Tokyo-based media startup Cinemacraft has announced today that it has closed a $1.5 million round of funding from NTT Docomo Ventures, Turner Broadcasting’s Media Camp, and 500 Startups. We have previously featured Cinemacraft’s primary offering Videogram, a clever thumbnailed display that gives users visual previews of the various parts of a video. Check out the Runner Runner trailer below for an example of how it works. It feels good to reach market validation but work is not over yet. We’re just getting started The new funds will be used to expand the team, adding three new engineers to the core team in Tokyo, which will continue to be Cinemacraft’s engineering center. Founder Sandeep Casi tells us that they are currently hiring developers (iOS, Android, HTML5, Java/JSP) and if anyone would like to apply they can do so here. Including Casi, the team is still a lean six people in total, with two additions in Los Angeles for business development and operations. Readers may recall back in June when we mentioned that the startup had been admitted into Turner Broadcasting’s Media Camp. Founder Sandeep Casi notes how important that experience was for him: [It] was awesome. We had traction from Hollywood…
Tokyo-based media startup Cinemacraft has announced today that it has closed a $1.5 million round of funding from NTT Docomo Ventures, Turner Broadcasting’s Media Camp, and 500 Startups.
We have previously featured Cinemacraft’s primary offering Videogram, a clever thumbnailed display that gives users visual previews of the various parts of a video. Check out the Runner Runner trailer below for an example of how it works.
It feels good to reach market validation but work is not over yet. We’re just getting started
The new funds will be used to expand the team, adding three new engineers to the core team in Tokyo, which will continue to be Cinemacraft’s engineering center. Founder Sandeep Casi tells us that they are currently hiring developers (iOS, Android, HTML5, Java/JSP) and if anyone would like to apply they can do so here. Including Casi, the team is still a lean six people in total, with two additions in Los Angeles for business development and operations.
Readers may recall back in June when we mentioned that the startup had been admitted into Turner Broadcasting’s Media Camp. Founder Sandeep Casi notes how important that experience was for him:
[It] was awesome. We had traction from Hollywood going into Media Camp. We had a product that was market ready and what the Media Camp did was amplify our execution. Now it is about scaling. Getting the right hires in place is the next major priority. It feels good to reach market validation but work is not over yet. We’re just getting started.
So what lies ahead for Cinemacraft? Casi adds that they are already deploying their product in the US with some large entities like Fox, Turner, and Capitol Records. They will also be working with NTT group here in Japan.
This new round brings the startups total amount of funds raised to $2 million.
See the original story in Japanese. Whill is a Japanese startup that is developing ‘Personal Mobility’, a next-generation wheelchair. The startup announced today it has raised $1 million from Itochu Technology Ventures (ITV), 500 Startups, Sunbridge Global Ventures, Wingle, and individual angel investors. The individual investors include 500 Startups’ Dave McClure and Facebook engineer Eric Kwan. With these funds, the startup plans to start mass-production of its first model and start marketing it as well. The first lot of 50 machines will be exported to the US market using a direct sales channel, with shipping scheduled to start in early 2014. The startup was co-founded by young engineers who previously worked with top Japanese manufacturing companies like Nissan Motors, Sony, and Olympus. To date, there has been no shortage of buzz surrounding this young company and its brand new machine. Many of our Japanese readers may have learned about them on Campfire, a Japanese crowdfunding site. Their prototype was unveiled back in 2011, and was subsequently chosen by 500 Startups for their incubation program, and now raising a large sum of money this time around. According to the startup’s CEO Satoshi Sugie, the wheelchair industry has seen no remarkable evolution…
Whill is a Japanese startup that is developing ‘Personal Mobility’, a next-generation wheelchair. The startup announced today it has raised $1 million from Itochu Technology Ventures (ITV), 500 Startups, Sunbridge Global Ventures, Wingle, and individual angel investors. The individual investors include 500 Startups’ Dave McClure and Facebook engineer Eric Kwan.
With these funds, the startup plans to start mass-production of its first model and start marketing it as well. The first lot of 50 machines will be exported to the US market using a direct sales channel, with shipping scheduled to start in early 2014.
The startup was co-founded by young engineers who previously worked with top Japanese manufacturing companies like Nissan Motors, Sony, and Olympus. To date, there has been no shortage of buzz surrounding this young company and its brand new machine.
Many of our Japanese readers may have learned about them on Campfire, a Japanese crowdfunding site. Their prototype was unveiled back in 2011, and was subsequently chosen by 500 Startups for their incubation program, and now raising a large sum of money this time around.
According to the startup’s CEO Satoshi Sugie, the wheelchair industry has seen no remarkable evolution since 1932 when the device was invented in Los Angeles. Shinji Asada, the director at ITV, pointed out that the target market for the company’s prototype has great potential:
We actually received other investment proposals from hardware startups. But Whill was different. They built a prototype and showed it to us when asking us to invest. This had a significant impact on our decision.
Regarding the market potential, it’s probably around 20 billion yen ($200 million) in Japan. Prior to using the device, we need to remove impediments in buildings. However, our interview conducted in the US indicated that there is a great need for this in the market. That’s why we decided to get involved.
According to the Whill team, the development of hardware prototypes is much easier than what it used to be.
The prototype for the first model cost about 5 million yen ($50,000). But if a big company does the same thing, it will probably cost 10 times more. Behind this cost reduction there are many factors, such as a high rise of open source software and parts manufacturing using 3D printers. Some tech shops in the US can rent manufacturing machines in shared spaces. These changes made us possible to procure parts faster and cheaper.
The startup is based in Tokyo and San Francisco, but their factory is located in the Tokyo’s suburb of Machida. It took me a while to get to the location from the nearest train station, but the factory looked super fun — almost like a sort of secret base for children. It will be interesting to see how the company can evolve the world mobility market from this corner of the capital.
Mobile video has always been a somewhat perilous space for startups. I was a big fan of Seesmic back in 2008, which at the time proposed a sort of video equivalent of Twitter, with the capability of publishing short videos to a public timeline. Of course that service fizzled. But it looks like times have changed, with Twitter’s own video offering Vine racking up 13 million users in its first four months. One young startup hopes that there’s room for a mobile video messaging service too, and their app Unda is about to be released on the app store soon. But perhaps more interesting than the challenge that lies ahead of them is the story of how they got to where they are now. The startup was created by two Mexican and Japanese co-founders, a unique international collaboration that has led to Silicon Valley where they are now part of the 500 Startups incubation program. Oscar Yasser Noriega (from Mexico) and Nao Tokui (from Japan) originally met in Japan a few years ago. Eventually they decided that they wanted to do something together. Oscar had previously worked on a top Latin American video game site, but he liked the process…
L to R: Luis Lopez, Oscar Yasser Noriega, Nao Tokui
Mobile video has always been a somewhat perilous space for startups. I was a big fan of Seesmic back in 2008, which at the time proposed a sort of video equivalent of Twitter, with the capability of publishing short videos to a public timeline. Of course that service fizzled. But it looks like times have changed, with Twitter’s own video offering Vine racking up 13 million users in its first four months.
One young startup hopes that there’s room for a mobile video messaging service too, and their app Unda is about to be released on the app store soon. But perhaps more interesting than the challenge that lies ahead of them is the story of how they got to where they are now. The startup was created by two Mexican and Japanese co-founders, a unique international collaboration that has led to Silicon Valley where they are now part of the 500 Startups incubation program.
Oscar Yasser Noriega (from Mexico) and Nao Tokui (from Japan) originally met in Japan a few years ago. Eventually they decided that they wanted to do something together. Oscar had previously worked on a top Latin American video game site, but he liked the process of incubating new ideas within the company. Nao had been the founder of Qosmo, a mobile development company doing apps for big clients. Oscar proposed the idea of doing a video messaging app, but Nao was a little bit hesitant at first. Was there really room for this kind of product, especially as so many video startups had already failed so hard?
Taking the plunge
Eventually Nao came around to the idea. And when he did, he jumped in head first. He wanted to to meet up with Oscar, who was at that time in Mexico — so he flew straight over, and within two weeks had a prototype going. That was in December. And that’s when they thought that they might really be on to something.
After some interest from investors, the company’s third member and current chief creative officer, Luis Lopez, suggested that they should explore some more options. They took their idea to 500 Startups’ Mexico branch, and venture partner Cesar Salazar liked it a lot. Coincidentally 500 Startup’s founding partner Dave McClure had a talk in Mexico around that time, so they pitched the idea to him as well, and he loved it too. That was on a Wednesday, says Oscar, and they were on Silicon Valley by the following Monday. That was a little later than the most recent batch of startups, but great step forward for the young company.
As for the product itself, I personally have yet to see it. But from what I’ve heard, I’m optimistic. I’m told the UX/UI breaks with tradition, with no text, emoticons, or stickers — just video. They have focused on making the experience a good one even on slow networks. So of course while they plan to push this app in mature Asian mobile markets like Japan or Singapore, they will also target emerging markets in the region, as well as in Latin America — leveraging the advantage of having founders from both regions.
And hopefully unlike the video startup failures we’ve seen in the past, maybe the time is right for a service like Unda. Oscar explains:
Back around 2008 the timing was not right. Phones were fast, but not fast enough for a seamless experience. Networks weren’t so fast either, and there were less phones with front facing cameras. The timing was tricky for services back then. But now there are great examples of mobile video booming – not just things like YouTube and NicoNico Douga, but shorter format services like Vine, which is just six second videos. That’s a great signal that the market is embracing this right now.
So how will the market respond to Unda? It’s hard to say without seeing it first, but my initial impressions are that this is a pretty strong team, so I don’t think anyone should underestimate them. They did after all, make the cut for 500 Startups, a good indication that they’re on to something promising.
This is part of our coverage of the Infinity Ventures Summit 2013 in Sapporo, Japan. You can read more of our reports from this event here. On day one of the Infinity Ventures Summit 2013 in Sapporo Japan, we heard from 500 Startups founding partner Dave McClure as well as Shinya Akamine from Core Ventures Group on a panel entitled ‘Tales from Silicon Valley VCs’. The moderator was venture capitalist Gen Isayama. Dave started out talking about incremental innovations, noting that people tend to put Silicon Valley up on a pedestal, and they want to copy the sexiest hardest things, when many of those thing are destined for failure. I’m not saying there won’t be a Japanese Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg – there already are some of those (he mentions Rakuten’s Mikitani and others) but copying 99% of an existing model, and innovating the other 1% may be much easier. ¶ Dave mentions a table top ordering device that 500 Startups invested in. He cites ordering in a restaurant as a big problem, one that people experience everyday. A device that helps you get the waiter’s attention is a great problem to solve, says Dave. “This is not creating…
500 Startups’ Dave McClure
This is part of our coverage of the Infinity Ventures Summit 2013 in Sapporo, Japan. You can read more of our reports from this event here.
On day one of the Infinity Ventures Summit 2013 in Sapporo Japan, we heard from 500 Startups founding partner Dave McClure as well as Shinya Akamine from Core Ventures Group on a panel entitled ‘Tales from Silicon Valley VCs’. The moderator was venture capitalist Gen Isayama.
Dave started out talking about incremental innovations, noting that people tend to put Silicon Valley up on a pedestal, and they want to copy the sexiest hardest things, when many of those thing are destined for failure.
I’m not saying there won’t be a Japanese Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg – there already are some of those (he mentions Rakuten’s Mikitani and others) but copying 99% of an existing model, and innovating the other 1% may be much easier. ¶
Dave mentions a table top ordering device that 500 Startups invested in. He cites ordering in a restaurant as a big problem, one that people experience everyday. A device that helps you get the waiter’s attention is a great problem to solve, says Dave. “This is not creating rocketships, it’s a very simple thing – but it’s a huge market” He explains that not many startups are attacking this area, and this is particularly true in Japan. “Doing real innovation is incredibly hard, he explains, “but incorporating existing ones and improving them are much easier.”
Everybody eats. Restaurants don’t have customer lists. Retention marketing is the easiest thing, and most restaurants don’t do that. It could be made so much better. ¶
It’s worth mentioning that 500 Startups has invested in about 30 food companies already.
He points to internet marketing as a huge innovation, noting that while there’s lots of amazing tech out there, the greatest opportunity in the time that we live in is the fact that everyone is online. And most businesses are not reaching them.
For most existing companies, their business model works. There is an opportunity to attack their weak points of poor internet marketing and high overhead. You can find some big dumb business that makes money but kind of sucks. You can copy that model, reduce overhead, and improve marketing. ¶
Dave’s slides, which he describes as ‘intentionally bad’ so you’ll remember them, are below . (We don’t think they’re that bad!)
Shinya followed Dave’s presention with a little about Core Ventures Group. He noted that the first focus of his fund is seed stage investment, and they also look at people who are developing advanced technologies. They also look at B2B companies, ones that sell products to other companies.
He explains says that many of the founders that he gets behind, he knows them before they leave their company to launch a new startup. He points to Feed.fm as an example of a company with a great founder.
The variable that has the most impact is the quality of the founders. Because I’m a seed investor, I really try to identify great founders, work with them and try to unleash their powers. Of course many VCs try to do this, and it’s not unique to just me. ¶
Dave followed Shinya by noting that 500 Startups doesn’t always know if a founder is amazing, and it might take them six months or so to figure it out. He explains that product is something that his company looks at a little bit more:
We screen based on product. To me the product is the mirror of the soul of that team. The three things we look at are engineering, design, and marketing. Those are the three things that get a team off the ground. We need to see that those things are there somewhere. ¶
Shinya says he is excited that many entrepreneurs in Japan are becoming world class entrepreneurs, and they are actually teaching the VCs. He gives the examples of Gengo and Peatix as world class entrepreneurs, who would be at the top of any startup ecosystem in the world. In addition to attracting world class investors, they are bringing in Japanese investors.
Dave agrees that such local role models are great for the ecosystems. And success stories like Rakuten, GREE, and DeNA are going to inspire more entrepreneurs to take risks.
The latest batch of startups to join the San Francisco-based 500 Startups incubator has been announced, with 28 companies coming into the program. We’ll refrain from repeating them all here, as other blogs will take care of that. Did any Japanese companies make the cut this time? Two, in fact. Whill, who we mentioned was a finalist at the SF Japan Night back in February has joined the program. The startup has the lofty goal of trying to help physically challenged individuals get around a little easier with its futuristic electric wheelchair add-on. The other Japanese startup to join this batch is growth platform App Socially. We spoke with its founder Yusuke Takahashi earlier today to find out a little more about his move to join the ranks of 500 Startups. He explains: This is like a new form of business school […] Mentors are really great and they come to meet us at the office and when we ask them, always happy to help us. As for App Socially, he notes that up until now they have just been working with large Japanese companies like Recruit or Excite Japan. But from here they’ll try to create a ‘self-serve’ product…
App Socially’s founder Yusuke Takahashi with 500 Startups partner George Kellerman
The latest batch of startups to join the San Francisco-based 500 Startups incubator has been announced, with 28 companies coming into the program. We’ll refrain from repeating them all here, as other blogs will take care of that. Did any Japanese companies make the cut this time? Two, in fact.
Whill, who we mentioned was a finalist at the SF Japan Night back in February has joined the program. The startup has the lofty goal of trying to help physically challenged individuals get around a little easier with its futuristic electric wheelchair add-on.
The other Japanese startup to join this batch is growth platform App Socially. We spoke with its founder Yusuke Takahashi earlier today to find out a little more about his move to join the ranks of 500 Startups. He explains:
This is like a new form of business school […] Mentors are really great and they come to meet us at the office and when we ask them, always happy to help us.
As for App Socially, he notes that up until now they have just been working with large Japanese companies like Recruit or Excite Japan. But from here they’ll try to create a ‘self-serve’ product that helps smaller businesses, like startups or individual engineers. They will also work towards improved user interface and customer development.
Citing Silicon Valley entrepreneur Steve Blank as a big inspiration, Yusuke’s efforts so far have not gone unnoticed, as his story was featured by the BBC last year. He has landed some contracts in the bay area from people looking to use their growth platform, and that’s a promising start.
To learn a little more about the service, you can check out App Socially’s slide deck below.
Recently Tokyo-based CinemaCraft, the startup company behind the clever paneled video presentation service Videogram, released its iOS application. The app delivers the same slick thumbnail panel interface that we previously saw from the Videogram web app, allowing users to understand at a glance what kind of content a given video contains. In terms of being an entertainment destination, the Videogram app has lots of fun content from providers like Hulu, Discovery Channel, Funny or Die, and even a Videogram picks section. But what I find most interesting about the service is the advantage that it holds for publishers, by measuring which thumbnails are the most active, and then automatically regenerating the tiled presentation based on that feedback. Once popular thumbnails are identified, publishers can then run ads next to them if they choose, thus optimizing the chances that a user might see them. CinemaCraft’s CEO Sandeep Casi told us a little more about this feature: The trending thumbnail can change on a daily/weekly basis depending on the user engagement. The pre-roll/mid-roll will move to the trending thumbnail such that there is some amount of assurance that ads will be consumed. This is much better than throwing an ad at the…
Recently Tokyo-based CinemaCraft, the startup company behind the clever paneled video presentation service Videogram, released its iOS application. The app delivers the same slick thumbnail panel interface that we previously saw from the Videogram web app, allowing users to understand at a glance what kind of content a given video contains.
In terms of being an entertainment destination, the Videogram app has lots of fun content from providers like Hulu, Discovery Channel, Funny or Die, and even a Videogram picks section. But what I find most interesting about the service is the advantage that it holds for publishers, by measuring which thumbnails are the most active, and then automatically regenerating the tiled presentation based on that feedback.
Once popular thumbnails are identified, publishers can then run ads next to them if they choose, thus optimizing the chances that a user might see them. CinemaCraft’s CEO Sandeep Casi told us a little more about this feature:
The trending thumbnail can change on a daily/weekly basis depending on the user engagement. The pre-roll/mid-roll will move to the trending thumbnail such that there is some amount of assurance that ads will be consumed. This is much better than throwing an ad at the start of the video and hoping that consumer will not skip thought it.
Sandeep says me that his company also offers a white label Videogram solution which publishers can use on their own sites. And I expect this will be one of the most promising aspects of Videogram’s business. I understand that more developments are coming in the near future for the startup, so stay tuned for more on that front.
The startup certainly appears to be on the right track, with lots of positive developments since it accepted into the 500 Startups incubator program back in late 2012.
See original story in Japanese Japan’s largest mobile telco NTT Docomo (NYSE:DCM) today announced its new incubation program called ‘Docomo Innovation Village’ (first alluded to back in October) has launched. Its goal will be to intensifying business partnerships with startup companies. In connection with the start of this program, the company is planning to launch a new 10 billion yen fund (approximately $107 million) (called Docomo Innovation Ventures) by receiving all shares of NTT Investment Partners, a fund managament company belonging to NTT group’s stock holding company. The fund will be established in late February. Docomo is a relative late-comer in the Japanese incubation industry, but many entrepreneurs are certainly happy about this announcement because the telecom’s brand will lend an element of trust to any invested company. The program starts receiving applications today, and each of five to six qualified startups will be able to receive a grant of 2 million yen, as well as office space for system development and mentoring. The startups will be asked to finish their development in five months, and then present their results at a release event scheduled for late September. NTT Docomo executive Toshiki Nakayama explained that standout candidates will receive an offering…
Japan’s largest mobile telco NTT Docomo (NYSE:DCM) today announced its new incubation program called ‘Docomo Innovation Village’ (first alluded to back in October) has launched. Its goal will be to intensifying business partnerships with startup companies.
In connection with the start of this program, the company is planning to launch a new 10 billion yen fund (approximately $107 million) (called Docomo Innovation Ventures) by receiving all shares of NTT Investment Partners, a fund managament company belonging to NTT group’s stock holding company. The fund will be established in late February.
Docomo is a relative late-comer in the Japanese incubation industry, but many entrepreneurs are certainly happy about this announcement because the telecom’s brand will lend an element of trust to any invested company.
The program starts receiving applications today, and each of five to six qualified startups will be able to receive a grant of 2 million yen, as well as office space for system development and mentoring.
The startups will be asked to finish their development in five months, and then present their results at a release event scheduled for late September. NTT Docomo executive Toshiki Nakayama explained that standout candidates will receive an offering to collaborate, as well as promotional and marketing assistance plus additional investments from the fund.
For further details about the program, visit this page[1].
So what should entrepreneurs think of this new program? We can help but compare it with KDDI Mugen Labo and KDDI Open Innovation Fund, both operated by Japan’s second largest telco, KDDI, Docomo’s closest competitor.
The Docomo program aspires to differentiates itself others by aggressively partnering with other accelerators. It has partnered with 500 Startups, a Silicon Valley-based seed accelerator which has invested in more than 450 startups in the last two years. Japanese startups in its portfolio include online translation service Gengo, online ticketing and event promotion startup PeaTix, and social lending service AQUSH. The Docomo program allows qualified startups to receive mentoring by 500 Startups partners, and also offers multi-faceted support for startups interested in doing business in North America. It was also announced that the program will also include a partnership with B Dash Ventures, a Japanese investment fund focused on startups.
But the bottom line is that startups will have to be qualified to receive all these privileges. The program intends to help participating startups go global, but if all are doing domestic-centric business, the partnership with 500starups will not work at all. So it will be interesting to see what kind of programs get accepted for the program, and we look forward to hearing what they roll out post-development in September.
500 Startups 
Rick Martin
Takeshi Hirano
