THE BRIDGE

Startups

Japan’s Recruit shows off virtual reality startups from its Tech Lab Paak accelerator

SHARE:

See the original story in Japanese. Japan’s Recruit Holdings (TSE:6098) held last month a Demo Day for the 6th batch of its startup accelerator Tech Lab Paak in Shibuya, Tokyo. Six teams in the regular course and six teams in the VR (virtual reality) course made three-minute pitches presenting their half year results since joining the program. In addition, other nine teams made one-minute pitches which can be voted for the Audience Award although they were excluded from examination by judges, and thereby it became a big pitch event having 21 teams. Below, I introduced what kind of services were or are going to be born out from Tech Lab Paak, with a focus on prizewinners. The following are judges for the pitch competition in the event. Shintaro Yamagami (CEO, Colopl Next) Shinichiro Isago (Director, Business Strategy, LINE) Hiroshi Hata (Startup Business Development Manager, Amazon Web Services Japan) Yohei Sawayama (Managing Partner, 500 Startups Japan) Yoichi Aso (Head of Media Technology Lab., Recruit Holdings) Tech Lab Paak Award: HoloEyes Supplemental prize: pair meal ticket for a hotel dinner HoloEyes aims to make an information revolution in the medical field using VR. The firm was founded by engineer Naoji Taniguchi and…

See the original story in Japanese.

Japan’s Recruit Holdings (TSE:6098) held last month a Demo Day for the 6th batch of its startup accelerator Tech Lab Paak in Shibuya, Tokyo.

Six teams in the regular course and six teams in the VR (virtual reality) course made three-minute pitches presenting their half year results since joining the program. In addition, other nine teams made one-minute pitches which can be voted for the Audience Award although they were excluded from examination by judges, and thereby it became a big pitch event having 21 teams.

Below, I introduced what kind of services were or are going to be born out from Tech Lab Paak, with a focus on prizewinners. The following are judges for the pitch competition in the event.

  • Shintaro Yamagami (CEO, Colopl Next)
  • Shinichiro Isago (Director, Business Strategy, LINE)
  • Hiroshi Hata (Startup Business Development Manager, Amazon Web Services Japan)
  • Yohei Sawayama (Managing Partner, 500 Startups Japan)
  • Yoichi Aso (Head of Media Technology Lab., Recruit Holdings)

Tech Lab Paak Award: HoloEyes

Supplemental prize: pair meal ticket for a hotel dinner

HoloEyes aims to make an information revolution in the medical field using VR. The firm was founded by engineer Naoji Taniguchi and surgeon Maki Sugimoto (Associate Professor, International University of Health and Welfare Graduate School). The technology will be helpful for the medical world by sharing information of human bodies as 3DVR form.

The medical VR database will be constructed through collection of CT scan data and forming 3D human body models, while accumulating thereof. If searching a term “male, 60s, prostate cancer,” 3D images of matched cases will be output. Doctors can utilize them for diagnosis references of similar cases or training upon surgical operations.

The firm expects a business model providing VR viewers for hospitals and selling collected data after obtaining patients’ consent to medical colleges or pharmaceutical companies.

500 Startups Award: MacroSpace

Supplemental prizes: meal tickets worth 30,000 yen

MacroSpace develops a system for the tele-existence. With this system, users wearing sensors attached to the bodies can control remote robots with the users’ same motion via Internet. The existence of avatars in different places may realize “transportation”; tele-diagnosis or tele-education will become possible technically by setting avatars in depopulated areas lack of doctors or teachers. Since the size of robots is independent of the human body, larger robots can be controlled by users so that it can be also utilized for disaster rescues, for example.

The developer Sho Nakanose likened the possibility of tel-existence robots: “everyone can become ironman or cyborg”. The MacroSpace team aims to participate and win the tel-existence-focused global competition ANA Avatar XPRIZE which will be held in the US in 2020 with a total amount of prize money of $21 million. The firm had fundraised 15 million yen (about $130,000) in its seed round from Skyland Ventures and others.

Colopl Next Award: Embody Me by Paneo

Supplemental prize: Apple Store gift cards worth 30,000 yen

Sometimes it is difficult to subtle nuances or contexts accurately in communication with videos or voices such as Skype, as compared to face-to-face communication. Paneo supplements the insufficient parts of the online communication and provides an environment where you do not always have to meet and talk directly.

Although Microsoft has been developing a real-time rendering system using plural Kinect for 3D capturing of human bodies, it is not easy method due to requiring complicated preparation or environment as well as specialized studios. Facebook has been making similar efforts using Oculus also, but it is poor in expressing presences or takes time to create 3D models.

Paneo develops Embody Me which enables an easy creation of 3D models from face photos and allows a group chat system with them. It creates 3D motion pictures based on user’s movement captured by camera, and transfers them to the opposite party in real-time. The team plans to launch its flagship app for HTC Vive or Oculus Rift in early 2017.

LINE Award: Orario

Supplemental prize: a set of uncut boiled snow crab

Hiroki Yoshimoto who is a student of Ritsumeikan University had felt dissatisfaction with that information services provided by the university were scattered and not even be optimized for smartphones, so he started development of Orario. By registering log-in information for the university’s portal website, it gathers information by web scraping and displays information such as canceled classes or supplementary classes on the mobile app for each student.

35,000 students are enrolled in Ritsumeikan University, and the number of monthly active user of the app from the university reaches 18,000. The app is currently available for 8 universities and the team plans to cover 70% of student information for Japan’s top universities by next March. The app has a notebook / resume sharing function among students in the same classes, and the team aims to monetize by setting up a marketplace for trading these class materials in January or implementing a direct recruiting function targeting companies in the future.

Additionally, the team announced that it had raised 20 million yen (about $170,000) from a Japanese consulting firm Vector (TSE:6058) in December, seemingly in its seed round.

AWS Award: OTON GLASS

Supplemental prizes: Amazon gift cards worth 30,000 yen and a lunch ticket for Amazon cafeteria

The founder of OTON GLASS had started development of the device under the same name because his father suffered from dyslexia, and subsequently the firm completed its 9th prototype with support from people with dyslexia and amblyopia. OTON GLASS recognizes what the user is looking at as visual information and reads them out with a voice through character recognition in order to help the weak-eyed people’ understanding. The firm also develops a translated reader function for non-Japanese users and another glass device named JINRIKI GLASS which forwards images to remote people to have the characters read out.

OTON GLASS team was turned out from Docomo Ventures’ 3rd incubation batch and recently won the third prize of James Dyson Award 2016 – Japan Chapter.

See also:

Special Award: STYLY by Psychic VR LAB

Supplemental prize: a visit right for Microsoft Japan’s Technology Center led by its Director Madoka Sawa

Psychic VR Lab develops a VR shopping platform focusing on fashion named Styly which conveys the appeal inherent in fashion items or fashion brands’ views online. Currently, about 30 brands have been took part in its test, and a virtual shopping demonstration with Styly at the Isetan department store in Shinjuku last year.

Although the service had been assumed to be used only in an environment well-equipped VR devices due to the popularization of VR, as it has become much easier for consumer users to prepare VR environment, the firm will intend to create services allowing VR experiences even with general PCs.

In this event, Psychic VR Lab revealed that it had fundraised an undisclosed amount from Colopl VR Fund and others in its seed round.

See also:

Audience Award: Orario and Macrospace

Supplemental prize: membership of TECH LAB PAAK as Project Member

Explanation of both products omitted since it has already been provided above.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s microbiome startup Cykinso gets $2.3M to launch gut health advice service

SHARE:

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Cykinso, who develop and sell “Mykinso” or a test kit for intestinal flora, revealed that it has secured 270 million yen (about $2.3 million US) from the Regional Health Care Industry Support Fund (the GP is comprised of REVIC Capital and AGS Consulting under the jurisdiction of the Regional Economic Revitalization Support Organization; LPs are banks, etc.), among others. The funds secured this time around follow those raised from individual investors (the angel round), a grant from Kanagawa Prefecture for the “Project to Promote the Creation of the Preventive Medicine market,” a grant from the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry’s “Project to Encourage the Creation of SMEs and New Business.” Although these are grants, in terms of business stages Cykinso has labeled this the seed round, making their most recent funding essentially a series A round. Cykinso plans to use the funds secured this round for business development purposes, including using the data collected from the intestinal flora tests to develop a system for offering nutritional guidance. Cykinso was founded in November of 2014 by Yu Sawai (CEO), previously of a genome research company, along with others. While they are not a…

From the left: Cykinso CEO Yu Sawai, Director of UX Daisuke Ogawara

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Cykinso, who develop and sell “Mykinso” or a test kit for intestinal flora, revealed that it has secured 270 million yen (about $2.3 million US) from the Regional Health Care Industry Support Fund (the GP is comprised of REVIC Capital and AGS Consulting under the jurisdiction of the Regional Economic Revitalization Support Organization; LPs are banks, etc.), among others. The funds secured this time around follow those raised from individual investors (the angel round), a grant from Kanagawa Prefecture for the “Project to Promote the Creation of the Preventive Medicine market,” a grant from the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry’s “Project to Encourage the Creation of SMEs and New Business.” Although these are grants, in terms of business stages Cykinso has labeled this the seed round, making their most recent funding essentially a series A round.

Cykinso plans to use the funds secured this round for business development purposes, including using the data collected from the intestinal flora tests to develop a system for offering nutritional guidance.

Cykinso was founded in November of 2014 by Yu Sawai (CEO), previously of a genome research company, along with others. While they are not a so-called university spin-off startup, they are conducting joint research along with RIKEN Innovation Center’s Benno Laboratory and Osaka University’s Research Institute for Microbial Diseases’ Department of Infectious Metagenomics, and in August of 2015 they were granted the title of “RIKEN Certified Venture”.

Mykinso’s Test Kit

In November of 2015 they released the intestinal flora testing service “Mykinso”, a home-testing kit that when mailed in tells people the state of their intestinal bacteria. Following this, they released “Mykinso Pro” for the professional market, that allows medical institutions, etc., to register patient examination data and manage specimens, and in about one year from the start of the project they have acquired intestinal flora data from around 2,000 people through both services. The examination results can be viewed by the user or the user’s doctor in the form of a cloud or paper report.

Cykinso receives permission from users beforehand to use the intestinal flora data as big data with the promise that users remain anonymous, and expects that businesses using this big data will grow considerably in the future. Depending on the scale of the accumulated data, the services to be offered and the business stage will be adjusted accordingly.

  • Phase 1: Sale of the intestinal flora test kit, Begin the reporting service for the test result cloud and paper report
  • Phase 2: Doctors, etc., can use the results to assist in diagnosis, Registered nutritionists can provide advice (Accumulated data on a scale of 2,000 people)
  • Phase 3: Big data is sold to pharmaceutical companies, Pharmaceutical companies use it to develop new drugs (Accumulated data on a scale of tens of thousands of people)

It could say that Cykinso will use the funds from this round to shift their business phase from phase one to phase two.

Mykinso Lab, online vertical media by Cykinso, specializes in intestinal flora-related topics.

In October of this year, the company held an event called “Intestinal Summit” along with dispensing pharmacy big name Aisei Pharmacy (TSE:3170) and leading mobile service provider MTI (TSE:9438) to promote awareness of general consumers’ intestinal flora and services. Additionally, this week they will move offices from the Kanagawa Science Park, where they have resided for the two years since inception, to the Good Morning Building in Shibuya, Tokyo, which incidentally also houses THE BRIDGE X. For Cykinso this signifies the transformation from a purely academic venture into the business domain.

As they specialize in big data related to intestinal flora, there is currently no service that can be classified as a competitor in Japan. American startup uBiome, which Sawai marks as the one to beat, has raised around $27 million US thus far.

