitoBito plan to make ChiChat available in English in addition
to Chinese and Japanese languages. The company is expanding into
Singapore to tap into Southeast Asian companies running chat commerce
businesses. In the Japanese market, the company will strengthen sales of
the tool in partnership with digital marketing companies, including
MicroAd, which has been named as one of the investors in this round. As
many browsers have blocked or will do cookies, companies are looking for
new online marketing methods, and ChiChat, which helps marketing on
Line and other messaging platforms, is a convenient way to engage with
users.
Potential competitors to HitoBito in the Japanese market may include Zeals and Chatbook. Zeals postponed its IPO but announced a US expansion with securing 5 billion Japanese yen (over $38 million US) in equity and debt in May while Chatbook was acquired by Monex Group (TSE:8698) in July. HitoBito plans to further enhance its service and competitiveness by advancing its AI-based generative technology, such as a system allowing users to create banners just by specifying target customers and entering description and images.
Tokyo- / Kuala Lumpur-based Secai Marche, the Japanese startup behind a shared food supply chain for the Southeast Asian market under the same name, announced on Tuesday that it has secured 210 million yen (about $1.6 million) from Agri-invest, Spiral Ventures Asia, and Beyond Next Ventures. This follows their previous (supposed) seed round securing 150 million yen back in May of 2021. Since its launch back in July of 2018, the company has been offering a cold supply chain connecting farmers and food producers with F&B businesses in the Southeast Asian market, especially optimized for the delivery of low-volume and high-mix orders. Supply chains for fresh produce in the region is usually operated by the supplier side, which are optimized for bulk deliveries and therefore difficult to use it for small restaurants which typically ask for small orders or niche needs. The company wants to solve the problem by building a shared supply chain allowing several different food suppliers to use for delivery. Secai Marche has launched four distribution centers in Malaysia to date, which allows them to offer a one-stop fulfillment service dealing with more than 4,000 fresh foods, including vegetables, fruits, and seafood from producers around the world….
The Secai Marche team Image credit: Secai Marche
Tokyo- / Kuala Lumpur-based Secai Marche, the Japanese startup behind a shared food supply chain for the Southeast Asian market under the same name, announced on Tuesday that it has secured 210 million yen (about $1.6 million) from Agri-invest, Spiral Ventures Asia, and Beyond Next Ventures. This follows their previous (supposed) seed round securing 150 million yen back in May of 2021.
Since its launch back in July of 2018, the company has been offering a cold supply chain connecting farmers and food producers with F&B businesses in the Southeast Asian market, especially optimized for the delivery of low-volume and high-mix orders.
Supply chains for fresh produce in the region is usually operated by the supplier side, which are optimized for bulk deliveries and therefore difficult to use it for small restaurants which typically ask for small orders or niche needs. The company wants to solve the problem by building a shared supply chain allowing several different food suppliers to use for delivery.
Secai Marche has launched four distribution centers in Malaysia to date, which allows them to offer a one-stop fulfillment service dealing with more than 4,000 fresh foods, including vegetables, fruits, and seafood from producers around the world. Their improvement effort of delivery efficiency could help reducing the waste rate to 1%. The company will use the funds to expand its fulfillment service areas as well as enhancing demand forecast leveraging artificial intelligence technology.
In view of optimized fresh food supply chain startups in the region, Thailand’s Freshket raised $23.5 million in a Series B round in May, Y Combinator Alumni Eden Farm from Indonesia won $13.5 million in a pre-Series B round yesterday, and Singapore-based Glife raised $3 million in the first close of a series A round last year.
Tokyo-based BionicM, the Japanese startup developing the Bio Leg robotic leg prosthesis, announced on Tuesday that it has 370 million yen (about $2.8 million) in a extended series A round. Participating investosr are NVenture Capital (a wholly owned subsidiary of NEC Capital Solutions), Shinsei Corporate Investment, University of Tokyo Innovation (UTokyo IPC), Kiraboshi Capital, Chibagin Capital, Yoshitsune Ido (former CEO, Anker Japan), AIS Partners, and Hao Yan (Representative Director, EPS Holdings). This brought the startup’s funding sum in its entire series A round up to 920 million yen (over $7 million). Among the investors, UTokyo IPC follows their investment in the first close of the series A round back in September of 2020. They will use the funds to expand sales of the product, research and develop the next model, and elemental technologies such as motion sensing and motion assist technologies as well as hiring talents. In addition to their current markets of Japan and China, the company is looking to expand into the US. Founded by Xiaojun Sun who himself had to have his right leg amputated at the age of 9 due to osteosarcoma, BionicM began research and development in 2015 at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School…
Bio Leg Image credit: BionicM
Tokyo-based BionicM, the Japanese startup developing the Bio Leg robotic leg prosthesis, announced on Tuesday that it has 370 million yen (about $2.8 million) in a extended series A round. Participating investosr are NVenture Capital (a wholly owned subsidiary of NEC Capital Solutions), Shinsei Corporate Investment, University of Tokyo Innovation (UTokyo IPC), Kiraboshi Capital, Chibagin Capital, Yoshitsune Ido (former CEO, Anker Japan), AIS Partners, and Hao Yan (Representative Director, EPS Holdings).
