THE BRIDGE

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Japan’s Spectee secures series A round to analyze live events realtime for broadcasters

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Spectee, the startup behind the platform offering news materials based on social media analytics, announced today that it has secured series A funding. This round was led by Fuji Startup Ventures (FSV for short), the investment arm of Tokyo-based private broadcaster Fuji TV, with participation from Japanese investment firm Mizuho Capital not to mention CBC, the company behind a globally-renowned CCTV system brand called Ganz. Further financial details of the deal have not been disclosed. Spectee was founded under the previous name of Euclid Lab in February of 2014, followed by graduation from the 11th incubation batch of Tokyo-based startup accelerator Open Network Lab in October of 2015. This March, the team launched a new service called Newsdeck, curating images and video clips for live events from social media and offering copyright clearance for use by broadcasters and news organizations, similar to Banjo in the US. The artificial intelligence (AI) technology for analyzing curated image and video clips is now pending patent. Spectee is now offering the Newsdeck service to more than 15 platforms in Japan such as TV broadcasters and online news media sites. Of particular note is the fact that Fuji…

spectee_featuredimage
Image credit: Spectee

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Spectee, the startup behind the platform offering news materials based on social media analytics, announced today that it has secured series A funding. This round was led by Fuji Startup Ventures (FSV for short), the investment arm of Tokyo-based private broadcaster Fuji TV, with participation from Japanese investment firm Mizuho Capital not to mention CBC, the company behind a globally-renowned CCTV system brand called Ganz. Further financial details of the deal have not been disclosed.

Spectee was founded under the previous name of Euclid Lab in February of 2014, followed by graduation from the 11th incubation batch of Tokyo-based startup accelerator Open Network Lab in October of 2015. This March, the team launched a new service called Newsdeck, curating images and video clips for live events from social media and offering copyright clearance for use by broadcasters and news organizations, similar to Banjo in the US. The artificial intelligence (AI) technology for analyzing curated image and video clips is now pending patent.

newsdeck_diagram
Image credit: Spectee

Spectee is now offering the Newsdeck service to more than 15 platforms in Japan such as TV broadcasters and online news media sites. Of particular note is the fact that Fuji TV’s news department has been testing Newsdeck, in preparing for adoption as a platform for fulfilling the core function of the broadcaster’s online news coverage department, which was established this month. The company has also partnered with Fuji TV Lab, planning to launch business involving image/video clip curation and “affairs mining” through integration of the Spectee platform into the broadcaster’s system for accepting video clip and image posting from viewers.

Considering the example of aforementioned Banjo plus that of the Associated Press (AP) which recently began generating news articles using Automated Insights’ WordSmith technology, AI is expanding the range of its applications to the news industry. In particular this year, not only curation of news articles but also generation of original text as well as news material gathering are becoming automated with such technology. Since it is said that AI-powered news generation usually goes well with news categories dealing with figures or stats, such as reporting sport game results or a fact-finder news piece, the one like this article could also be generated using an automated “writing program” in the future.

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Image credit: Spectee

By coincidence similar to the writer team structure of The Bridge in terms of locations, Spectee has added new personnel in Berlin and Los Angeles in addition to Tokyo this month in order to manage the distribution of news materials on the Newsdeck platform and gaining approvals from social media users who posted images of live events that are likely to be used by news media outfits. Applying the three-location structure enables 24-hour nonstop operations by distributing employees according to their local time zone.

The CBC Group, one of the companies that Spectee has fundraised from, has many sales offices outside Japan while earning its primary revenue from global sales. Spectee is looking to gain assistance from CBC in selling the Newsdeck solution to TV broadcasters around the globe.

Disclosure: Fuji Startup Ventures has invested in The Bridge.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Tokyo Office Tour: 500 Startups Japan further engages with entrepreneurs from new base

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See the original story in Japanese. This is part of our ‘Tokyo Office Tour’ series (RSS), a modest attempt to better understand how folks in the local startup scene are working every day. On July 1st, Global Business Hub Tokyo (GBHT) officially opened in Otemachi, the city’s financial district near Tokyo station. Thus, a new startup hub has additionally appeared in the area filled with various co-working spaces or event spaces such as Egg Japan, FINOLAB and 3×3 Lab Future. 500 Startups Japan, a 500 Startup’s micro-fund for the Japanese market, bases itself at this GBHT, and will likely frequently hold events like an “office hours” with entrepreneurs or a meet-up utilizing the public space, a bragging right for GBHT. See also: Tokyo’s FinTech startup hub FINOLAB holds its first growth hack seminar In the first $30 million-sized fund launched by 500 Startups Japan last September, Mixi, Mizuho Bank, Mistletoe and angel investor Kotaro Chiba participated as LP (limited partner), and recently it was revealed that Egg Japan and Mitsubishi Estate (which is also part of GBHT’s management matrix) had joined the LP. Although 500 Startups Japan is a fund originated in Silicon Valley, it is also a ‘made-in-Japan startup…

See the original story in Japanese.

This is part of our ‘Tokyo Office Tour’ series (RSS), a modest attempt to better understand how folks in the local startup scene are working every day.

On July 1st, Global Business Hub Tokyo (GBHT) officially opened in Otemachi, the city’s financial district near Tokyo station. Thus, a new startup hub has additionally appeared in the area filled with various co-working spaces or event spaces such as Egg Japan, FINOLAB and 3×3 Lab Future. 500 Startups Japan, a 500 Startup’s micro-fund for the Japanese market, bases itself at this GBHT, and will likely frequently hold events like an “office hours” with entrepreneurs or a meet-up utilizing the public space, a bragging right for GBHT.

See also:

In the first $30 million-sized fund launched by 500 Startups Japan last September, Mixi, Mizuho Bank, Mistletoe and angel investor Kotaro Chiba participated as LP (limited partner), and recently it was revealed that Egg Japan and Mitsubishi Estate (which is also part of GBHT’s management matrix) had joined the LP. Although 500 Startups Japan is a fund originated in Silicon Valley, it is also a ‘made-in-Japan startup fund’ in whicn most of the LPs are composed of Japanese companies or investors.

Since the fund’s launch last fall, 500 Startups Japan unveiled that it had invested in meeting space-sharing service Spacee, followed by Pocket Menu which runs an O2O (online-to-offline) service for restaurants named Pocket Concierge (series A round), a virtual reality content developer Dverse (seed round) and Sora, which runs MagicPrice that emanated from Tech Lab Paak 3rd batch (seed round).

See also:

gbht-500-startups-japan-james-riney-yohei-sawayama

According to partners James Riney and Yohei Sawayama of 500 Startups Japan, two strategies upon investment are pointed out as factors for differentiating 500 Startups Japan, other than financials and its mentor network.

One is the “time machine” business. Like Spacee or Pocket Menu cases in their portfolio, some kind of business synergy are sought with startups in the same profession which already exists in US 500 Startups’ portfolio. Or, another case can be considered where US startups aiming to expand into Japan cooperate / combine / purchase Japanese startups in advance in the Japanese market. It is based on the idea of ‘buying time.’ Looking at 500 Startups as a whole, plural startups in the portfolio are able to associate and provide one worldwide services quickly, resulting in higher valuation.

The other corresponds to Dverse. Even if startups focusing on edge (specialized) technologies have the potential for global development, it is not unusual that they are not good at marketing. To support such tech-focused startups to enable global marketing by leveraging a network of journalists around the world is one of 500 Startups’ mission.

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When The Bridge started up its English version under the name of SD, I mentioned that Western investors who do not speak Japanese see the Japanese startup community as a black box. Riney and Sawayama noted that 500 Startups Japan has close ties to Silicon Valley which wants to make its ability to act becoming a guide for global investors as one of the company’s strength in order to make them more interesting to the Japanese startups and to call in further investment activities.

Upon locating its genuine base, 500 Startups Japan is currently recruiting a Marketing & Community Manager for management of events including office hours, meet-ups or for deepening engagement with startups, as well as an Executive Assistant or intern. Do check them out if interested.

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Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Omise secures $17.5M to become Southeast Asia’s largest online payments gateway

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See the original story in Japanese. Bangkok-based Omise, providing online payment services for retailers in the Southeast Asian region, this week announced a successful fundraising effort. The secured amount is $17.5 million in its series B round led by SBI Investment and other companies whose details have not been disclosed. Some of the existing investors for the earlier round – namely Sinar Mas Digital Ventures, Ascend Money and Golden Gate Ventures – participated in this round as well. Therefore, the total fundraised amount has exceeded $25 million, corresponding to the largest scale among fintech players in the Southeast Asian region. Omise previously fundraised in its series A and an additional round in October of 2015. At that time, the company’s CEO and founder Jun Hasegawa had replied during The Bridge’s interview that his firm aimed to develop its services over 20 countries by the end of 2018 with the secured money. Coinciding with this fundraising, the firm announced that June Seah and Michael Bradley (as Chief Commercial Officer) will join as members of its advisory board. Seah had worked at Visa for 20 years in charge of the Asia-Pacific region while Bradley had worked at CyberSource providing payment solutions, in…

omise-team

See the original story in Japanese.

Bangkok-based Omise, providing online payment services for retailers in the Southeast Asian region, this week announced a successful fundraising effort. The secured amount is $17.5 million in its series B round led by SBI Investment and other companies whose details have not been disclosed.

Some of the existing investors for the earlier round – namely Sinar Mas Digital Ventures, Ascend Money and Golden Gate Ventures – participated in this round as well. Therefore, the total fundraised amount has exceeded $25 million, corresponding to the largest scale among fintech players in the Southeast Asian region.

Omise previously fundraised in its series A and an additional round in October of 2015. At that time, the company’s CEO and founder Jun Hasegawa had replied during The Bridge’s interview that his firm aimed to develop its services over 20 countries by the end of 2018 with the secured money.

Coinciding with this fundraising, the firm announced that June Seah and Michael Bradley (as Chief Commercial Officer) will join as members of its advisory board. Seah had worked at Visa for 20 years in charge of the Asia-Pacific region while Bradley had worked at CyberSource providing payment solutions, in charge of the same region.

So, now a challenge of this Japanese entrepreneur is about to take form.

You can check out the previous article as to details of Omise’s outline and its services. One of its strong points is the advantage in local regions, unlike other payment service players such as Stripe or Braintree.

Hasegawa explained thus:

The global players had expanded their services in one fell swoop in the European and US regions by focusing on credit cards. However, that approach was not available in the Southeast Asian region due to the rather lower ownership ratio of credit cards.

Currently, Omise is providing its services in four countries including Thailand where its base is located. The services adopted various payment methods that are popular in each country, for example in Thailand, local debit cards, net banking or bill payment (payment using bar codes) is available in addition to credit cards. That led to a differentiation from the global players.

On the other hand, the services had a problem in terms of profit ratio. As a lot of online payment services have been popping up both globally and locally, even though the commission charging model has low profitability as it could be further lowered due to excessive competition.

Hasegawa elaborates:

Profitability will be more important for the payment business in the future. There is a limit in the model based on the card brand of Visa / MasterCard as a common background. So, we have come to consider our own infrastructure. Like family credit cards in Japan, I think we could create a charging model eliminating commission fees for the card network through preparation of such proprietary infrastructure.

The reason behind engaging personnel who had been active in Visa is based on such a strategy. Through large-scale fundraising this time, the firm will work on development of deep learning in payment business, or fraud detector / recommendation utilizing machine learning.

Hasegawa concludes:

Although we had focused on payment business for small-sized business operators during 2015 and that resulted in obtaining thousands of accounts, currently we are shifting to a direction where we aim to acquire larger clients. For example, the largest telecom carrier in Thailand – True – or the airline company Nok Air have come to use Omise’s payment infrastructure.

In the Southeast Asian region, services which guarantee 99.999% safety for stable operation of infrastructure are rarely seen. Omise realized services like ‘even if banks fail, our system won’t’ by offering a cloud-based environment and card network connections, and that led to acquisition of large clients.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s handmade item marketplace Creema expands into Taiwan, Hong Kong

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Creema, the Japanese startup behind C2C (consumer-to-consumer) marketplace for handmade items under the same name, announced today that it has started serving the Taiwanese and Hong Kong markets by launching a Traditional Chinese language version thereof. Coinciding with this, the company has launched a local subsidiary in Taiwan (可璃嗎股份有限公司). With the launch of the Traditional Chinese version, it enables handmade makers in Japan to submit their items for Taiwan and Hong Kong by one-click operation; the same op is available for makers from Taiwan and Hong Kong. From the quality control stance regarding submitted items, makers have to be screened by Creema upon opening their online stores on the platform for cross-border transactions between Japan and Taiwan/Hong Kong. To facilitate interactions between makers (sellers) and buyers using different languages, Creema’s staffers can provide assistance to expedite item submissions and transactions between both sides when necessary, as well as offering machine translation functions on the platform. In addition to the Japanese edition, Creema Chinese edition allows buyers to use credit card, convenience store payment, bank remittance and PayPal as payment options while sellers can choose shipping options from local post operator, door-to-door courier services…

creema_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Creema, the Japanese startup behind C2C (consumer-to-consumer) marketplace for handmade items under the same name, announced today that it has started serving the Taiwanese and Hong Kong markets by launching a Traditional Chinese language version thereof. Coinciding with this, the company has launched a local subsidiary in Taiwan (可璃嗎股份有限公司).

With the launch of the Traditional Chinese version, it enables handmade makers in Japan to submit their items for Taiwan and Hong Kong by one-click operation; the same op is available for makers from Taiwan and Hong Kong. From the quality control stance regarding submitted items, makers have to be screened by Creema upon opening their online stores on the platform for cross-border transactions between Japan and Taiwan/Hong Kong.

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Mobile interface of Creema’s Traditonal Chinese version

To facilitate interactions between makers (sellers) and buyers using different languages, Creema’s staffers can provide assistance to expedite item submissions and transactions between both sides when necessary, as well as offering machine translation functions on the platform. In addition to the Japanese edition, Creema Chinese edition allows buyers to use credit card, convenience store payment, bank remittance and PayPal as payment options while sellers can choose shipping options from local post operator, door-to-door courier services and others.

Kotaro Marubayashi, founder and CEO of Creema, told The Bridge that they have chosen the two destinations as a first step for their global expansion effort since these markets have a high affinity to Japanese handmade culture. Because it started recruitment of makers from Taiwan and Hong Kong today, transactions from Japan to Taiwan and Hong Kong will be higher than the other way around for the time being.

Launched back in May of 2010, Creema has acquired 70,000 creators with listing over 2.8 million handmade items online. Following a million dollar funding from KDDI Open Innovation Fund in June of 2014, the company secured $11 million in funding this May from Globis Capital Partners and other investors.

Looking at the trend for handmade C2C and fashion C2C platforms in this region, Taiwan’s Pinkoi (owning 25,000 creators) is staying ahead in the race while other players like Maipple and Smaoku recently join the competition. Creema is trying to differentiate itself from competitors in Japan by dealing with elaborately crafted items with a high design performance, so it will be interesting to see how the company can also beat the competition even outside Japan using the same strategy.

See also:

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s mobile analytics startup Fuller gains $4 million to fuel global expansion

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This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. Fuller, a Japanese startup focused on the smartphone apps field which provides user research (pace, Survey Monkey) like App Ape Analytics and other services, has gained a total of 420 million yen in funding. Investors, in addition to Voyage Ventures and Global Catalyst Partners Japan not to mention Sega Games – all based in Tokyo – and Asahi Shimbun headquartered in Osaka (Global Catalyst and Asahi being existing investors), include local government-related entities like those from Ibaraki and Niigata prefectures. See also: Japan’s mobile app analytics startup Fuller raises $1.9 million for global expansion The currently Chiba-based venture, started in November of 2011 in Tsukuba, had just commenced comprehensive global marketing of its new product called Joren. Now, with added funding Fuller can avail more products abroad under its “Fuller 2.0” push, entailing not only expanding overseas and finding new partners with which to create novel app markets but also revitalizing the regions it is involved in, beginning with Chiba, Ibaraki and the like. Joren (pronounced “Jou-Ren” which refers to friendly and repeat customers in Japan) is a software tool…

This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.


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CEO Shuta Shibuya stands in the middle in the back row. (earlier this year at SXSW, Austin)
Image credit: Fuller

Fuller, a Japanese startup focused on the smartphone apps field which provides user research (pace, Survey Monkey) like App Ape Analytics and other services, has gained a total of 420 million yen in funding. Investors, in addition to Voyage Ventures and Global Catalyst Partners Japan not to mention Sega Games – all based in Tokyo – and Asahi Shimbun headquartered in Osaka (Global Catalyst and Asahi being existing investors), include local government-related entities like those from Ibaraki and Niigata prefectures.

See also:

The currently Chiba-based venture, started in November of 2011 in Tsukuba, had just commenced comprehensive global marketing of its new product called Joren. Now, with added funding Fuller can avail more products abroad under its “Fuller 2.0” push, entailing not only expanding overseas and finding new partners with which to create novel app markets but also revitalizing the regions it is involved in, beginning with Chiba, Ibaraki and the like.

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CEO Shibuya shared his insights for global expansion efforts with other avid entrepreneurs.
(Earlier this month at Orange Fab Asia in Tokyo) Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

Joren (pronounced “Jou-Ren” which refers to friendly and repeat customers in Japan) is a software tool that can create apps with just an input of a website URL input. This item was unveiled Fuller’s booth laden with the Japanese Noren (roughly meaning the flag-like “standard” bearing the establishment’s mark, which is pronounced as is) this spring at SXSW (south by south west) in Texas. Fuller strategically has its eyes on the world including the US but will begin this journey from its “home turf” in Asia.

Fuller CEO Shuta Shibuya noted his outfit is targeting international artists and the media field occupied by them, in particular for Asia based on efforts out of the Japanese market; it is already expanding into Korea and Taiwan in preparation for more action in foreign locations like the Philippines, Indonesia and even Russia, reflecting the staff composition of his company among other things.

Shibuya – who was also able to make an impromptu pitch at the Austin event where the firm’s booth was decorated to play up the Chiba background with the staff wearing traditional Japanese festival garbs such as “Happi“… which was found to be an effective approach upon leaving an impression on visitors – stressed the affordability of Fuller offerings.

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Fuller signs with Korea’s Mobidays for the regional expansion. (In Seoul, May 2016)
Image credit: Mobidays

This online concierge startup secures seed funding to better serve visitors to Japan

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See the original story in Japanese. Fast Japan, an online chat concierge service for visitors to Japan, was established in November of 2015 and fully started its service from March. The team announced this week that it has fundraised 25 million yen (about $236,000). TLM and KLab Venture Partners and angel investors participated in this round. In Japan, various services targeting visitors to Japan, constantly growing in number, are appearing. Fast Japan provides Q&A or consultation services related to trip inside Japan via Facebook Messenger, Line and its own chat function on the website. The ‘decentralized concierge’ is one preference of this service which enables users to use any tool they are familiar with. The content of questions collected from users range far and wide, such as recommended hotel, restaurant or route for certain locations. The chat service is provided in English and is free of charge for now. In addition, it operates its own media providing useful information to travel inside Japan in English and Traditional Chinese (for Taiwan and Hong Kong). Access to the website is mostly from Taiwan, having a large ratio of visitors to Japan as well. CEO of Fast Japan Yuki Katano closed his former…

fast-japan_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Fast Japan, an online chat concierge service for visitors to Japan, was established in November of 2015 and fully started its service from March. The team announced this week that it has fundraised 25 million yen (about $236,000). TLM and KLab Venture Partners and angel investors participated in this round.

In Japan, various services targeting visitors to Japan, constantly growing in number, are appearing. Fast Japan provides Q&A or consultation services related to trip inside Japan via Facebook Messenger, Line and its own chat function on the website. The ‘decentralized concierge’ is one preference of this service which enables users to use any tool they are familiar with.

The content of questions collected from users range far and wide, such as recommended hotel, restaurant or route for certain locations. The chat service is provided in English and is free of charge for now. In addition, it operates its own media providing useful information to travel inside Japan in English and Traditional Chinese (for Taiwan and Hong Kong). Access to the website is mostly from Taiwan, having a large ratio of visitors to Japan as well.

CEO of Fast Japan Yuki Katano closed his former social gift business and took on this new challenge.

He  explains about how Fast Japan started:

I have liked communicating with people from many different countries, through study abroad programs for example. After considering the field in which I could communicate through a product and also can put being a Japanese to use, I figured out the inbound business. Among that, I chose a form of the chat concierge business which would contribute to decision-making when traveling.

Katano finds a sure response from the increased number of users. The secured funding this time will be spent for construction of a chat operation system and development of a scalable chat service model.

He concluded:

In the future, I want to develop a personal assistance for chat support when traveling not only in Japan but also anywhere else in the world.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Meet Blincam, mini-camera mounted on glasses for enabling snapshots with eyeblinks

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It has been a while since wearable devices began appearing on the general street scene. While smartwatches and fitness trackers have diffused to some extent, wearable glasses need something more to further penetrate into the market. Blincam, a new wearable product from Japan, may well change this. Blincam is a mini-camera that allows users to take a snapshot with an eyeblink. It can be mounted on conventional glasses and connected to a smartphone via Bluetooth to manage the photoshots. The device releases the shutter by detecting motion around the eye, working only with an intentional strong wink but not with a small natural one. Their sensing technology now has a patent pending. The development of this device has started with Blincam founder and CEO Shota Takase’s intention to easily take snapshots of the natural facial expression of kids. His team has exhibited at several startup conferences, including The Bridge Fes back in February as well as Slush Asia 2016, while devoting themselves to product development. The Alpha version of the product was at last made public with a campaign commenced on Japanese crowdfunding site Makuake earlier this week, achieving the initial goal of 1 million yen (about $10,000) in less…

blincam_featuredimage

It has been a while since wearable devices began appearing on the general street scene. While smartwatches and fitness trackers have diffused to some extent, wearable glasses need something more to further penetrate into the market. Blincam, a new wearable product from Japan, may well change this.

Blincam is a mini-camera that allows users to take a snapshot with an eyeblink. It can be mounted on conventional glasses and connected to a smartphone via Bluetooth to manage the photoshots. The device releases the shutter by detecting motion around the eye, working only with an intentional strong wink but not with a small natural one. Their sensing technology now has a patent pending.

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The development of this device has started with Blincam founder and CEO Shota Takase’s intention to easily take snapshots of the natural facial expression of kids. His team has exhibited at several startup conferences, including The Bridge Fes back in February as well as Slush Asia 2016, while devoting themselves to product development.

blincam-makuake

The Alpha version of the product was at last made public with a campaign commenced on Japanese crowdfunding site Makuake earlier this week, achieving the initial goal of 1 million yen (about $10,000) in less than a few hours after launch. The company will conduct a sample test and marketing in August, while also planning to exhibit at TechCrunch Disrupt SF in September (in San Francisco); these are to be followed by a Kickstarter campaign beginning in November.

Regarding the production lot for pre-orders received on the Makuake crowdfunding site at this time, they will start shipping the device in December, meanwhile introducing a mobile app for it. In 2017, they intend to make a shift to the mass-production phase after exhibiting at international showcase events like Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and South by Southwest (SXSW). After these, the company will launch sales at Amazon and electronics retail stores from next spring.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s Veldt secures seed round funding to boost production of analogue smartwatches

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See the original story in Japanese. As is well known, smart watch is one of the wearable devices gathering much public attention. Even in Japan, some startups focusing on smart watch development exist as well. Japan’s Veldt, which is working in development and sales of IoT products, had launched a smart watch named Veldt Serendipity in 2014. The team especially insisted on the design as wristwatch. The device provides information from the smartphone a combination of LED light and small display behind the analog dial face, and can also display collected data linked to smartphone apps. First of all, Veldt Serendipity has reached a high degree of perfection as a wristwatch, so users like that point and are willingly to wear it. Therefore, data acquisition and service provision leveraging these data can be realized, said Veldt CEO Jin Nonogami. The reason for not adopting full-screen display like Apple Watch is that Nonogami is particular about making “display-less computing” possible. The strong preference for the coexistence of engineering and craftsmanship is attracting users. At the world’s biggest wristwatch fair Baselworld 2016 held this March, Veldt showcased its new model or collaboration products with Kyoto Denim. He said that they drew much…

veldt-feature1

See the original story in Japanese.

As is well known, smart watch is one of the wearable devices gathering much public attention. Even in Japan, some startups focusing on smart watch development exist as well.

Japan’s Veldt, which is working in development and sales of IoT products, had launched a smart watch named Veldt Serendipity in 2014. The team especially insisted on the design as wristwatch. The device provides information from the smartphone a combination of LED light and small display behind the analog dial face, and can also display collected data linked to smartphone apps.

veldt-feature3

First of all, Veldt Serendipity has reached a high degree of perfection as a wristwatch, so users like that point and are willingly to wear it. Therefore, data acquisition and service provision leveraging these data can be realized, said Veldt CEO Jin Nonogami.

The reason for not adopting full-screen display like Apple Watch is that Nonogami is particular about making “display-less computing” possible. The strong preference for the coexistence of engineering and craftsmanship is attracting users.

At the world’s biggest wristwatch fair Baselworld 2016 held this March, Veldt showcased its new model or collaboration products with Kyoto Denim. He said that they drew much attention as a ‘wearable brand’ overseas. After this, it established a project at Japan’s crowdfunding website Makuake and has already started pre-sales.

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In the spotlight, Veldt had last week secured its seed round funding from Accord Ventures and CyberAgent Ventures. The money will be spent for development of its own brand Veldt Serendipity, development of new devices or service expansion for business use.

Veldt was originally developed with so-called ‘executive athletes’ as targets. The team is also considering development of devices such as activity tracker focusing more on grasping health condition, while continuing development of the higher-grade productline.

Also, the team will modify Veldt Serendipity to make it thinner and improve it to be a device which will be easily selected by women.

veldt-with-headphone

Coinciding with this fundraising, the team had also announced a plan for OEM (original equipment manufacturer) supply and software licensing of IoT products, excepting Veldt’s brand offered jointly with Japanese electronics company SMK (TSE:6798). The team and SMK have also been jointly developing a circuit for Veldt’s next-term products.

There are so many hurdles upon creating IoT devices. You have to find engineers for development of software as well as hardware, while considering separately both prototyping and mass production. The cost-curve can hardly be lowered through small-lot outputs.

The need to be involved in IoT products development is gradually spreading among players other than electronics companies. While business or services utilizing IoT have seen increased demand, there are obstacles such as the securing of development resources beyond fields including software / hardware / designing / engineering, in addition to ensuring product quality upon commencing mass production or implementing cost control.

Veldt aims to lower the hurdle of the IoT project by investing its knowledge as to development of IoT products / software plus its resource network, and utilizing SMK’s design know-how and production technology based on sufficient past accomplishments in the electronic components field.

As the wearable brand Veldt attracts more attention, demands for its service upon business use is expected to increase as well.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Creww sets up accelerator with Panasonic for high-potential startups from the world

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Creww, the Japanese startup behind a community platform offering open innovation opportunities to startups, announced today that it has launched the Panasonic Accelerator 2016 program in partnership with the consumer electronics giant and started accepting applications from startups. The program has three categories for entries – “home appliances and living” and “work,” plus “Advanced Technologies” – where Panasonic will offer their intellectual assets or human resources accordingly, such as their menu and recipe-suggestion websites, 250,000 employees around the world, offices and factories… in addition to bioelectronic sensing, spoken-language analysis as well as image diagnosis support technologies. Applications for the program are being accepted from July 13th to 28th. Following the screening of documents and presentations, selected applicants will participate in the program with a team from Panasonic, which is scheduled to start on September 2nd. Submitted ideas will be implemented in a closed environment controlled by Creww and Panasonic so that applicants will not need to worry about possible leaks of their ideas to third parties regardless of whether or not they can pass the screening process. Creww has partnered with over 50 Japanese corporations to date and helped them work with startups…

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Panasonic’s Leading-Edge Technology Team (Image credit: Creww)

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Creww, the Japanese startup behind a community platform offering open innovation opportunities to startups, announced today that it has launched the Panasonic Accelerator 2016 program in partnership with the consumer electronics giant and started accepting applications from startups. The program has three categories for entries – “home appliances and living” and “work,” plus “Advanced Technologies” – where Panasonic will offer their intellectual assets or human resources accordingly, such as their menu and recipe-suggestion websites, 250,000 employees around the world, offices and factories… in addition to bioelectronic sensing, spoken-language analysis as well as image diagnosis support technologies.

Applications for the program are being accepted from July 13th to 28th. Following the screening of documents and presentations, selected applicants will participate in the program with a team from Panasonic, which is scheduled to start on September 2nd. Submitted ideas will be implemented in a closed environment controlled by Creww and Panasonic so that applicants will not need to worry about possible leaks of their ideas to third parties regardless of whether or not they can pass the screening process.

Creww has partnered with over 50 Japanese corporations to date and helped them work with startups in so-called open innovation efforts. As of this month, the company has received more than 1,600 business proposals from startups in total while over 200 ideas out of these have been adopted by partnered corporations. While Panasonic had been collaborating with startups by individual product or technology where necessary, the company made some of its IoT (Internet of Things) patents available for royalty-free use last year, followed by launch of facilities like Panasonic Laboratory Tokyo and Wonder LAB Osaka as hubs for open innovation activities focused on artificial intelligence, IoT, robotics and sensing technologies this spring.

Other examples of accelerators by renowned consumer electronics giants around the world include Siemens Accelerator (in Germany), Samsung Accelerator (in New York City and San Francisco), StarRocket by Foxconn (in Taipei), not to mention Seed Accelerator Program (SAP) by Sony in Tokyo.

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Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

vKirirom, resort and school developer for Cambodia, gets $2.9M from angel investors

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See the original story in Japanese. Singapore-based vKirirom, the startup developing and operating a resort as well as a boarding-style university on a Cambodian plateau, announced on Saturday that it has fundraised $2.9 million from 15 angel investors in Japan and Singapore. Names of the investors participating in this angel round have not been disclosed. vKirirom is a social entrepreneurship startup founded in February of 2014 by Japanese serial entrepreneur Takeshi Izuka. After selling his startup Digital Forest, the company behind web access analysis platform Visionalist, to NTT Communications in 2009, he moved to Cambodia with his family in January of 2014 after spending four years in Singapore. He has leased land in the Kirirom National Park from the Cambodian government, which is located near the country’s capital of Phnom Penh, to develop a resort city along with a boarding-style university. Of particular interest regarding this project is Kirirom Institute of Technology (KIT), a boarding-style university located within the resort premises, where local students can learn programming and English while receiving scholarship provided by sponsoring companies. It aims to nurture engineers and business leaders for the information industry which is likely to be considered promising in terms of securing income…

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Students at Kirirom Institute of Technology with Takeshi Izuka (standing on the right)
Image credit: vKirirom

See the original story in Japanese.

Singapore-based vKirirom, the startup developing and operating a resort as well as a boarding-style university on a Cambodian plateau, announced on Saturday that it has fundraised $2.9 million from 15 angel investors in Japan and Singapore. Names of the investors participating in this angel round have not been disclosed.

vKirirom is a social entrepreneurship startup founded in February of 2014 by Japanese serial entrepreneur Takeshi Izuka. After selling his startup Digital Forest, the company behind web access analysis platform Visionalist, to NTT Communications in 2009, he moved to Cambodia with his family in January of 2014 after spending four years in Singapore. He has leased land in the Kirirom National Park from the Cambodian government, which is located near the country’s capital of Phnom Penh, to develop a resort city along with a boarding-style university.

Of particular interest regarding this project is Kirirom Institute of Technology (KIT), a
boarding-style university located within the resort premises, where local students can learn programming and English while receiving scholarship provided by sponsoring companies. It aims to nurture engineers and business leaders for the information industry which is likely to be considered promising in terms of securing income and careerbuilding, then contributing to heightened educational and living standards for this country. Since the university is still new, it wil take a little time until the results are out; however, some of their graduates may establish a potential unicorn startup in Silicon Valley or on their home turf of Cambodia in the near future.

(I assume that one of the primary motivations of companies sponsoring the university in providing scholarship may be similar to the cases where Chinese IT giants establish or sponsor their university for securing future human resources.)

We were told that Izuka has made great efforts to launch vKirirom Pine Resort and KIT, such as constructing a branch road from the main highway to the premise, setting up power generators and securing broadband internet connectivity by radio waves from the nearest town, so he himself has been bringing in much equipment from Cambodia to facilitate the environment-building. Based on the initiative by the university, he wants to further develop resort facilities to serve the needs of tourists, company outings and vacation homes. To secure funds for these, he intends to explore the possibilities of investment-type crowdfunding as well as a series A round funding this year.

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Bungalows in vKirirom Pine Resort (image credit: vKirirom)

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy