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Tokyo Government opens own ‘Startup Cafe’ to help turn more people into entrepreneurs

Tokyo Metropolitan Government

SCORE 1,403

Masaru Ikeda 2017.01.29

See the original story in Japanese. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) opened the Tokyo Startup Station as a base to promote entrepreneurship in Marunouchi, Tokyo with the opening ceremony held on Thursday. Located on the 1st and 2nd floors of the Meiji Yasuda Life Headquarters Building (Marunouchi My Plaza) near Tokyo Station, the first floor was founded as Startup Hub Tokyo and consists of an event space and a lounge space. The second floor was founded as the Tokyo Startup One-Stop Support Floor where entrepreneurs can receive counseling on the procedures for establishing their business and support regarding funding. While there is no reason to believe it is best to construct one concentrated area for startups, since people most often think of Shibuya when it comes to such a place, some readers may be scratching their heads and wondering, Why Marunouchi, crowded with the headquarters of numerous big name Japanese companies? In terms of other support provided, the TMG has already established the Tokyo Startup Gateway (also known as TSG, sponsored by the TMG and run by incubation program provider ETIC) and the Aoyama Startup Acceleration Center (also known as ASAC, sponsored by the TMG and operated by Japanese audit…

See the original story in Japanese.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) opened the Tokyo Startup Station as a base to promote entrepreneurship in Marunouchi, Tokyo with the opening ceremony held on Thursday. Located on the 1st and 2nd floors of the Meiji Yasuda Life Headquarters Building (Marunouchi My Plaza) near Tokyo Station, the first floor was founded as Startup Hub Tokyo and consists of an event space and a lounge space. The second floor was founded as the Tokyo Startup One-Stop Support Floor where entrepreneurs can receive counseling on the procedures for establishing their business and support regarding funding.

While there is no reason to believe it is best to construct one concentrated area for startups, since people most often think of Shibuya when it comes to such a place, some readers may be scratching their heads and wondering,

Why Marunouchi, crowded with the headquarters of numerous big name Japanese companies?

In terms of other support provided, the TMG has already established the Tokyo Startup Gateway (also known as TSG, sponsored by the TMG and run by incubation program provider ETIC) and the Aoyama Startup Acceleration Center (also known as ASAC, sponsored by the TMG and operated by Japanese audit company Deloitte Tohmatsu Group), and despite the additional support measures announced on Wednesday it seems to me there may be Tokyo citizens expressing disapproval that this is once again the product of a hierarchical administrative system.

A white paper report showing changes in the number of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial hopefuls in Japan (Click to enlarge)

The matter begins with the white paper report on small and medium-sized businesses issued by the Japanese government office. Although the graph pictured above is a reprint, if we look at the statistics over the past decade the number of entrepreneurs is almost level despite conditions improving in the entrepreneurial environment. Above all else, it is surprising that the population of entrepreneurial hopefuls actually tends to decrease. These statistics are based on the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Employment Status Survey and while some doubt remains as to whether the data obtained correctly reflects real life, it remains a serious problem in the current age, where it is said that startups make the future of the country.

The TMG explained that they opened the facility with the hope of informing people about the possibilities of entrepreneurship through the TSG and ASAC’s employment of people who have already started their entrepreneurial journey, as well as people who have already made their MVP (Minimum Viable Product). The first floor’s Startup Hub Tokyo is designed for people looking to develop startups with hockey-stick like momentum, while the 2nd floor’s Tokyo Startup One-Stop Support Floor is meant for small and medium sized companies aiming for sustainable business growth. By positioning the Tokyo Startup Station on the first floor in an area where Japanese first class, big name businesses gather, it appears they hope to attract businesspersons from companies on their way home from work, in addition to enticing shoppers in the vicinity to drop on by.

Startup Hub Tokyo Opening Ceremony

According to Hiroyuki Numaga of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Bureau of Industrial and Labor Affairs New Business Support Section which oversees Startup Hub Tokyo, they referenced Startup Cafe Fukuoka and Startup Cafe Osaka (operated by Fukuoka City and Osaka City respectively and run by Culture Convenience Club) in making Startup Hub Tokyo; however, due to limitations as the administrative unit of the TMG, it was impossible to take the same operational format, resulting in the TMG renting the location and the management entrusted to Technology Seed Incubation, who also proposed the idea.

At Startup Hub Tokyo a team of entrepreneurs are stationed at the Startup Support Concierge year round, including Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays and there are plans to hold more than 300 events organized in-house and by partners throughout the year. Public events are also welcomed so long as they contribute to entrepreneurial support.

Basically anyone can use the services free of charge even if they are not a Tokyo citizen (just pay for the Tokyo Entrepreneurial Lecture), and registration is necessary to receive hands-on assistance and access to membership salons. The participants are classified in four groups depending on the level of their activity: “Members,” “Entre Members,” “Project Members,” and “Fellows,” with the variation of available services set to increase. As a general rule, the TMG is supposed to obtain the operating expenses from city taxes based on the applicants who use the service and intend to start a business in Tokyo, but in actuality, the location (country, city, prefecture, etc.) of the headquarters registered by the company is never sought, leaving me to take the liberal stance that it would be good if this led to the advancement of startup development globally.

In terms of support for women entrepreneurs, Startup Hub Tokyo includes a kids room that is available Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday with childcare practitioners on hand to take care of children. (Due to restrictions on human resources, for now they are unable to offer this service every day.) On the 2nd floor Tokyo Startup One-Stop Support Floor, there is a planning consultant who only receives female entrepreneurs, so, from her perspective as a woman, Governor Yuriko Koike’s touch can be seen here and there.

On the same day as the opening ceremony, a panel discussion was held. It was headlined by Team 2020’s Secretary General Kouji Ichiki who was also invited to be the moderator, and Yahoo Japan (TSE:4689) CEO Manabu Miyasaka, Space Market CEO Daisuke Shigematsu, and event e-commerce provider Linkbal (TSE:6046) CEO Yoshihiro Kazumasa all participated. In particular, Shigematsu, whose work life centers around outer space, could not hide his wonder at the government-led procurement of such an outstanding location for their headquarters for startup support.

The TMG’s aim is to reach 20,000 users per year, and in the meantime obtain 2,000 registered members. Can this new site in Marunouchi become a hub for the entrepreneurial generation? I look forward to the day when new startups are born here.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

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This startup offers free SIM cards at airport to help foreign visitors get around Japan

WAmazing

Takeshi Hirano 2017.01.28

See the original story in Japanese. I can safely introduce this startup as the favorite among domestic companies focusing on inbound business opportunities. Tokyo-based startup WAmazing launched their app earlier this week, which offers free SIM cards and tourism services to foreign visitors to Japan. The service packages together a SIM card, a tour guide app, and information on reservations by working with smartphones. The company’s target is the some 40 million foreign visitors expected to visit Japan in 2020, with prospective users first downloading the app, and then inputting their personal information, length of stay, and payment information such as credit card number while still in their home country in order to obtain their QR code. Upon arrival in Japan they will be able to use their QR code at any of the four free SIM card vending machines located at international arrival areas of Narita Airport’s 1st, 2nd, and 3rd terminals to receive the card. Once the user has installed the SIM card on their smartphone, they have 5 days, up to 500 MB of free mobile service with no initial fees. When the user opens the WAmazing app, it will be possible to purchase additional mobile data,…

WAmazing founders: CEO Fumiko Kato (right), CTO Yuichi Tateno (left)

See the original story in Japanese.

I can safely introduce this startup as the favorite among domestic companies focusing on inbound business opportunities.

Tokyo-based startup WAmazing launched their app earlier this week, which offers free SIM cards and tourism services to foreign visitors to Japan. The service packages together a SIM card, a tour guide app, and information on reservations by working with smartphones.

The company’s target is the some 40 million foreign visitors expected to visit Japan in 2020, with prospective users first downloading the app, and then inputting their personal information, length of stay, and payment information such as credit card number while still in their home country in order to obtain their QR code.

Upon arrival in Japan they will be able to use their QR code at any of the four free SIM card vending machines located at international arrival areas of Narita Airport’s 1st, 2nd, and 3rd terminals to receive the card. Once the user has installed the SIM card on their smartphone, they have 5 days, up to 500 MB of free mobile service with no initial fees.

When the user opens the WAmazing app, it will be possible to purchase additional mobile data, as well as browse a variety of sightseeing information, allowing them to reserve or purchase on the spot. On top of this, the app can also be used to “call” a taxi; simply input a location and one of the 12,000 taxis operating in Tokyo can be dispatched right then and there. Picture this: purchasing an activity package for touring from the convenience of the hotel, where the taxi will come to whisk you away on your day of leisure.

And with that, enough with the introduction. Here are the points to pay attention to:

The SIM card vending machines are installed at Narita Airport
It is designed to obtain payment information from tourists before arrival
They developed a service that includes a unique taxi dispatch and tourism concierge

With the government’s goal of increasing inbound tourism figures to 40 million people by 2020, the year of the Tokyo Olympics, it is estimated that consumption will rise to 8 trillion yen (around $70 billion US), which is twice that of 2015.

Meanwhile, it is very clear that the domestic development of a free communication infrastructure, for example Wifi hotspots, has its share of problems, language barriers often being touted as one. In the past we introduced a startup called Bridge providing similar services to solve these problems. However, WAmazing appears to cover a more extensive range.

The company was founded in July of 2016 when Yuichi Tateno, previously of Hatena (TSE:3930) and Cookpad (TSE:2193), joined with Fumiko Kato, whose background includes launching Jalan.net (one of the largest hotel/traditional inn booking sites in Japan) and Hot Pepper Gourmet (Japan’s largest gourmet website), as well as the regional tourism promotion project “Maji☆Bu.” In contrast to Kato’s time spent at Recruit (TSE:6098), the company behind “Maji☆Bu,” her current inbound business is a “mature” startup.

For example, when asked about where the tourism information provided by WAmazing originates, the answer was that they prepare it themselves, rather than partnering with an outside service. Without thorough knowledge, preparing such info quickly is difficult.

In addition, where you would expect them to partner with existing services for taxi dispatching, they announced their unique approach of using API to cooperate directly with the system of the Tokyo Hire-Taxi Association. As mentioned above, this gives them access to dispatch the nearly 12,000 taxis in Tokyo. To get into the specifics, when a taxi connected to the network is dispatched using WAmazing, the details are displayed on the hired taxi’s in-vehicle unit, allowing the operation to work smoothly for overseas customers.

Even at this beginning stage great care is being taken for even the smallest of details, leaving the impression wherever they go from here, they will be bringing a considerably high level of service with them. Of course, as the service has not yet been launched, there is still much to be done, like finishing the development of the control screen.

Because businesses and systems involved in sightseeing and support for foreign visitors are intertwined in a complicated manner, the bargaining power WAmazing seems to be in possession of gives me the impression that their place on the playing field is a secure one. In fact, in cooperation with Narita Airport, they will not be charged for setting up the SIM card vending machines. Furthermore, the SIM card they will provide is the same as Bridge’s and the infrastructure will use Soracom (a Mobile Virtual Network Operator using NTT Docomo’s network).

According to Kato, as an initial target they have developed marketing directed at travelers living in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and the goal at their current stage is for 1 in every 8 people to be using it by 2020, so a platform that supports 5 million users.

As they are concerned with a wide range of subjects and still operating 100% on personal funds, their future growth strategy, and the fact that Cookpad’s former CTO (Tateno) has joined the development team, is worth paying attention to. Once the service has kicked off and numbers start to come in, I’d like to talk more about it.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

news

Cloud management platform Mobingi wins Draper Nexus’ B2B Summit in Tokyo

Draper Nexus

The Bridge 2017.01.26

This is a guest post authored by Daiki Suzuki, consultant of Tokyo-based incubation consultancy / startup-focused investment firm Archetype. See the original story in Japanese. Draper Nexus Venture Partners (hereafter called Draper Nexus), which has mainly invested in B2B (business-to-business) startups in Japan and the US, this month held Draper Nexus B2B Summit in Tokyo 2017 as its first, inviting venture capitalists (VCs) or emerging startups in Silicon Valley to introduce the latest local business trends. The event program was mainly centered on a keynote speech and lecture sessions, and a pitch competition was scheduled in the last half. In the opening speech, Akira Kurabayashi, Managing Director of Draper Nexus, said that B2B startups have been attracting attention in Japan based on the technological development in the cloud, mobile devices or IoT (Internet of Things) field, in addition to social changes including the aging society. According to the data gathered since 1995 in the US, B2B investments there exceed B2C (business-to-consumer) ones both in exit probability and return amount. In the pitch competition, five Japanese startups presented their own businesses to judges including top tier VCs in Silicon Valley. The judges in the competition were as follows. Forest Baskett (General…

This is a guest post authored by Daiki Suzuki, consultant of Tokyo-based incubation consultancy / startup-focused investment firm Archetype.

See the original story in Japanese.

Draper Nexus Venture Partners (hereafter called Draper Nexus), which has mainly invested in B2B (business-to-business) startups in Japan and the US, this month held Draper Nexus B2B Summit in Tokyo 2017 as its first, inviting venture capitalists
(VCs) or emerging startups in Silicon Valley to introduce the latest local business trends. The event program was mainly centered on a keynote speech and lecture sessions, and a pitch competition was scheduled in the last half.

In the opening speech, Akira Kurabayashi, Managing Director of Draper Nexus, said that B2B startups have been attracting attention in Japan based on the technological development in the cloud, mobile devices or IoT (Internet of Things) field, in addition to social changes including the aging society. According to the data gathered since 1995 in the US, B2B investments there exceed B2C (business-to-consumer) ones both in exit probability and return amount.

In the pitch competition, five Japanese startups presented their own businesses to judges including top tier VCs in Silicon Valley. The judges in the competition were as follows.

Forest Baskett (General Partner, New Enterprise Associates)
Mark Bailey (Parner, DFJ Growth)
Grant Halloran (CMO, Anaplan)
Hideaki Yajima (Manager, Cisco Investments)
Naoto Ohitsu (Manager Innovative Companies Support Department, Mizuho Bank)

Cisco Award (Top Award) winner: Mobingi

Mobingi developed SaaS (software as a service) enabling life cycle management of the cloud. Since its launch back in 2015, the service has been showing a monthly profit of $100,000 and a monthly growth rate of 20%, but on the other hand the cancellation rate remain zero.

The firm focused on a demand generated from the knowledge gaps between engineers and non-engineers, and started providing a browser-based software allowing easy operation of the cloud environment without regard to private / public ones, which were conventionally operated by specialized engineers through the command-line interface.

The service also enables cloud environment management such as performance comparison or auto-scaling. It is providing these services as OEM (original equipment manufacturer) for major cloud providers as well, and the Mobingi team said that they aim to target large enterprises like Fortune 500 in the future due to shifts in their cloud strategies to public ones.

As a result of judging for the pitch competition, Mobingi won the top award with cash of 1 million yen (about $8,800). The judges evaluated the traction of the product and the market size highly, to vote unanimously for it. One of the judges commented that he expects the firm’s potential as a startup capable of aiming for global markets although few Japanese players are capable of taking on the infrastructure sectors.

See also:

AWS Award / Mitsui Fudosan Award winner: XICA

XICA with the stated mission to “bring suggestions to all the data” provides a marketing support SaaS from a statistical approach. The total ROI (return on investment) of marketing continues to deteriorate because there are two big barriers in marketing: an explosive increase of media and difficulties in analysis. Complicated analysis is necessary for improvement of ROI, but requires specialists and large costs.

XICA Magellan enables optimization of daily operations through data gathering and analysis of track in addition to conversion calculation of promotion budget allocation which can be handled even by general marketers without specialized knowledge. The service has already been implemented to a lot of major Japanese companies.

Nurve

Nurve provides a SaaS allowing VR (virtual reality) space creation without any specialized knowledge or experience, mainly for real estate business players. Private viewing is important for house selling promotion, and this service can reduce the users’ time spent or trouble by utilizing VR for virtual viewing.

The service supports QR code reading for property information and provides specialized VR devices too. It has already been used by many major companies as the premium service, and the team also aims the market of shopping sector by enabling pre-experiencing of products / services in VR spaces before purchasing, as well as the real estate business in the future.

IBM Japan Award / Fujitsu Award winner: V-Cube Robotics

V-Cube Robotics provides a total solution with drones that can be used in worksites basically requiring on-site human operators, such as disaster recovery, factory maintenance or infrastructure monitoring. It provides not only drone-related hardware but also a communication system enabling streaming of images photographed by drone-mounted camera to distant places in real-time.

For example, local government or fire authorities can confirm the situation in disaster-stricken areas in real-time and make decisions quickly when an earthquake occurs. The take-off and landing of drones are completely automated and the firm also provides a fault detection service in the monitored areas.

Mizuho Financial Group Award winner: Floadia

Floadia developed a small-sized, low-power-consuming yet non-volatile flash memory which will be essential in the IoT era. It is expected that billions of IoT devices and tens of trillion of sensors will exist in the world in the future, but there is a certain limit for central servers to process all of the communications. Therefore, smaller and more intelligent IoT devices are required. The firm succeeded in reduction of power consumption by directly connecting the flash memory which is difficult to be handled by digital circuits with its own technologies.

In a heartbeat monitoring device for example, the memory can extend the battery service life by entering into sleep mode in the time between every heartbeat. Along with ARM, Floadia is engaged in design of flash memory with the fabless and license provision model.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japanese startup wants to add smells to VR experiences with small bar device

Masaru Ikeda 2017.01.22

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Vaqso unveiled their device Vaqso VR, which adds a sense of smell to VR games, etc., when attached to a head-mounted display (HMD) at their press conference held in Tokyo on Tuesday. Vaqso was established by Kentaro Kawaguchi of ZaaZ, a Japanese company involved in promotional services using odors for restaurants. In addition to CEO Kawaguchi, Tatsuya Kogusuri who led the development of Hackey for Cerevo serves as CTO, and Fumio Kurokawa who has had a hand in various online games serves as a special advisor. While Kawaguchi is in charge of planning and developing the odors, Kurokawa is using his vast network to support business development. Their development base is located in Tokyo at DMM.make Akiba, but was incorporated in San Francisco, USA to make global funding efforts easier with the goal to enter the world market. Vaqso VR is about the length and width of a Snickers bar and can be attached to a HMD using a magnet. It synchs up with VR contents and it is possible to set different odor cartridges. Three types of odor cartridges can been installed in the prototype, with plans to increase this to…

Vaqso Co-founder and CEO Kentaro Kawaguchi, Special Advisor Fumio Kurokawa

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based startup Vaqso unveiled their device Vaqso VR, which adds a sense of smell to VR games, etc., when attached to a head-mounted display (HMD) at their press conference held in Tokyo on Tuesday. Vaqso was established by Kentaro Kawaguchi of ZaaZ, a Japanese company involved in promotional services using odors for restaurants. In addition to CEO Kawaguchi, Tatsuya Kogusuri who led the development of Hackey for Cerevo serves as CTO, and Fumio Kurokawa who has had a hand in various online games serves as a special advisor. While Kawaguchi is in charge of planning and developing the odors, Kurokawa is using his vast network to support business development. Their development base is located in Tokyo at DMM.make Akiba, but was incorporated in San Francisco, USA to make global funding efforts easier with the goal to enter the world market.

Vaqso VR is about the length and width of a Snickers bar and can be attached to a HMD using a magnet. It synchs up with VR contents and it is possible to set different odor cartridges. Three types of odor cartridges can been installed in the prototype, with plans to increase this to 5-10 cartridges in the finished product. Also, the device is equipped with a small fan, which is currently under development, but by synchronizing the rotation speed of the fan with the VR content when the user moves closer to or away from the object in the virtual space it will be possible to strengthen or weaken the smell accordingly.

Additionally, Vaqso has completed the API for controlling Vaqso VR for VR game developers. A library (Unity plug-in) is provided for connecting with Vaqso VR, and developers can make their game correspond to Vaqso VR by simply adding the “Include” command at the beginning of their source code and an additional line of code written where the event occurs. Vaqso is planning to open a developer’s site (sign up here) in an effot to gather a wide range of opinions from developers, with the feedback obtained they will improve their product, and finally reach the point where they are ready to begin shipping a finished product.

Competition, such as Feelreal and Noslus Rift, exists in this field, but Vaqso VR has an advantage in that it can emit multiple odors while also being an ultra compact device. In addition, because it was designed for installation on any HMD including Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR, it has a wider potential customer base. Vaqso will launch a B2B business for advertising, games, and OEM production, etc., in April of this year, and it is expected to start selling B2C later this year.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

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Japan’s Exiii unveils prototype of haptic VR device

Exiii
EXOS

Takeshi Hirano 2017.01.21

See the original story in Japanese. Japanese device startup Exiii, well known for its open-source electric-powered prosthetic hands HACKberry, produced using a 3D printer, this week announced the haptic device Exos as its new product under development. Exos applies pressure directly unto the users’ hand via a built-in motor, to enable users gaining the sensation of touching a virtual object with their hand. This technology is seen being applied to VR (virtual reality) games and robot remote controls, in addition to use in rehabilitation programs for hand movements or the like. See also: Japan’s functional prosthetic hand Handiii beats funding goal in five days Japan’s Exiii unveils teaser page for functional prosthetic hand Along with the boom in VR (virtual reality) / AR (augmented reality) technologies, various devices providing immersive feel for the virtual space have been surfacing. Among these, products focused on the visual sense have recently become attention-grabbers, such as the first-generation device as exemplified by Oculus, which became affiliated with Facebook last year. Since hepatic sense devices are considered to be the next generation following in the visual ones’ footsteps, some projects like UnlimitedHand are now in progress in Japan. See also: Japan’s H2L unveils haptic wearable…

See the original story in Japanese.

Japanese device startup Exiii, well known for its open-source electric-powered prosthetic hands HACKberry, produced using a 3D printer, this week announced the haptic device Exos as its new product under development.

Exos applies pressure directly unto the users’ hand via a built-in motor, to enable users gaining the sensation of touching a virtual object with their hand. This technology is seen being applied to VR (virtual reality) games and robot remote controls, in addition to use in rehabilitation programs for hand movements or the like.

See also:

Along with the boom in VR (virtual reality) / AR (augmented reality) technologies, various devices providing immersive feel for the virtual space have been surfacing. Among these, products focused on the visual sense have recently become attention-grabbers, such as the first-generation device as exemplified by Oculus, which became affiliated with Facebook last year. Since hepatic sense devices are considered to be the next generation following in the visual ones’ footsteps, some projects like UnlimitedHand are now in progress in Japan.

See also:

Japan’s H2L unveils haptic wearable controller UnlimitedHand on Kickstarter

According to Exiii CEO Hiroshi Yamaura, one of the features of Exos is to transmit power unto the users’ hand directly via motors, unlike UnlimitedHand which adopted electric stimulus. It can thus provide a more realistic sense of touching which cannot be realized with vibration or other methods.

However, it is still under development so the unveiled design was the best possible at present, says Yamarura. Some systems adjustments will be required in the future, such as delay reductions upon communicating information to devices when users touch objects in VR space.

Therefore, the firm looks to gather user companies that wish to provide apps using Exos based on its concept announced this time. By the way, when I asked Yamaura about the uniqueness or the superiority of his device, he answered that he does not regard imitation or tailgating by other players as much of a problem because the firm owns patents related to mechanism or knowledge obtained through its prosthetic hands development and he himself is an expert of exoskeleton functions.

Unfortunately, I could not actually wear and try this device at this time. I cannot say anything definite about how much this device will give us an impression at present but expect that it is not just a conceptual product, judging from the firm’s background of prosthetic hands development and the demonstration video of the prototype.

On the other hand, the actual usage scene / environment for Exos appears to depend on the app developers. It is hoped that the device will be put into production within two or three years when the VR market is expected to become a very active one.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s video production startup Viibar finds $3.5M in funding, partners with Nikkei

Viibar

Takeshi Hirano 2017.01.21

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Viibar, the startup specializing in all things video productions, announced on Tuesday that it has it has secured funding from and partnered with Nihon Keizai Shimbun, a leading Japan economics newspaper hereafter referred to as Nikkei. The company plans to work closely with Nikkei’s newly established digital marketing organization called N Brand Studio, in building a team to develop and provide new services and advertising products that go beyond the company’s current main role of supporting the creation of video materials. Viibar CEO Yuta Kamisaka stated concretely that in the spring of 2017 they will launch a new media project on Nikkei Style, which is managed by Nikkei. In addition to this, they will enter into product development that includes video content and is currently being offered by Nikkei as a set for tie-up advertisement, etc., in addition to also supporting content marketing for companies. Along with this business partnership, Viibar also received approximately 400 million yen (around $3.5 million US) in the latest funding round from Dentsu Digital Holdings and Globis Capital Partners as well as Nikkei. Details such as the valuation and payment date were not disclosed. Dentsu and Globis also…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Viibar, the startup specializing in all things video productions, announced on Tuesday that it has it has secured funding from and partnered with Nihon Keizai Shimbun, a leading Japan economics newspaper hereafter referred to as Nikkei. The company plans to work closely with Nikkei’s newly established digital marketing organization called N Brand Studio, in building a team to develop and provide new services and advertising products that go beyond the company’s current main role of supporting the creation of video materials.

Viibar CEO Yuta Kamisaka stated concretely that in the spring of 2017 they will launch a new media project on Nikkei Style, which is managed by Nikkei. In addition to this, they will enter into product development that includes video content and is currently being offered by Nikkei as a set for tie-up advertisement, etc., in addition to also supporting content marketing for companies.

Along with this business partnership, Viibar also received approximately 400 million yen (around $3.5 million US) in the latest funding round from Dentsu Digital Holdings and Globis Capital Partners as well as Nikkei. Details such as the valuation and payment date were not disclosed. Dentsu and Globis also participated in the previous round.

Viibar, who has supported the crowdsourcing of video materials for companies, has undertaken a new development: an investment and corporate alliance with the media. From the onset, they did not simply provide crowdsourcing for video production, but also dabbled in the media, with funds received from Yahoo Japan in their previous round, and Bouncy, their version of distributed contents. With recent developments, it appears they are ready to go from testing the waters to jumping straight in head first.

These past few years Viibar has been riding the crowdsourcing wave by gathering creators on-line and streamlining production through their production platform. The company has given new options for video production where previously there was only one, to order from a professional production company, and since its inception in 2013 they have assembled some 3000 creators online with the number of companies using their service climbing to 600.

Viibar’s key feature is the so-called “production studio on the cloud”, and there is no need to worry about quality control if a specific creator leaves the production, or a shortage of resources to meet the demands of a large order, which can occur with a general production company. Also, in many cases, the produced contents gets “distributed”, which means the media is necessary. Apart from traditional television and signage, of course, distribution on the Internet is the goal for their creative endeavors.

As mentioned in the release, it is not the first time for Viibar to support the video production of other media. However, this time, with the inclusion of funding, it feels like they intend to expand into a media company, rather than stop at the crowdsourcing of video production/practical knowledge for creating commissioned videos. In fact, even though their business scheme with Nikkei is still under wraps, upon talking with Kamisaka examples of where they are headed, revenue shares, etc. (all points not in the official release) became quite clear.

Viibar has moved from crowdsourcing a little closer to a outsourcing production platform. So, will their video marketing business open up considerably by collaborating with the Nikkei brand?

Here Kamisaka emphasized the word “quality” when it comes to creative pursuits. In the first place, crowdsourcing has some difficulties in quality control regarding work on specific smaller sections of a larger project. However, Viibar covers this with their system and operations, successfully producing a quality top brands can utilize.

Kamisaka elaborated on the cost as well.

The price, that is to say the time and effort that is usually put in by people, compared to a major production company is reasonable. Although, a production company with various people working together internally beats crowdsourcing that doesn’t value quality. For our company, we believe jobs that are just cheap are not work for creators, so it’s good this way.

Since there is no doubt that the balance of quality and cost will lead to profit in the end, the pricing and profit margin of each video advertising product they will sell with the Nikkei brand becomes interesting.

Over the past few years Viibar has constructed a system that can flexibly deliver high-quality content to the world, and from now will use brand-name media and distribution to move to a new stage. This then becomes a test of whether they can expand as a business by taking this next step away from a production platform.

I think it comes down to whether or not we can make a strong brand. A strong brand means that the media has a fan base and its CPA (cost per acquisition) is low, and if this is solid, then it doesn’t matter whether the content is offered via a platform or via our own media.

Kamisaka continued:

Media is a collection of content. We have a commitment to creating an environment where it is possible to focus on creative pursuits. We aren’t just intermediaries matching creators with projects, but through evaluating creators, and paying attention to various results, we have been able to confirm that this is the correct direction to take. Recently, there have been various problems in the area of content, but in the end they’re likely to demand a way of work and manner of creation that is more productive.

Advertisers, the media, creators– with the power of technology is it possible to put them successfully on the cloud? It’s definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

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Too early for check-in? No worry, Tokyo cafes offering ‘Airbnb of baggage storage’

SCORE 1,029

Masaru Ikeda 2017.01.19

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Ecbo launched their on-demand Ecbo Cloak service on Wednesday, aimed at travelers looking to find temporary storage for their luggage by employing the unused space of cafes, bike rentals shops and others. Ecbo was founded by Shinichi Kudo who previously worked at Uber Japan as an intern. The company launched the Ecbo on-demand storage service in June of 2015, and expanding from this, with Ecbo Cloak they begin a new service that incorporates the concept of a sharing economy by finding a use for the idle space in retail stores. The idea for ecbo cloak came to Kudo in Shibuya where he was approached by a traveler to Japan and questioned with, “I’m looking for a coin locker that can store my suitcase.” Lockers capable of fitting a suitcase were scarce or already in use, leading Kudo to the conclusion, unexpectedly, that herein lies a business opportunity. It is true, travelers can request to store their luggage at the front desk or cloak room of their hotel before check-in time, but making a trip to the hotel solely for that purpose, especially in the middle of the day with so much to…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based startup Ecbo launched their on-demand Ecbo Cloak service on Wednesday, aimed at travelers looking to find temporary storage for their luggage by employing the unused space of cafes, bike rentals shops and others.

Ecbo was founded by Shinichi Kudo who previously worked at Uber Japan as an intern. The company launched the Ecbo on-demand storage service in June of 2015, and expanding from this, with Ecbo Cloak they begin a new service that incorporates the concept of a sharing economy by finding a use for the idle space in retail stores. The idea for ecbo cloak came to Kudo in Shibuya where he was approached by a traveler to Japan and questioned with, “I’m looking for a coin locker that can store my suitcase.” Lockers capable of fitting a suitcase were scarce or already in use, leading Kudo to the conclusion, unexpectedly, that herein lies a business opportunity.

It is true, travelers can request to store their luggage at the front desk or cloak room of their hotel before check-in time, but making a trip to the hotel solely for that purpose, especially in the middle of the day with so much to take in, is annoying. In the case of vacation rentals such as Airbnb and HomeAway, travelers cannot count on leaving their luggage before check-in or receiving a key. With Ecbo Cloak travelers can leave their luggage in a convenient location at the city center, enjoy the city care-free, and head to their accommodations at their leisure.

Actually, even in my case, I often leave my suitcase containing my travel necessities in a coin locker at the station when I have appointments in Tokyo before heading to Haneda or Narita (International Airport) or when I have to head to a meeting immediately after returning home to Japan. Here, a problem; when VIPs from overseas like presidents visit Tokyo the use of all coin lockers is suspended in the greater metropolitan area for security purposes. Since Ecbo Cloak is available during the opening hours of the business that collects the luggage, it can be used without having to worry about the above-mentioned case of the coin lockers. Personal identification is required to use the service, and the person responsible for collecting the luggage confirms the user at the drop off, thereby reducing the risk of crime/incidents.

It is said around 30% of visitors to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics used vacation rentals like Airbnb. And it has already been said that Tokyo, host of the 2020 Olympics, is in overwhelmingly short supply of hotels for such an event, so it is safe to assume the use of vacation rentals will increase further. Additionally, with vacation rentals unable to meet the demands for flexibility by their customers (e.g., early check-in/late check-out), Ecbo Cock is expected to grow into a service that fills the gap between customers and suppliers.

So far Ecbo has received funding from Anri, and employs ten full-time core members, including interns. In addition to expanding into Kyoto and Osaka within the year, they want to offer their service at more than 10,000 stores.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

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Japan’s Studio Ousia unveils bot solution leveraging Quiz Bowl-winning technologies

Masaru Ikeda 2017.01.15

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Studio Ousia revealed last week that it had completed an AI (artificial intelligence) inquiry response system using deep learning named QA Engine and that the system was adopted to the auto-answering system of Japan’s cloud accounting system Freee as its first client. The system supports the questions-and-answers style and can hand over questions to human operators when users are dissatisfied with the answers. Freee expects an improvement in customer satisfaction and the efficiency of helpdesk works through the QA Engine adoption. Studio Ousia won an AI quiz competition in Quiz Bowl style at an international conference focused on natural language processing NAACL (North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics) held in San Diego last June. QA Engine was developed leveraging the competition-winning technologies. The firm plans to launch QA Engine as an API (application program interface) service of elemental technologies applicable to answer support system in call centers, human resource matching system or chatbot. See also: Japan’s Studio Ousia wins global NEEL Challenge competition with Entity Linking technology Japan’s Studio Ousia to launch new affiliate solution for bloggers Japan-based Phroni introduces smart add-ons for Dolphin and Sleipnir mobile browsers As recent…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Studio Ousia revealed last week that it had completed an AI (artificial intelligence) inquiry response system using deep learning named QA Engine and that the system was adopted to the auto-answering system of Japan’s cloud accounting system Freee as its first client. The system supports the questions-and-answers style and can hand over questions to human operators when users are dissatisfied with the answers. Freee expects an improvement in customer satisfaction and the efficiency of helpdesk works through the QA Engine adoption.

Studio Ousia won an AI quiz competition in Quiz Bowl style at an international conference focused on natural language processing NAACL (North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics) held in San Diego last June. QA Engine was developed leveraging the competition-winning technologies. The firm plans to launch QA Engine as an API (application program interface) service of elemental technologies applicable to answer support system in call centers, human resource matching system or chatbot.

See also:

As recent topics in this field, Japanese online shopping mall Lohaco’s inquiry response system named Manami-san, which was developed based on a chatbot Caiwa provided by Exiis-Lab, received attention by becoming able to cover one-third of all inquiries to its customer support service. AI developer AL+ (pronounced as “alts”) developed an API Rewritable Memory-based Retrieval (RMR) as a core technology of chatbot and launched a bot development environment AL+ BotFramework supporting LINE or Twitter too. Japan’s BPO (business process outsourcing) / call center service major TransCosmos (TSE:9715) invested in New York-based bot development environment startup Reply.ai this month, and announced that the firm is going to localize the platform for the Japanese market while focusing on introduction to customer support services of the Japanese enterprises.

Studio Ousia was founded through the Keio University SFC (Shonan Fujisawa Campus)’s incubation program, and launched a keyword autolink plugin for smartphone / browser named Phroni in 2012. The firm raised 70 million yen (about $610,000) from Nissei Capital in March of the same year in its series A round, and 100 million yen (about $870,000) from Tokyo-based system developer NID (TSE:2349) in August 2014.

Studio Ousia CEO Ikuya Yamada explains the base technologies of QA Engine at NAACL
Image credit: Jordan Boyd-Graber

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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HRBrain, Japan’s answer to BetterWorks, gets seed round for business goals platform

Takeshi Hirano 2017.01.12

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Mosquitone, providing a cloud-based personnel assessment and target management platform called HRBrain, announced on Wednesday that the securement of funds from Genesia Ventures and Beenext. Details such as the amount raised, payment date, and the share ratio were not disclosed. Along with the funding, the company plans to release the official version of HRBrain, which until now they operated solely in closed beta. According to Mosquitone’s CEO Hiroki Hori, up until now the company has been managed by funds raised from within, making this the first time for funding to come from outside. The company was established in March of 2016, with CEO Hori having previously managed the business department of media relations at CyberAgent (TSE:4751), where he first became aware of the difficulties and inefficiencies brought about by a large number of registered members using general tools, such as Excel, to manage their targets and evaluate their personnel. The company participated in Recruit Holdings’ (TSE:6098) Tech Lab Paak accelerator in order to promote the development of their service. He noted that they improved the scope of their service through introductory tests with some 20 companies focused on Internet related business. So, as…

From the left: Hiro Maeda (Partner of Beenext), Hiroki Hori (CEO of Mosquitone), Soichi Tajima (Genesia Ventures)

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Mosquitone, providing a cloud-based personnel assessment and target management platform called HRBrain, announced on Wednesday that the securement of funds from Genesia Ventures and Beenext. Details such as the amount raised, payment date, and the share ratio were not disclosed. Along with the funding, the company plans to release the official version of HRBrain, which until now they operated solely in closed beta.

According to Mosquitone’s CEO Hiroki Hori, up until now the company has been managed by funds raised from within, making this the first time for funding to come from outside.

The company was established in March of 2016, with CEO Hori having previously managed the business department of media relations at CyberAgent (TSE:4751), where he first became aware of the difficulties and inefficiencies brought about by a large number of registered members using general tools, such as Excel, to manage their targets and evaluate their personnel. The company participated in Recruit Holdings’ (TSE:6098) Tech Lab Paak accelerator in order to promote the development of their service. He noted that they improved the scope of their service through introductory tests with some 20 companies focused on Internet related business.

A screenshot of HRBrain
Image credit: Mosquitone

So, as far as a first impression, HRBrain is quite similar to SmartHR in terms of development. They specialize in the very niche range of corporate management, which until now has been handled by general tools like Excel and paper, but, “as a system the range is narrow, so general-purpose tools are troublesome.” They attack this problem with “refined usability.” There are two major points here. One point is whether they can generalize the extremely qualitative content of the disconnected personnel evaluations and target management for each company. The other is which cost to replace.

As far as the first point goes, Hori says, “We can do it.”

We’ve been able to categorize the methods of target management for each company into a number of patterns. Then we used this to draw up a goal sheet with 4 types for now (OKR, MBO,WCM=Will Can Must, 360 degree evaluation). From here on out we plan to increase this one by one every month. But, there are only about 10 types of such classifications.

The service itself is not complicated. It consists of a target management sheet for entering personal targets and a management screen for HR or a person-in-charge to evaluate. Hori and his team met with nearly 60 of these companies with disjointed evaluation management in order to make such classifications. It seems there is compatibility at the moment as a service aimed at Internet based businesses, however trying to expand into other industries became difficult with circumstances such computers not being distributed to each worker, etc.

The question, “Whose wallet are you looking to lighten?” was also answered to an extent. He added,

I suppose the wallet we’re after has a connection with HR. Take this, there is an example that the evaluation management sheet put together every six months using Excel takes one and a half months to complete. We’re getting a significant amount of hype for reducing that by half.

Pricing is based on the number of users (employees) and is charged per person, with the price changing depending on the total number. It appears the general price will be around 600 to 800 yen (about $5-$7 US) per person. As an example, take a company with 100 employees, with a simple calculation it comes out to about 60,000 to 80,000 yen (about $500-$700 US).

Whether this is cheap or expensive can be judged by whether or not the evaluation management can be firmly tied to talent management. It could be cheap so long as superior workers do not get swept away with an unmatched evaluation, but if it becomes a tool simply for improving the “operational” efficiency it may be seen as an unnecessary expense.

As I remarked above, HRBrain has a similar feel to last year’s big hit service SmartHR. On the other hand, whether or not it ends as a simple tool could depend on whether the data obtained can be efficiently reflected in management. As many companies update their personnel and goal management in April, I am interested to see the growth of HRBrain around that time.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

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Japanese crowdfunding site Campfire secures $3M to launch social lending service

Campfire

Takeshi Hirano 2017.01.10

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Campfire, the Japanese crowdfunding site which was recently reported to expand into the social lending space, officially announced today that it has fundraised 330 million yen (about $2.9 million) in the latest round. Participating investors are D4V (by Ideo and Genuine Startups), GMO Internet (TSE:9449), SMBC Venture Capital, East Ventures, iSGS Investment Works, Suneight Investment, Septeni Holdings (TSE:4293), DeNA (TSE:2432) and Freakout Holdings (TSE:6094) in addition to two individual investors including Mamoru Taniya. Coinciding with the funds, Campfire names Mamoru Taniya, who is known as the founder and chairman of Japanese robo-advisory startup Money Design as well as an early-stage investor in Lifenet Insurance (TSE:7157), its new chairman while Yusuke Sato (CEO of Freakout Holdings) and Antonio Kamiya (CTO of Fujisan Magazine Service, TSE:3138) are appointed as outside directors. In addition, Hiroue Harada, who won the data scientist of the year award, now joins the team as Chief Information Officer. At this time around, the company published an infographics (see above) on how much money they have offered to crowdfunding projects through the platform, seeing over 1.6 billion yen (over $13.8 million) offered in total compared to 700 million yen (about $6 million)…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Campfire, the Japanese crowdfunding site which was recently reported to expand into the social lending space, officially announced today that it has fundraised 330 million yen (about $2.9 million) in the latest round. Participating investors are D4V (by Ideo and Genuine Startups), GMO Internet (TSE:9449), SMBC Venture Capital, East Ventures, iSGS Investment Works, Suneight Investment, Septeni Holdings (TSE:4293), DeNA (TSE:2432) and Freakout Holdings (TSE:6094) in addition to two individual investors including Mamoru Taniya.

Coinciding with the funds, Campfire names Mamoru Taniya, who is known as the founder and chairman of Japanese robo-advisory startup Money Design as well as an early-stage investor in Lifenet Insurance (TSE:7157), its new chairman while Yusuke Sato (CEO of Freakout Holdings) and Antonio Kamiya (CTO of Fujisan Magazine Service, TSE:3138) are appointed as outside directors. In addition, Hiroue Harada, who won the data scientist of the year award, now joins the team as Chief Information Officer.

At this time around, the company published an infographics (see above) on how much money they have offered to crowdfunding projects through the platform, seeing over 1.6 billion yen (over $13.8 million) offered in total compared to 700 million yen (about $6 million) in the first four years since the launch back in June of 2011.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda

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