This brought the startup’s funding sum in its entire series A round up to 920 million yen (over $7 million). Among the investors, UTokyo IPC follows their investment in the first close of the series A round back in September of 2020. They will use the funds to expand sales of the product, research and develop the next model, and elemental technologies such as motion sensing and motion assist technologies as well as hiring talents. In addition to their current markets of Japan and China, the company is looking to expand into the US.
Founded by Xiaojun Sun who himself had to have his right leg amputated at the age of 9 due to osteosarcoma, BionicM began research and development in 2015 at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Information Science and Technology. Of the 10 million potential users of prosthetic legs worldwide, only about 40% actually have access to them because they are expensive or have limited functionality. The company established a corporate entity in 2018 to commercialize the product in order to bring a high-performance prosthetic leg to all those who need it at an affordable price.
Product showcased in in Beijing in October of 2021. Image credit: BionicM
According to BionicM, more than 99% of the global prosthetic leg market deals with passive type, and has not benefited from the technological advancements that have taken place in recent years with the proliferation of robotic technology. Passive leg prostheses not only place a heavy physical burden on the user, but also place a mental burden on the user, as they are unable to walk naturally or take turns walking up and down stairs in both legs, making them uncomfortable to watch. Robotic prostheses have the potential to solve this problem.
Since the launch of the Bio Leg commercial version in Japan and China last year, the company has been offering the product via a B2B2C model where robotic leg modules are offered to artificial limb factories to be built into sockets for lower-limb amputees. We were told that a typical powered prosthetic leg costs over 10 million yen ($77,000) in contrast with a passive type for about 1 million yen ($7,700). Bio Leg is available for less than one-third the price of a powered one while adopting robotic technology.
Acquisition of gait data with sensors mounted on Bio Leg. Image credit: BionicM
Given the price tag, government subsidies are likely to be essential for the robotic leg to become widely available. The company is currently testing the product with the aim to apply for such a program next year. Although there are many prosthetic leg users in China, the market for high-end ones is apparently small due to a lack of public support. Therefore, the company is considering expanding into the US market with FDA approval in mind where there is a possibility of obtaining medical insurance coverage.
BionicM intends to explore new possibilities by taking advantage of the product’s ability to acquire gait data as well as its function as a robotic prosthesis. Although prosthetists and physical therapists who assist in the fitting and use of prosthetic limbs are professionals with specialized training, they often rely on their own expertise and knowledge. If the rehabilitation process can be visualized using data, communication with users will become easier and rehabilitation can be expected to become more efficient.
Singapore-registered Bunzz, the startup behind a development platform focused on Dapps (decentralized applications leveraging blockchain technologies) under the same name, announced on Tuesday that it has secured about 600 million yen (about $4.5 million US) in a seed round. Since its official launch back in January of 2022, the platform has attracted over 8,000 Dapp developers worldwide. Participating investors in this round are: Arriba Studio Coincheck Labs DG Daiwa Ventures gmjp GMO Web3 GREE Ventures Hyperithm Kotaro Tamura Kazutaka Mori mint Spiral Ventures 01Booster Capital Ceres Corporation (TSE: 3696) Bunzz was incorporated in Singapore in May of 2022 by Japanese serial entrepreneur Kenta Akutsu as a spin-off of his Tokyo-based web3 startup LasTrust. Prior to Bunzz, he and his team developed a blockchain certificate issuing service for enterprises, which was later sold to CyberLinks (TSE:3683). Bunzz initially started as a project at LasTrust in 2021. The platform offers an infrastructure for developing smart contracts, which is essential for Dapp development. By making smart contract development processes more secure and easier, it lowers the barrier for developers who do not yet have extensive knowledge or experience in Dapp development. The company claims that more than 2,800 Dapp projects have been deployed…
Image credit: Bunzz
Singapore-registered Bunzz, the startup behind a development platform focused on Dapps (decentralized applications leveraging blockchain technologies) under the same name, announced on Tuesday that it has secured about 600 million yen (about $4.5 million US) in a seed round. Since its official launch back in January of 2022, the platform has attracted over 8,000 Dapp developers worldwide. Participating investors in this round are:
Arriba Studio
Coincheck Labs
DG Daiwa Ventures
gmjp
GMO Web3
GREE Ventures
Hyperithm
Kotaro Tamura
Kazutaka Mori
mint
Spiral Ventures
01Booster Capital
Ceres Corporation (TSE: 3696)
Bunzz was incorporated in Singapore in May of 2022 by Japanese serial entrepreneur Kenta Akutsu as a spin-off of his Tokyo-based web3 startup LasTrust. Prior to Bunzz, he and his team developed a blockchain certificate issuing service for enterprises, which was later sold to CyberLinks (TSE:3683). Bunzz initially started as a project at LasTrust in 2021.
The platform offers an infrastructure for developing smart contracts, which is essential for Dapp development. By making smart contract development processes more secure and easier, it lowers the barrier for developers who do not yet have extensive knowledge or experience in Dapp development.
The company claims that more than 2,800 Dapp projects have been deployed onto the blockchain via the platform, which helps them gain recognition of developers as the “Web3 version of GitHub”. In the future, they plan to introduce token incentives to encourage users to reuse useful smart contract codes developed by other Dapp developers via the platform.
Headquartered in Hokkaido, Japanese space startup Intersteller Technologies announced on Monday that it has closed a series D round with 3.8 billion yen (about $30 million US) in funding. The round brought the company’s funding sum up to date to over 5.4 billion yen (over $42 million US) as far as we know. Investors participating in the round, including those previously announced, are: SBI Investment Nisso Kosan (TSE: 6569) Satudra Holdings (TSE: 3544) Reiichi Sasaki (President, Ichigo Ventures) De Aardappeleters Norimasa Yamamoto (President, Heiwa Shuzo) Kazunori Asada (Chairman, Howdy) Hiroshi Yamamoto (Representative Director, Smaregi) Suncor Industries CyberAgent (TSE: 4751) Teruyasu Nishino (President, Yuko Kai) INCLUSIVE Makoto Fujita (CEO, Inclusive Seven Stars Capital Onsen Dojo Masaki Yamamoto (CEO, Chatwork) RDS Mizuki Nakajima (CEO, Coly) Anna Nakajima (Co-founder, Coly) IMV (TSE: 7760) Tomoya Nakano (President/CEO, i-plug) Kadokawa (TSE: 9468) Hagiwara Construction Industries Interstellar Technologies’ MOMO No. 7 and MOMO No. 6 rockets reached space in July of 2021, which let the company mark three successes in terms of reaching space with the MOMO No. 3 rocket launched back in May of 2019. The company is currently in full-scale development of the ZERO rocket which is aimed to be launched in FY2023. The…
The Interstellar Technologies team Image credit: Interstellar Technologies
Headquartered in Hokkaido, Japanese space startup Intersteller Technologies announced on Monday that it has closed a series D round with 3.8 billion yen (about $30 million US) in funding. The round brought the company’s funding sum up to date to over 5.4 billion yen (over $42 million US) as far as we know. Investors participating in the round, including those previously announced, are:
Interstellar Technologies’ MOMO No. 7 and MOMO No. 6 rockets reached space in July of 2021, which let the company mark three successes in terms of reaching space with the MOMO No. 3 rocket launched back in May of 2019. The company is currently in full-scale development of the ZERO rocket which is aimed to be launched in FY2023. The funds will be used for research and development, capital investment, hiring talents, and material costs to further accelerate the development of the ZERO rocket.
Interstellar Technologies aims to realize a future in which space is within reach for everyone by providing low-cost, convenient space transportation services. Establishing its satellite development-focused subsidiary Our Stars in early 2021, the company is working on offering rockets and satellites in an one-stop solution. In recent years, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Japan and Western countries have been unable to use Russian rockets, which used to account for about 20% of the world’s space transportation, and Interstellar Technologies sees this situation as a tailwind for its business.
Japanese sake brewing startup Wakaze announced on Wednesday that it has secured about 1 billion yen (about $7.5 million) in a series B round. The round was led by Jafco Group (TSE:8595) with participation from Takara Holdings (TSE:2531), DBJ Capital, Egg Forward, SMBC Venture Capital in addition to an unnamed angel investor. This brought their funding sum to date up to about 1.5 billion yen ($11.3 million) as far as disclosed. Jafco Group followed their series A round investment. Wakaze will use the funds to expand its business in Europe, the U.S., and the Asian region centered on China through strenthening advertising, establishing an office and hiring personnel in the U.S. in addition to expanding its production facilities in France. The company has partnered with Takara Holdings, one of the investors in this round, to produce Wakaze’s sake products at the manufacturing facility of Takara’s US subsidiary, and will also consider similar expansion efforts in China. Wakaze aims to bring the wave of craft sake and D2C to the world of sake. Prior to founding the company back in 2016, CEO Takuma Inagawa studied at the École Centrale Paris as a French government scholarship student and then worked as a…
Image credit: Wakaze
Japanese sake brewing startup Wakaze announced on Wednesday that it has secured about 1 billion yen (about $7.5 million) in a series B round. The round was led by Jafco Group (TSE:8595) with participation from Takara Holdings (TSE:2531), DBJ Capital, Egg Forward, SMBC Venture Capital in addition to an unnamed angel investor. This brought their funding sum to date up to about 1.5 billion yen ($11.3 million) as far as disclosed. Jafco Group followed their series A round investment.
Wakaze
will use the funds to expand its business in Europe, the U.S., and the
Asian region centered on China through strenthening advertising,
establishing an office and hiring personnel in the U.S. in addition to
expanding its production facilities in France. The company has partnered
with Takara Holdings, one of the investors in this round, to produce
Wakaze’s sake products at the manufacturing facility of Takara’s US
subsidiary, and will also consider similar expansion efforts in China.
Wakaze aims to bring the wave of craft sake and D2C to the world of sake. Prior to founding the company back in 2016, CEO Takuma Inagawa studied at the École Centrale Paris as a French government scholarship student and then worked as a business strategy consultant at the Boston Consulting Group. In addition to developing new sake brewing recipes in Japan’s eastern prefecture of Yamagata, the company established a sake brewery called Kura Grand Paris in Suburban Paris back in November of 2019 to offer locally brewed Japanese sake for the French market.
Tokyo-based Crowd Credit, the Japanese startup behind a cross-border peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform under the same name, announced on Thursday that it will be fully acquired by Osaka-based Bankers Holding for an undisclosed amount. Bankers operates a lending platform for business owners in Japan. The Initial startup database estimates Crowd Credit’s market cap is 10.6 billion yen (about $80 million US) when the company secured the last funding round back in April last year. Crowd Credit was founded in 2013 by Tomoyuki Sugiyama who previously managed investments in Japanese government bonds at Daiwa Securities SMBC followed by managing assets with investing in bonds at Lloyds Bank. In the form of funds with set yields, the Tokyo startup offers funds collected from Japan individual investors to businesses in developing countries in the South America and Eastern European regions. Crowd Credit will maintain its current brand name and management structure after the acquisition. Bankers Holding was founded in December of 2019 by Tsuyoshi Shibuya who previously managed several investment companies. The company has been running a P2P lending platform since December of 2020, which offers loans of a total of over 10 billion yen (about $75 million) to businesses in Japan. Bankers…
Image credit: Crowd Credit
Tokyo-based Crowd Credit, the Japanese startup behind a cross-border peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform under the same name, announced on Thursday that it will be fully acquired by Osaka-based Bankers Holding for an undisclosed amount. Bankers operates a lending platform for business owners in Japan. The Initial startup database estimates Crowd Credit’s market cap is 10.6 billion yen (about $80 million US) when the company secured the last funding round back in April last year.
Crowd
Credit was founded in 2013 by Tomoyuki Sugiyama who previously managed
investments in Japanese government bonds at Daiwa Securities SMBC
followed by managing assets with investing in bonds at Lloyds Bank. In
the form of funds with set yields, the Tokyo startup offers funds
collected from Japan individual investors to businesses in developing
countries in the South America and Eastern European regions. Crowd
Credit will maintain its current brand name and management structure
after the acquisition.
Bankers Holding was founded in December of 2019 by Tsuyoshi Shibuya who previously managed several investment companies. The company has been running a P2P lending platform since December of 2020, which offers loans of a total of over 10 billion yen (about $75 million) to businesses in Japan. Bankers Holding secured 1 billion yen (about $7.5 million) in April of last year in an unknown round followed by 1.5 billion yen (about $11.3 million) in a Series B round closed last month, which brought their total sum of funding up to approximately 2.6 billion yen (about $19.6 million).
Tokyo-based Neworld, the Japanese startup behind marketing support and an e-commerce platform focused on Japanese craft products, is now planning to develop sales channels by launch campaigns on crowdfunding sites in Taiwan. To strengthen this effort, the company plans to establish a local subsidiary in Taiwan in February next year, Nikkei says. Founded in Fukuoka back in November of 2013, Neworld initially started its business with driving customer traffic to fashion e-commerce sites but subsequently pivoted to an video marketing and e-commerce platform focused on introducing lifestyle products made by local artisans from all across Japan. Neworld has secured several million US dollars through multiple rounds to date from strategic investors including Japanese crowdfunding site Makuake (TSE:4479). Partnerships of crowdfunding and e-commerce sites between Japan and Taiwan have been emerged in recent years. Our readers may recall Japan’s Campfire has recently agreed with mutual listing of crowdfunding projects with Taiwan’s Zeczec (嘖嘖). Makuake has worked with Taiwanese e-commerce platforms such as uDesign (有.設計) and Citiesocial (找 好東西). In October, Taiwanese startup backer iiiNNO (一諾新創) partnered with One More, the Japanese company behind the Green Funding crowdfunding platform to help Taiwanese startups expand into the Japanese market.
Craft Store Image credit: Neworld
Tokyo-based Neworld, the Japanese startup behind marketing support and an e-commerce platform focused on Japanese craft products, is now planning to develop sales channels by launch campaigns on crowdfunding sites in Taiwan. To strengthen this effort, the company plans to establish a local subsidiary in Taiwan in February next year, Nikkei says.
Founded in Fukuoka back in November of 2013, Neworld initially started its business with driving customer traffic to fashion e-commerce sites but subsequently pivoted to an video marketing and e-commerce platform focused on introducing lifestyle products made by local artisans from all across Japan.
Neworld has secured several million US dollars through multiple rounds to date from strategic investors including Japanese crowdfunding site Makuake (TSE:4479). Partnerships of crowdfunding and e-commerce sites between Japan and Taiwan have been emerged in recent years. Our readers may recall Japan’s Campfire has recently agreed with mutual listing of crowdfunding projects with Taiwan’s Zeczec (嘖嘖).
See the original story in Japanese. Nikkei reported on Monday that Japanese FinTech startup Kanmu is expected to be acquired by Mitsubishi UFJ Bank next spring. The Japanese megabank will acquire 70% stake in the startup for abouut $20 billion yen (about $150 million US), which means the startup’s valuation has reached over 25 billion yen (over $190 million US). Founded in January of 2011, Kanmu secured 43 million yen (about $440,000 US) in 2013 from East Ventures, ANRI, and others. They launched the Vandle prepaid Visa card in September of 2016, which became a smash hit especially among the Japanese younger generation. Since January of 2018, Kanmu has gradually received funding from Freakout Holdings. Their other shareholders include ISGS, Adways, Kronos Fund (now known as Entrepreneur), TLM, and five angel investors including Nobuhiro Ariyasu and Hiromasa Umeda. They have secured to date about 4.43 billion yen (about $33.4 million) in funding. MUFG aims to incorporate the Vandle card into the bank’s debit card through the acquisition. The Vandle card’s mobile app has marked at least 6 million downloads so far. The FinTech startup is expected to remain its independence in their brand and management. We have reached out to…
Some of the Kanmu team with their founder and CEO Wataru Yamaki standing in the middle. Image credit: Kanmu
Nikkei reported on Monday that Japanese FinTech startup Kanmu is expected to be acquired by Mitsubishi UFJ Bank next spring. The Japanese megabank will acquire 70% stake in the startup for abouut $20 billion yen (about $150 million US), which means the startup’s valuation has reached over 25 billion yen (over $190 million US).
Founded in January of 2011, Kanmu secured 43 million yen (about $440,000 US) in 2013 from East Ventures, ANRI, and others. They launched the Vandle prepaid Visa card in September of 2016, which became a smash hit especially among the Japanese younger generation.
Since January of 2018, Kanmu has gradually received funding from Freakout Holdings. Their other shareholders include ISGS, Adways, Kronos Fund (now known as Entrepreneur), TLM, and five angel investors including Nobuhiro Ariyasu and Hiromasa Umeda. They have secured to date about 4.43 billion yen (about $33.4 million) in funding.
MUFG aims to incorporate the Vandle card into the bank’s debit card through the acquisition. The Vandle card’s mobile app has marked at least 6 million downloads so far. The FinTech startup is expected to remain its independence in their brand and management.
We have reached out to Kanmu founder and CEO Wataru Yamaki for comment.
Some of our readers may recall that MUFG (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group), the parent company of Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, has recently acquired several BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) startups in the Southeast Asian region such as Akulaku and Home Credit.
The Bridge
Masaru Ikeda
