THE BRIDGE

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

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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

ST Booking gains $200K in seed funding to bring more students from Asia to Japan

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo- / Taipei-based ST Booking (previously known as Hakodate Ventures), the startup offering an education services marketplace under the same name, announced today that it has fundraised $200,000 in a seed round from several investors including Singapore-based Beenext and Tokyo-based IF Angel. ST Booking was founded in September 2015 by Shota James Morikawa, a former associate at East Ventures as well as a former director at Japanese startup Hyper8. In addition to Morikawa as CEO, Tiffany Wu, vice president at Taiwanese angel/seed fund Pinehurst Advisors, and Mark Hsu, co-founder of Pinehurst, joined the company as founding members. ST Booking is a matching platform for connecting Southeast Asian students wishing to study abroad to Japanese educational institutions. Tying up with 60 language schools or business colleges in Japan, and more than 1,100 agencies in Taiwan, Thailand or Vietnam, ST Booking approaches with both B2B via agencies and B2C by directly acquiring students. The recent Japanese government effort to attract 300,000 international students a year by 2020 is having a positive impact on the service. It monetizes with a “results reward” model; educational institutions will be charged 15 to 25% commission of the school fees. In…

stbooking_screenshot

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo- / Taipei-based ST Booking (previously known as Hakodate Ventures), the startup offering an education services marketplace under the same name, announced today that it has fundraised $200,000 in a seed round from several investors including Singapore-based Beenext and Tokyo-based IF Angel.

ST Booking was founded in September 2015 by Shota James Morikawa, a former associate at East Ventures as well as a former director at Japanese startup Hyper8. In addition to Morikawa as CEO, Tiffany Wu, vice president at Taiwanese angel/seed fund Pinehurst Advisors, and Mark Hsu, co-founder of Pinehurst, joined the company as founding members.

shota-morikata-at-b-dash-camp
Shota James Morikawa delivered his pitch at B Dash Camp 2016 Spring in Fukuoka in March 2016. (Image credit: ST Booking)

ST Booking is a matching platform for connecting Southeast Asian students wishing to study abroad to Japanese educational institutions. Tying up with 60 language schools or business colleges in Japan, and more than 1,100 agencies in Taiwan, Thailand or Vietnam, ST Booking approaches with both B2B via agencies and B2C by directly acquiring students.

The recent Japanese government effort to attract 300,000 international students a year by 2020 is having a positive impact on the service. It monetizes with a “results reward” model; educational institutions will be charged 15 to 25% commission of the school fees. In the future, it aims to develop a CRM to optimize sponsorship relations with companies for employment after graduation or the study abroad processes.

Mark Hsu, one of the aforementioned founding members, is known as an investor in startups but also has been running a business called Envision Recruit, helping educational institutions market their services in Taiwan and other countries. His vast network and deep experience in this sector will be greatly beneficial to operating the ST Booking business. Furthermore, thanks to the Vietnamese educational ministry’s decision adding Japanese as the first foreign language to learn at elementary schools, the local rush to study Japanese is on a rise. While Singapore-incorporated ST Booking has offices in Tokyo and Taiwan, their team members appear to be busy traveling around the entire Southeast Asian region for sales and marketing.

ST Booking aims to use the fund to launch new services, increase brand awareness and enhance network building with more agencies in the region.

st-booking-team-in-vietnam
The ST Booking team members discuss with each other at an office in Vietnam. CEO Morikawa sits in the middle while co-founder Hsu stands on the left. Image credit: ST Booking

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s Beenos founder Teru Sato and partner Hiro Maeda form new $60M fund

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See the original story in Japanese. The founder of Beenos (TSE: 3328), Teruhide Sato, who has been active in funding startups primarily in Asia recently established a new fund called Beenext. Additionally, on September 7th, it was announced that Beenos will be investing $500,000 $5 million in Beenext. Hiro Maeda, who for a long time has been active in investments with Beenos and acceleration programs with Open Network Lab, will take the position of partner at Beenext. In the future, Beenext will hold talks featuring discussions of investment strategy from the two investment partners who are busily flying all over the world. No limit in choice Generally, within funding there is something called investment territory. Whether by area, industry field, or funding round, however you slice it, the ways that recipients of funding are decided vary greatly depending on the fund. There are several merits to this, two major ones being the ability to leverage the expertise of partners who judge funding, and also that it’s easy for LPs (limited partners) to construct a portfolio. However it can’t be denied that in this case, funds that follow the rules may risk missing out on business opportunities. According to Beenext’s managing…

teru-sato-hiro-maeda
From the left: Beenext managing partner Teruhide Sato, partner Hiro Maeda

See the original story in Japanese.

The founder of Beenos (TSE: 3328), Teruhide Sato, who has been active in funding startups primarily in Asia recently established a new fund called Beenext. Additionally, on September 7th, it was announced that Beenos will be investing $500,000 $5 million in Beenext.

Hiro Maeda, who for a long time has been active in investments with Beenos and acceleration programs with Open Network Lab, will take the position of partner at Beenext. In the future, Beenext will hold talks featuring discussions of investment strategy from the two investment partners who are busily flying all over the world.

No limit in choice

Generally, within funding there is something called investment territory. Whether by area, industry field, or funding round, however you slice it, the ways that recipients of funding are decided vary greatly depending on the fund. There are several merits to this, two major ones being the ability to leverage the expertise of partners who judge funding, and also that it’s easy for LPs (limited partners) to construct a portfolio. However it can’t be denied that in this case, funds that follow the rules may risk missing out on business opportunities.

According to Beenext’s managing partner Teruhide Sato, Beenext’s funding target startups are not limited by region, business field, or funding rounds, and it seems as though the source of Beenext’s capital may be the reason for that.

Sato explained:

Beenext’s LPs are American, Indonesian, Filipino, Singaporean, and Japanese private investors. They’re business founders and managers that I’ve gotten to know personally, and I understand that they want to support the next generation of entrepreneurs. Unlike where when you have capital raised from institutional investors, there are no restrictions on what kind of startup we can invest in.

Approaching their first close in July, Beenext’s first fund consisted of an investment plan with about 50% aimed at India, 30% to southeast Asia, and the last 20% for Japan and America. As for management of the fund, Sato will be on location handling India and southeast Asia while Maeda will be in charge of Japan and America. With bringing in many investments from LPs and co-investment funds from around the world, it seems there is no shortage of deal sources. Funding for 12 companies is already being implemented internationally.

Sato continued:

I think it’s good that there are a variety of roles in society, therefore every fund can play a different role. Beenext is a fund by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, and our core concept is about gathering capital from around the world and then spreading it around the world.

beenext-portfolio-startups
Beenext’s portfolio of startups

India economy to overtake China

A while back, the startup environment in India was virtually nonexistent. In a mono-cultural economy there were nothing but overpowering financial institutions, and the concept of risk money was basically nil. The cause of the complete turnaround from this state of affairs was the effect of Indian people living outside of India, or NRI (non-resident Indians).

Sato added:

I think the situation has really changed a lot compared to 10 years ago and 5 years ago. Before, if you mentioned India, it was thought of as a place for offshore development as Infosys and Tata were represent. 10% of India’s total population are mobile users, which is more than the total population of Japan, so NRIs have started realizing the market potential in their home country and have started going back there to do business.

Sato’s conception is that the people starting and operating startups in India are mostly students or graduates from either the India Institutes of Technology (IIT) or from Ivy league universities. Excellent engineers are many and they can also speak English, creating trends that meet the market’s needs, and growth speed that outpaces China.

He added:

Things that were happening in China are happening now in India. I think there is about a 10 year gap in there, but that gap is slowly but surely narrowing.

At The Bridge, we focus a lot on the southeast Asian market, but we don’t mean the market is saturated with investment opportunities for investors from Japan and Western countries. However with the current situation being that the speed of growth in India is faster than in southeast Asia, Beenext will be focusing roughly half of its funding on Indian startups.

With respect to diversity in the startup scene, it’s good that there are a variety of funding strategies and types. The parts of the market’s needs that aren’t being met get filled in. With Sato in India and Asia, and Maeda in Japan and America engaging in funding activity, we can expect Beenext to be making news around the world.

indian-institute-of-technology-delhi
Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi(Image credit: IIT Facebook Page)

Translated by Connor Kirk