In the future, it appears devices installed directly on toilets, as one example, will allow consumers to easily and regularly monitor the state of their intestinal bacteria. A few startups come to mind, such as Tripe W Japan’s DFree and Symax, who monitor the state of a person’s urine and feces to assist in excretory predictions and detection of pre-illnesses. In the coming year, I plan to pay special attention to breakthroughs in healthcare startups.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

Japan’s PLENGoer Robotics unveils palm-sized cubic assistant robot at CES 2017

SHARE:

See the original story in Japanese. Osaka-based robotics startup PLEN Project established a joint venture named PLENGoer Robotics with Chinese home appliance manufacturer Goertek (SHE:002241) back in March. In a promotional video released to coincide with the announcement, the firm had implied a launch of its first product within 2016. As it had noted, PLENGoer Robotics last month unveiled a personal assistant robot PLEN CUBE as its first products, along with detailed information including functions, photo and specs. Although PLEN CUBE is still under development, the firm is exhibiting and demonstrating at CES 2017 in Las Vegas. See also: From Monozukuri Hub Meetup: DFM and prototype experts meet hardware startups PLEN CUBE has a rectangular parallelepiped form which has one side at about 7.5cm; it is equipped with camera, display, speaker and microphone, and various functions such as face-tracking and voice / gesture recognition are included. Without any special setting, users can give orders to PLEN CUBE to photograph still images / moving images, save, distribute and share online. Since the product is still incomplete, the firm is going to improve it based on feedbacks gained at the CES 2017 exhibit and to implement crowdfunding, aiming to compete using a product version and starting to sell on a full scale in summer of 2017. PLEN…

PLEN CUBE
Image Credit: PLENGoer Robotics

See the original story in Japanese.

Osaka-based robotics startup PLEN Project established a joint venture named PLENGoer Robotics with Chinese home appliance manufacturer Goertek (SHE:002241) back in March. In a promotional video released to coincide with the announcement, the firm had implied a launch of its first product within 2016.

As it had noted, PLENGoer Robotics last month unveiled a personal assistant robot PLEN CUBE as its first products, along with detailed information including functions, photo and specs. Although PLEN CUBE is still under development, the firm is exhibiting and demonstrating at CES 2017 in Las Vegas.

See also:

PLEN CUBE has a rectangular parallelepiped form which has one side at about 7.5cm; it is equipped with camera, display, speaker and microphone, and various functions such as face-tracking and voice / gesture recognition are included. Without any special setting, users can give orders to PLEN CUBE to photograph still images / moving images, save, distribute and share online.

Since the product is still incomplete, the firm is going to improve it based on feedbacks gained at the CES 2017 exhibit and to implement crowdfunding, aiming to compete using a product version and starting to sell on a full scale in summer of 2017.

Members of PLEN Project and PLENGoer Robotics at Myojo-Waraku 2016 in Fukuoka
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

PLEN Project had previously launched a human-shaped robot named PLEN2. In contrast with PLEN2’s concept focusing on open source and customization by users, PLENGoer Robotics focuses on development of more practical service robots targeting common household / individual users and actually emphasizes practical functions, camera or computer vision in its first product PLEN CUBE.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Gatebox, holographic virtual assistant, launches pre-orders for geeks in Japan, US

SHARE:

See the original story in Japanese. A holographic virtual assistant created in Japan has been unveiled. It’s called Gatebox, displaying 2D characters in hologram image and allowing you to be one with, has finally been brought forth. The developer Vinclu launched pre-orders on its official website last week and will send them out within December of 2017. The price was set at 298,000 yen (about $2,500) and the shipping destinations are limited to Japan and the US. The firm has been accepting pre-orders since December 14 and will until January 31 of 2017 for the first production lot of 300 items. The product size is 220mm in width, 360mm in depth, 520mm in height and the weight is 5kg. The projection area for the hologram corresponds to 1280×720 pixels, realizing a visual experience with virtual appearance by projecting images on the panel from the rear portion of the case body. I actually tried a product and found that the projection area was surrounded by the case body in order to support visual recognition even in a bright place. A girl named Azuma Hikari was adopted as Vinclu’s original character contributed by Taro Minoboshi who were in charge of the character…

Vinclu CEO Minori Takechi

See the original story in Japanese.

A holographic virtual assistant created in Japan has been unveiled. It’s called Gatebox, displaying 2D characters in hologram image and allowing you to be one with, has finally been brought forth.

The developer Vinclu launched pre-orders on its official website last week and will send them out within December of 2017. The price was set at 298,000 yen (about $2,500) and the shipping destinations are limited to Japan and the US. The firm has been accepting pre-orders since December 14 and will until January 31 of 2017 for the first production lot of 300 items.

The product size is 220mm in width, 360mm in depth, 520mm in height and the weight is 5kg. The projection area for the hologram corresponds to 1280×720 pixels, realizing a visual experience with virtual appearance by projecting images on the panel from the rear portion of the case body. I actually tried a product and found that the projection area was surrounded by the case body in order to support visual recognition even in a bright place.

A girl named Azuma Hikari was adopted as Vinclu’s original character contributed by Taro Minoboshi who were in charge of the character design of a dating simulation game Tokimeki Memorial.

Touch buttons, camera and microphone are equipped on the main body to enable conversation with the character, and it recognizes owner’s movement and makes the character follow by combining information from implemented motion sensors. Using a mobile app available for Android and iOS, users can enjoy online communication with the character linked via Wifi or wired LAN.

Enough spec explanation, let’s see the actual use video. According to Vinclu CEO Minori Takechi, this video was shot using a device and an image actually used for products.

Well, how was it? To be honest, I suppose the road will divide whether you felt a sense of future in it or just a pricey Otaku gadget.

Of course, their concept is in the same context with the artificial intelligence (AI) assistant and the smart home including Amazon Echo, Google Home and Siri. They bring a toilet paper or water if you speak to it, or play an energetic music when you are depressed. Pepper developed by Softbank took the lead in this field, or recently there has been a veteran startup aiming at establishing an “autonomous driving house.”

But those are completely different from Takechi’s purpose. What his team is pursuing is not these rational services. They do not want to develop merely a device just to ask for shopping services to an insipid mechanical box.

He wanted to produce a ‘wife’ so he secured hundreds of millions of yen from investors and actually carried out the plan.

Indeed, the application of Gatebox is still limited though. As you see in the above video, it only exists to communicate or to turn on the light from when the owner wakes up and till bedtime arrives at night. In other word, I think they are crazy to have launched the product focusing only on these functions. Although you can purchase Amazon Echo only for about $200 now, how many people in the world will pay $2,500 for it?

No, some people on this planet may dare to desire this existence due to the limitation of functions conversely. In fact, the viewcount of the promotion movie on Youtube exceeded 300,000.

Gatebox has an interesting feature: an external input. It enables projection of original images from user PCs via HDMI. There must be requests from users to project their own original characters. Takechi recognizes these high demands and will meet them in the future.

This product can be said to be an approach related to “center of home” which is unique to Japan, and how will it be evaluated by the world.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy and Masaru Ikeda

Japan’s language learning startup Polyglots secures series A funding from US investors

SHARE:

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Polyglots has been developing a English-language learning app for Japanese under the same name as well as Mondo, a Japanese-language learning app for non speakers. The company announced on Tuesday that it has secured a series A round. While the amount of the funding remains unknown, it is said to be in the upper tens of millions of yen (tens of thousands of dollars US). Robert T. Huang, founder of Synnex (NYSE: SNX), a major supply chain management company for IT companies, led this round, and four individual US investors including Huang participated in this round. Huang is an active supporter of entrepreneurs and an entrepreneurship center was set up with his name at his alma mater of Kyushu University. This round follows a seed round in March and December of 2015 in which Polyglots secured funds from both East Ventures and Hitomedia (about 35 million yen ≒ $300,000 US from East Ventures, with the total amount secured unknown). The company launched the Polyglots app in 2014 and followed it up in July of 2015 with the launch of the Mondo app. The ability to learn a language through current events by cooperating…

Polyglots Founder and CEO Junya Yamaguchi

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Polyglots has been developing a English-language learning app for Japanese under the same name as well as Mondo, a Japanese-language learning app for non speakers. The company announced on Tuesday that it has secured a series A round. While the amount of the funding remains unknown, it is said to be in the upper tens of millions of yen (tens of thousands of dollars US). Robert T. Huang, founder of Synnex (NYSE: SNX), a major supply chain management company for IT companies, led this round, and four individual US investors including Huang participated in this round. Huang is an active supporter of entrepreneurs and an entrepreneurship center was set up with his name at his alma mater of Kyushu University. This round follows a seed round in March and December of 2015 in which Polyglots secured funds from both East Ventures and Hitomedia (about 35 million yen ≒ $300,000 US from East Ventures, with the total amount secured unknown).

The company launched the Polyglots app in 2014 and followed it up in July of 2015 with the launch of the Mondo app. The ability to learn a language through current events by cooperating with BBC and various news media is one of their merits. In the past year “Mondo” has seen an increase in Japanese language learners from the Philippines and China, etc. and is looking to use the funds secured this time to strengthen promotion efforts, especially in Southeast Asia.

Top: Mondo; Bottom: Polyglots

The Key to Monetization

Polyglots released a function that leads to monetization about six months ago. This feature is called “HandShake” and it connects Japanese language learning users with foreign-language learning Japanese users in the same way Tinder does.

Junya Yamaguchi, Founder and CEO of Polyglots, explained:

Most Japanese people go about learning by quiet self-study. Lots of (Japanese language learning) foreigners want to communicate (with Japanese people).

With the HandShake function, a mutual connection is established between users of “Mondo” and “Polyglots” only when each separate user happens to hit OK, but with “Super HandShake” requiring an in-app purchase, paying users can let the other user know they are requesting a connection.

The HandShake function on Polyglots

He continued:

It’s not like Tinder because you can see whether the other users are studying a language or not on their profile. It’s not like dating apps; people who aren’t studying will not succeed. […]

We have the data on which articles users are most interested in, so users that want to find connections based on this can do so with recommendations produced by our algorithm. And, the Cupid bot will support their chatting.

From the beginning of next year, Polyglots plans to expand the HandShake function, and will add a paid function on the Polyglots app allowing users to study with English tutors. With their sights set on offering face-to-face learning opportunities in Tokyo, they are also seeking to cooperate with on-demand rental space providers like Spacee. Tutors can reference the learning history of student users on the app so even during a first session they are able to provide effective learning opportunities and strengthen the service. In the future they plan to do with same with the Mondo app and offer a service for introducing Japanese-language tutors to non-Japanese speakers.

Now, Polyglots is looked towards China. Using the networks of their investors they are planning to develop a study app for the Chinese language, and intend to expand their services to include Japanese people who wish to learn Chinese, and Chinese learners studying Japanese and English.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

Kyoto’s Makers Boot Camp partners with La French Tech to help more IoT startups grow

SHARE:

This is a guest post by Sabrina Sasaki, a marketing representative of Kyoto-based hardware startup accelerator Makers Boot Camp. The accelerator holds the Monozukuri Hub Meetup event in Kyoto on a monthly basis. Additionally, all photos in this article were taken by Kyoto-based systems biologist Tugi Guenes. Last week we took part of the closing event of France Japan Innovation year: a special forum when an official mission from France visited Japan to validate bilateral business opportunities. The event happened on December 6th and 7th at Knowledge Capital – Grand Front Osaka (Umeda) , as the outcome of two years of collaboration, when the parts involved had the chance to showcase, all in the same space, their next steps and also new opportunities in innovation between both countries. Makers Boot Camp had a booth area together with KSN (Kyoto Shisaku Net), our prototype experts, a network of SMEs who support small lot production for startups creating a new product. KSN has already clients from France, and they also count on some French team members to support French startups. We shared our area side by side with Kyoto VR, a brand new startup working on combining both arts and technology for…

sabrina-sasaki-150x150This is a guest post by Sabrina Sasaki, a marketing representative of Kyoto-based hardware startup accelerator Makers Boot Camp. The accelerator holds the Monozukuri Hub Meetup event in Kyoto on a monthly basis.

Additionally, all photos in this article were taken by Kyoto-based systems biologist Tugi Guenes.


L to R: Olivier Ginepro, Economic Counselor for the French Embassy of Japan,
Narimasa Makino, Makers Boot Camp CEO

Last week we took part of the closing event of France Japan Innovation year: a special forum when an official mission from France visited Japan to validate bilateral business opportunities. The event happened on December 6th and 7th at Knowledge Capital – Grand Front Osaka (Umeda) , as the outcome of two years of collaboration, when the parts involved had the chance to showcase, all in the same space, their next steps and also new opportunities in innovation between both countries.

Our team had a prototype expert support from Emery Delmotte, French team member of KSN,
part of Saijo Inx Sales Team.
Thierry Dana, French Ambassador to Japan, visited our booth,
when Emery highlighted all the close ties between France and KSN.

Makers Boot Camp had a booth area together with KSN (Kyoto Shisaku Net), our prototype experts, a network of SMEs who support small lot production for startups creating a new product. KSN has already clients from France, and they also count on some French team members to support French startups.

We shared our area side by side with Kyoto VR, a brand new startup working on combining both arts and technology for a unique virtual reality experience. Recently, they exhibited a demo session at Nuit Blanche, a French event in Kyoto, with a special project involving IoT for cultural initiatives. Paris and Kyoto are already sister-cities in the fields of Fine Arts and Architecture and IoT should also be considered for the next projects.

Makers Boot Camp team with all the invited startups for the pitch session: Atmoph, PLENGoer and Kyoto VR.
Atmoph team members Chikaku Kato, Customer Relations, and Kyohi Kang, CEO and Co-Founder,
introduced their smart window already available for sale in Paris and other overseas markets.
PLENGoer team with their open-source robots that will be in a tour to US for CES 2017.
For Japanese makers like them, France is also a key market they plan to expand to.

During the two days of the event, there were sessions with key industry players from both countries, as Valeo, Michelin, Orange and Dassault Systems, Toyo Aluminium, SynphaTech Japon, and also a special session day focused on IoT startups. The purpose of the event was to bring stakeholders involved on the current discussions between France and Japan in order to achieve a plan for concrete actions in the next years.

With this spirit, Makers Boot Camp signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with La French Tech, represented by The French Embassy of Japan.

In May 2016, on behalf of Makers Boot Camp, I was invited to attend two outstanding hardware events in France: Connected Conference and Innorobo. It is clear the potential of disruptive projects in robotics and healthcare being created in France, so we’d like to partner with local players interested to reach a global market with high quality. Currently, there are players from both Japan and France willing to promote an exchange of technologies and resources.

From the French local governments,
Aix-Marseille Provence and Occitanie sent their representatives from both private and public sectors.

From Toulouse city, Julien Toulouse paid us a visit to our ecosystem in Kyoto, including our KSN factories with French team members involved. The tour was a way to illustrate Japanese small lot capabilities for French startups.

On Japanese side, Kansai representatives from local government and companies were also supporting the event. We hope the players involved can commit to a more active role in both countries, fomenting IoT industry all over the world.

Japan’s Kyash secures $8.5 million series A round for Visa-enabled P2P payments app

SHARE:

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Kyash, the startup focused on offering remittance and payments systems, announced on Wednesday that it has fundraised over 1 billion yen (over $8.5 million US) in a series A round. This round was led by Jafco (TSE:8595) with participation from Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG; TSE:8316), Itochu Corporation (Itochu; TSE:8001), Dentsu Digital Holdings (DDH), and Mizuho Financial Group (TSE:8411). For Kyash this follows their previous 170 million yen (about $1.4 million US) funding in a seed round back in July of 2015, which was invested by SMBC Capital and two undisclosed companies. In addition to the funds raised, Kyash will enter into business partnerships with SMFG, Dentsu, and Itochu. Also, Hiroshi Minoura, Sumitomo Mitsui Bank (SMBC)’s former Vice President and current CEO of US-based Greenhill & Co.’s Japanese subsidiary, will be appointed as an advisor to Kyash. Since its launch back in January of 2015, Kyash has concentrated, almost entirely in stealth mode until recently, on the development of their mobile app “Kyash” which enables peer to peer money transfers (or C2C settlements), while developing a real-time push notification/history browsing system for mobile regarding credit card usage. Kyash users can register their…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based startup Kyash, the startup focused on offering remittance and payments systems, announced on Wednesday that it has fundraised over 1 billion yen (over $8.5 million US) in a series A round. This round was led by Jafco (TSE:8595) with participation from Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG; TSE:8316), Itochu Corporation (Itochu; TSE:8001), Dentsu Digital Holdings (DDH), and Mizuho Financial Group (TSE:8411). For Kyash this follows their previous 170 million yen (about $1.4 million US) funding in a seed round back in July of 2015, which was invested by SMBC Capital and two undisclosed companies.

In addition to the funds raised, Kyash will enter into business partnerships with SMFG, Dentsu, and Itochu. Also, Hiroshi Minoura, Sumitomo Mitsui Bank (SMBC)’s former Vice President and current CEO of US-based Greenhill & Co.’s Japanese subsidiary, will be appointed as an advisor to Kyash.

Since its launch back in January of 2015, Kyash has concentrated, almost entirely in stealth mode until recently, on the development of their mobile app “Kyash” which enables peer to peer money transfers (or C2C settlements), while developing a real-time push notification/history browsing system for mobile regarding credit card usage.

Kyash users can register their credit cards to their Kyash e-wallet app, charge their wallet with money from their credit cards, and then remit it to other Kyash users. Since it allows users to prompt other users to settle money owed, it is perfect for this season with all of the end of the year parties (for split-the-bill among participants)…is what I want to say but unfortunately the app has yet to be released with that announcement scheduled for January of next year. Currently the company revealed the product in Tokyo and has started tests using beta users. They have also started accepting pre-registration on the teaser site.

To further illustrate, it seems Kyash itself will function as Visa’s virtual credit card. This is made possible through contracting with Visa International which allows Kyash to issue credit cards and then enables users to use the money pooled in the Kyash wallet app to shop at Visa merchants around the world. Since Kyash is a virtual credit card it cannot be used in face-to-face transactions that require swiping like with CAT (credit card authorization terminal), Square, and Coiney, but they have the license to issue plastic cards so it can be expected that, rather than just sticking with P2P and online payment, they will venture into the offline payment scene soon. The company also plans to support Android and Apple Pay from next spring.

See also:

In general, users who enter into contracts for electronic money wallets and credit cards are often charged membership fees, etc., and this becomes a major source of income for the companies that manage such services. In the case of Kyash the commission is completely free. This is due to Kyash being a card issuer. When a transaction takes place via Visa they can collect a fee, and furthermore, they collect any unused cash that has been pooled in a wallet, etc.

(When an electronic money provider in Japan keeps cash from users they are required by the Japanese Financial Services Agency to deposit the equivalent of 50% of the unused cash into an account at a trust bank. This is a measure to ensure that cash can be returned to the user even if the provider goes bankrupt. In managing pooled funds other than those deposited it is possible for providers to generate further profits, but Kyash does not mention this for now.)

An overview of the Kyash service (Image credit: Kyash)

Kyash’s Founder and CEO Shinichi Takatori is responsible for establishing overseas branches and overseas investment projects for SMBC, and has been involved in B2C operations with an American strategic consulting firm. As far as Takatori is concerned, Kyash has benchmarked the P2P service Venmo, which was bought by Paypal back in 2013. However, Kyash is most definitely the convenient choice as it can be used anywhere Visa is accepted, and he emphasized the possibility of fundamentally changing the way payments are handled. Among developed countries, Japan’s credit card usage rate is certainly not high, but in linking up with a system like Kyash an increase in the demand across credit card companies is expected. This high expectation is apparent in the fact that two leading financial groups signed on as investors this round.

In the same field, individual investor and serial entrepreneur Shinji Kimura revealed plans to launch mobile app Paymo, which is primarily for C2C transactions, within the year.

See also:

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

NYC-based smart driving app Dash wins Innovation Weekend Grand Finale 2016 in Tokyo

SHARE:

See the original story in Japanese. Innovation Weekend is a showcase event organized by Tokyo-based startup incubator SunBridge Global Ventures. Continuing this year, qualifying rounds were held in New York, San Francisco, Berlin, and Osaka, with the winners and runners-up attending the pitch session for the two day event “Innovation Weekend Grand Finale 2016” in Tokyo. What follows is a brief summary of the products, market potential, etc. of the finalists who participated in the pitch session. It should also be noted that the selection of winners was based not on judges’ votes, but on that of the general audience at the event. Top Prize: Dash by Dash Labs (Winner of Innovation Weekend 2016 New York qualifying round) Supplemental prize: Round-trip airline ticket between NY and Tokyo, Amazon Fire TV Stick Dash allows users to connect their smartphones and cars via Bluetooth by installing an inexpensive, on-board diagnostic unit. In doing this, they can access various features, including their driving score, alerts about engine issues, feedback on maintenance concerns, or the ability to compare themselves to their friends with gamified social functions. Services such as enabling insurance companies to provide comparatively cheap premiums to safe drivers, as well as advertising…

See the original story in Japanese.

Innovation Weekend is a showcase event organized by Tokyo-based startup incubator SunBridge Global Ventures. Continuing this year, qualifying rounds were held in New York, San Francisco, Berlin, and Osaka, with the winners and runners-up attending the pitch session for the two day event “Innovation Weekend Grand Finale 2016” in Tokyo.

What follows is a brief summary of the products, market potential, etc. of the finalists who participated in the pitch session.

It should also be noted that the selection of winners was based not on judges’ votes, but on that of the general audience at the event.

Top Prize: Dash by Dash Labs (Winner of Innovation Weekend 2016 New York qualifying round)

Supplemental prize: Round-trip airline ticket between NY and Tokyo, Amazon Fire TV Stick

Dash allows users to connect their smartphones and cars via Bluetooth by installing an inexpensive, on-board diagnostic unit. In doing this, they can access various features, including their driving score, alerts about engine issues, feedback on maintenance concerns, or the ability to compare themselves to their friends with gamified social functions. Services such as enabling insurance companies to provide comparatively cheap premiums to safe drivers, as well as advertising based on driving conditions are also provided.

Dash Labs originated in 2013 from TechStars New York. In March of 2014 Japan’s CyberAgent made known their investment in Dash Labs.

Runner-up: Conichi by Hotel Beacons (Runner-up of Innovation Weekend 2016 Berlin qualifying round)

Supplemental prize: Amazon Fire TV Stick

Conichi is a solution to speed up the check-in/check-out procedures for hotels, providing guests with keyless entry into rooms. Through the collaboration of guests, a mobile app, and a beacon set up at the hotel, by simply approaching the front desk it becomes possible to automatically recognize guests, and through the app hotels can easily determine an estimated time of arrival.

Guests can use the mobile app to pre-settle their bill, and for hotels it can be used for customer relationship management too. To date, they have raised $7.9 million in a seed round from major hotel group HRS.

Runner-up: Ellipse by Velo Labs (Winner of Innovation Weekend 2016 San Francisco qualifying round)

Supplemental prize: Amazon Fire TV Stick

Ellipse (previously SkyLock) is a smart lock for bicycles. Through cooperation with users’ smartphones, it is capable of keyless locking and unlocking. Additionally, an alarm can be sounded in the event of theft or the key breaking. Since the code for unlocking can be shared online, it is also possible to use as a means for bicycle sharing. The smart lock has solar cells and charges automatically when parked outdoors.

They have raised around $1 million in funding over three rounds.

Microsoft Award: Review by Review (Runner-up of Innovation Weekend 2016 Osaka qualifying round)

Supplement prize: Microsoft BizSpark Plus – $120k of Azure credits

Review is an information management platform where survey staff use the app to collect visual information sought by businesses and local governments. It provides the latest information on land that cannot be known from maps and aerial photographs, such as where vacant land exists, and where construction is being carried out.

EY Japan Award: enTouch (Special recommendation by the organizer)

Supplemental prize: E-learning/training services by EY Japan

enTouch is a platform for connecting pharmaceutical companies and doctors online. Rather than the model used until now of medical representatives from pharmaceutical companies visiting doctors, medical representatives for enTouch can do sales for multiple companies using the internet and telemarketing via video calls. Even when it is necessary to make an appointment after ending treatment, it will be able to respond flexibly.

Freee Award: Review (Runner-up of Innovation Weekend 2016 Osaka qualifying round) / enTouch (Special recommendation by the organizer) / MARUI-PlugIn (Winner of Innovation Weekend 2016 Osaka qualifying round)

Supplemental prize: One-year complimentary use of Japanese SaaS accounting platform Freee

The descriptions of enTouch and Review can be found above, so only MARUI-PlugIn is summarized here.

MARUI-PlugIn provides an environment in which existing CG and Anime production software can be connected to HMD such as HTC Vive and Oculus Lift, allowing users to intuitively create and operate content in a virtual reality space. It is offered at 2,000 yen per month (about $18US) using a SaaS model.


Below are the startup teams that entered as finalists but did not receive awards.

Butterfly by Anonymessenger (Runner-up of Innovation Weekend 2016 San Francisco qualifying round)

Butterfly is a platform that automates the PDCA cycle for team improvement within an organization. It supports managers in understanding and improving the problems and displeasures of their subordinates and teams. Butterfly’s mobile app automatically sends out a questionnaire to team members once a week. The results are then provided to the manager as feedback, with advice on measures to improve from the app.

Journy by Reksee (Runner-up of Innovation Weekend 2016 New York qualifying round)

Journy is a service that will tailor-make travel plans based on recommendations of top-ranked chefs, sommeliers, and local experts. It understands a user’s preferences and suggests attractions based on this. It will also make reservations when necessary.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

Japan’s WOVN, multilingual support platform for websites, secures $2.6M series B funding

SHARE:

See the original story in Japanese. Minimal Technologies, which provides a multilingual support platform for websites called WOVN.io, announced earlier this month that it has fundraised 300 million yen (about $2.6 million US) in a series B round. This round was led by SBI Investment with participation from Toppan Printing (TSE:7911), SMBC Venture Capital, and Adways (TSE:2489) also participating. For Minimal, this follows their previous $1.1 million funding back in September of 2015, and then the total amount of funds published has come to 430 million yen (about $3.7 million US) with the latest funding round. Wovn launched a minimum viable product (MVP) in 2014 and by inserting just one line of Javascript into the website it is possible to see the multilingualization up to 27 languages. Wovn itself is not a translation service, but it can work with machine and human translation services, and dramatically streamline the multilingualization of websites only supporting one language. As of November 2016, Wovn has provided multilingual support for a total of about 830,000 pages on 8,000 website domains, with typical clients including travel giant HIS (TSE: 9603) and the Shibuya Bunka Project, Shibuya 109, WEGO, and so on. Even though the number of…

See the original story in Japanese.

Minimal Technologies, which provides a multilingual support platform for websites called WOVN.io, announced earlier this month that it has fundraised 300 million yen (about $2.6 million US) in a series B round. This round was led by SBI Investment with participation from Toppan Printing (TSE:7911), SMBC Venture Capital, and Adways (TSE:2489) also participating. For Minimal, this follows their previous $1.1 million funding back in September of 2015, and then the total amount of funds published has come to 430 million yen (about $3.7 million US) with the latest funding round.

Wovn launched a minimum viable product (MVP) in 2014 and by inserting just one line of Javascript into the website it is possible to see the multilingualization up to 27 languages. Wovn itself is not a translation service, but it can work with machine and human translation services, and dramatically streamline the multilingualization of websites only supporting one language. As of November 2016, Wovn has provided multilingual support for a total of about 830,000 pages on 8,000 website domains, with typical clients including travel giant HIS (TSE: 9603) and the Shibuya Bunka Project, Shibuya 109, WEGO, and so on.

Even though the number of websites with English pages has increased in Japan, and even when the corporate site is in English, the majority of cases have yet to put out a service site that regularly updates information. To do this is costly and time-consuming.

Minimal Technologies CEO Takaharu Hayashi explained:

Initially we started with casual users, like Tumbler’s users, as the personas for our service, but once we opened for business about 40% of the inquiries we received were from production companies.

According to convention, usually client companies place an order for the multilingualization of their website with a production company and have them implement it over time. With Wovn, in addition to multilingual support, we also provide the means to smoothly update information in multiple languages.

Since client companies often have their own production company, we’d like to incorporate such production companies as users. We’d like to make Wovn an indispensable tool for for production companies like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.

Founders of Minimal Technologies: CEO Takaharu Hayashi (left), software engineer Jeff Sandford (right)

In connection with this funding, the following is information about Minimal’s business partnerships with SBI Investment, Toppan Printing, and Adways.

It is assumed that SBI Investment will promote the use of Wovn in the area of regional revitalization as they have cooperations with local banks seeking to strengthen their mid-term management plan.

Toppan Printing offers an offline media multilingualization service that provides translation services for small businesses and municipalities. In partnering with Wovn they seek to create a seamless service by combining this with the support of multilingualization of online media.

Adways seems to be planning a change in their Leyifan overseas delivery service where they act as the agents to a service where the customer is in charge of the transfer by utilizing Wovn’s multilingual support for websites, and by extension a user’s IP address to differentiate them, with customers who access e-commerce sites while abroad in mind.

With the funds raised this round Minimal will strengthen Enterprise UX (automatic e-mail reply function, OEM function, layout editing function), for their marketing support feature (A/B test function, analysis function, search engine optimization or SEO), and in expanding additional areas (multi-currency payment processing, global delivery, multilingual customer support), and so on.

Hayashi says,

In all honesty, until now, we’ve expanded on a client to client basis.

They have strengthened their service for companies that use Wovn to make their websites multilingual without going through a production company, and in order to automate the sales process they plan to increase Wovn’s tutorial contents.

In correlation with the funding, Minimal is seeking expert engineers to assist in the enhancement of the aforementioned functions. With the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and the possibility of the 2025 World Expo in Osaka, it is my expectation that Wovn will provide a great service in the multilingualization of web services in Japan.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

The WOVN.io team
Image credit: Minimal Technologies

Japan’s Anglers secures six-digit figures to enhance fishing-focused community app

SHARE:

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Angers, running a mobile app for Anglers under the same name, last week fundraised from 500 Startups Japan and mobile game developer Ignis (TSE:3689), as well as undisclosed individual investors. The secured amount was nowt disclosed but is estimated at tens of millions of yen (hundreds of thousands of dollars). The financing stage is considered an intermediate position between the seed round and the series A round. 500 Startups Japan acquires the share options in accordance with a term sheet of J-KISS, the convertible notes-based funding scheme published by the firm back in April. For Anglers, this fundraising is subsequent to the angel round funding from Japanese angel investor Nobuyoshi Yamagishi conducted in December of 2015. Anglers was founded in October of 2012 (the former company name was Fixa) and subsequently launched the official version of the app in July of 2013. This June, the firm revealed that the number of daily angling results registered topped 1,000 and the cumulative user number reached 270,000. While Swedish FishBrain or Fukuoka-based Tsuriba-Camera provide similar types of service allowing Anglers to share their angling results, Anglers’ strength is the “number” of angling results, according to Anglers…

anglers_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Angers, running a mobile app for Anglers under the same name, last week fundraised from 500 Startups Japan and mobile game developer Ignis (TSE:3689), as well as undisclosed individual investors. The secured amount was nowt disclosed but is estimated at tens of millions of yen (hundreds of thousands of dollars). The financing stage is considered an intermediate position between the seed round and the series A round. 500 Startups Japan acquires the share options in accordance with a term sheet of J-KISS, the convertible notes-based funding scheme published by the firm back in April. For Anglers, this fundraising is subsequent to the angel round funding from Japanese angel investor Nobuyoshi Yamagishi conducted in December of 2015.

Anglers was founded in October of 2012 (the former company name was Fixa) and subsequently launched the official version of the app in July of 2013. This June, the firm revealed that the number of daily angling results registered topped 1,000 and the cumulative user number reached 270,000.

The growth of the number of angling results registered on the Anglers app

While Swedish FishBrain or Fukuoka-based Tsuriba-Camera provide similar types of service allowing Anglers to share their angling results, Anglers’ strength is the “number” of angling results, according to Anglers COO Norio Fujii. Generally, Anglers hate telling other Anglers little-known fishing spots, so that angling results are not shared very much. Considering risks that the favorite spots are spoiled by others or the number of catches decreases, this angler psychology can easily be understood.

Although each fishing app basically uses the same method to save angling results, Angler users utilize the app for improvement of angling skills or motivation for himself / herself rather than boasting or sharing results. Thus, Anglers succeeded in acquiring an overwhelmingly large number of angling results to its number of users or downloads. Since the app has easily-usable functions as a social media for information sharing, real close-friend Anglers create closed groups and share pinpointed fishing spot information.

With the money secured this time, Anglers will add a system for sharing angling results by area or time-period. Also, the firm will start construction of a C2C (consumer-to-consumer) marketplace allowing users to sell fish they caught.

Fujii explains the need for angling information:

Many of the angling news about where and what kinds of fish can be caught are still
provided by angler hotels and are uneven. Generally, Anglers visiting his / her fishing spot anew want to obtain information about the spot in advance: which time frame to go or what kind of lure to use. On the other hand, angling requires fresh information.

Anglers’ current income source is mainly holding events supported by major fishing tackle manufacturers. Looking forward, the firm has an idea to implement functions enabling accommodation reservation of angler hotels or fishing agents seamlessly via Angler app, aiming to diversify the monetization stream. In addition, the firm plans to establish a fishing tackle review website for Anglers, just as Sefuri’s climbing app Yamap manages a climbing tool review website Yamap Gears.

See also:

The firm also implied the possibility of international development for the mobile app. That may be one of the purposes for taking on 500 Startups Japan as its investor this time as it is backed by the US parent.

Fujii explains his view regarding global development:

Fishing tackle manufacturers renowned worldwide are all Japanese companies such as Shimano or Daiwa. Even FishBrain with the largest user number in the world has only about 700,000 angling results to its 1.5 million users, while Anglers boasts a lopsided registration ratio as to angling results.

In India or China, there were lots of people who angle just to eat thus far, but the number of people who seek enjoyment in angling is increasing. Since the angler psychology of wanting keep favorite fishing spots secret is the same around the world, we can impact the world by leveraging the know-how obtained in Japan.

As an aside, Anglers graduated from the second batch of Tokyo-based startup accelerator Movida Japan, along with above-mentioned Sefuri developing Yamap. It is an interesting coincidence that Yamap intends services for users enjoying the mountains and Anglers intends that for users enjoying the sea.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy