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tag Crowdfunding

Japan’s Exiii unveils teaser page for functional prosthetic hand

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See the original story in Japanese. Handiii (previously known as Handie) is a prosthetic hand developed by an engineering team called Exiii, which wants to make people’s daily lives more enjoyable with robotics and designs. The team published a teaser page for a crowdfunding campaign for the device on Kibidango, a Japanese crowdfunding site. See also: Handie: An affordable, functional prosthetic hand, made in Japan with 3D printing The Exiii team has set the concept of this product as a ‘casual option’ aiming to make people consider it as something more common like a watch or a shoe rather than a assistive product. They have won the second prize at James Dyson Award 2013 and also the top prize at Gugen hardware contest in Tokyo. The team has to date developed four generations of the prototype (see picture below). But there’s a huge gap between the demonstration and practical application. That’s why they are currently working toward practical use of the device in partnership with potential users and medical institutions; the crowdfunding campaign is also part of these efforts.

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See the original story in Japanese.

Handiii (previously known as Handie) is a prosthetic hand developed by an engineering team called Exiii, which wants to make people’s daily lives more enjoyable with robotics and designs. The team published a teaser page for a crowdfunding campaign for the device on Kibidango, a Japanese crowdfunding site.

See also:

The Exiii team has set the concept of this product as a ‘casual option’ aiming to make people consider it as something more common like a watch or a shoe rather than a assistive product. They have won the second prize at James Dyson Award 2013 and also the top prize at Gugen hardware contest in Tokyo.

The team has to date developed four generations of the prototype (see picture below). But there’s a huge gap between the demonstration and practical application. That’s why they are currently working toward practical use of the device in partnership with potential users and medical institutions; the crowdfunding campaign is also part of these efforts.

4proto

Megaman creator turns to Kickstarter to crowdsource new project

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Megaman was one of my favorite games growing up. The iconic side scroller from Capcom is one of the greatest games ever made. The game’s creator, Keiji Inafune, broke away from Capcom back in 2010 to start over with his own studio called Comcept. And now that team is using Kickstarter to get a new game off the ground. It’s called Mighty No. 9, and if you liked Megaman, you’ll probably be excited about this. Check out Keiji’s introduction to the game in the video above. The Mighty No. 9 Kickstarter project just launched on Saturday, and is already near its fundraising goal [1]. And while the initial target of $900,000 will go towards getting the game made for Steam on PC, other ‘stretch goals’ (as you can see below) include funding Mac and Linux versions, as well as versions for PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii U. Readers will no doubt notice that there is no mention of a version for mobile phones, but I hope that this falls within one of the two ‘? ? ?’ stretch goals (again, see below). The estimated release date is spring of 2015, so this is not going to be a very rapid…

Megaman was one of my favorite games growing up. The iconic side scroller from Capcom is one of the greatest games ever made. The game’s creator, Keiji Inafune, broke away from Capcom back in 2010 to start over with his own studio called Comcept. And now that team is using Kickstarter to get a new game off the ground. It’s called Mighty No. 9, and if you liked Megaman, you’ll probably be excited about this. Check out Keiji’s introduction to the game in the video above.

The Mighty No. 9 Kickstarter project just launched on Saturday, and is already near its fundraising goal [1]. And while the initial target of $900,000 will go towards getting the game made for Steam on PC, other ‘stretch goals’ (as you can see below) include funding Mac and Linux versions, as well as versions for PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii U. Readers will no doubt notice that there is no mention of a version for mobile phones, but I hope that this falls within one of the two ‘? ? ?’ stretch goals (again, see below).

The estimated release date is spring of 2015, so this is not going to be a very rapid development process. But obviously gaming fans in the US are enthused about the concept. And supporters of the initiative can look forward to some really fun rewards too, including beta access (for a $99 contribution), your voice or face in the game ($1000 and $2500 respectively), or even dinner with Keiji Inafune.

It’s interesting to see yet another Japan-based initiative turn to Kickstarter to get off the ground [2]. We wish them luck!

stretch-goals


  1. As I write this, the project is nearing $700,000.  ↩

  2. They’ve enlisted the assistance of 8–4 for localization, PR, and translation, and it looks like their efforts with the Kickstarter page has worked out very well!  ↩

CyberAgent launches its own crowdfunding platform

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Today Japanese internet giant CyberAgent launched a crowdfunding platform called Makuake (meaning ‘beginning’). The company started the service as a rewards-type crowdfunding service, but plans to enhance it to become an investment-type platform in the future. As you may already know, CyberAgent also runs one of Japan’s biggest blogging platforms, Ameba, where many celebrities or entertainers post updates for fans and promote themselves. In collaboration with such celebrities, the company plans to launch many notable crowdfunding projects, thus attracting more users. At the time of launch, we can find seven projects on site. This includes an initiative from a Japanese soccer player to assist young athletes in the country master English so they can better partake in international activities. The company is also inviting a fundraising project to manufacture Raspberry Pi-enabled robot Rapiro, and that will go live later this month. The platform is currently available for PC, and a smartphone version will go live this coming fall. It is expected that Makuake will transact $1 million in deals monthly by next March. Via CNET and IT Media

makuake

Today Japanese internet giant CyberAgent launched a crowdfunding platform called Makuake (meaning ‘beginning’). The company started the service as a rewards-type crowdfunding service, but plans to enhance it to become an investment-type platform in the future.

As you may already know, CyberAgent also runs one of Japan’s biggest blogging platforms, Ameba, where many celebrities or entertainers post updates for fans and promote themselves. In collaboration with such celebrities, the company plans to launch many notable crowdfunding projects, thus attracting more users.

At the time of launch, we can find seven projects on site. This includes an initiative from a Japanese soccer player to assist young athletes in the country master English so they can better partake in international activities. The company is also inviting a fundraising project to manufacture Raspberry Pi-enabled robot Rapiro, and that will go live later this month.

The platform is currently available for PC, and a smartphone version will go live this coming fall. It is expected that Makuake will transact $1 million in deals monthly by next March.

Via CNET and IT Media

makuake_screenshot

Crowd Securities Japan to launch investment crowdfunding platform

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Tokyo-based stock brokerage company Crowd Securities Japan held a press briefing yesterday to announce that it will launch the country’s first investment crowdfunding platform in August. The service is called Crowd Bank. The company’s president Kaz Ohmae, explained a little about the upcoming service. People in Japan keep more than 839 trillion yen ($8.39 trillion) in their savings, more than any other country in the world. However, as little as 8.2 billion yen ($82 million) has been transacted in the Japanese crowdfunding market, less than 5% of the US [transaction volume]. So Japan has great potential for growth in the crowdfunding market. We plan to launch the country’s first investment crowdfunding platform and help SMEs raise funds easier with this service. According to Ohmae, crowdfunding services are categorized into five types corresponding to what you can get in return for investments: donations, rewards, loans, funds, and equity. Regarding the first two, these are relatively easy to launch since no license is required. But for the latter three types of crowdfunding services, operators are requested to get licenses from the Japanese monetary authority. Taking full advantage of its status as a stock brokerage company, they plan to launch a loan crowdfunding…

ohmae-and-denawa
From the left: CSJ’s President Kaz Ohmae, Chairman Yoshito Denawa

Tokyo-based stock brokerage company Crowd Securities Japan held a press briefing yesterday to announce that it will launch the country’s first investment crowdfunding platform in August. The service is called Crowd Bank.

The company’s president Kaz Ohmae, explained a little about the upcoming service.

People in Japan keep more than 839 trillion yen ($8.39 trillion) in their savings, more than any other country in the world. However, as little as 8.2 billion yen ($82 million) has been transacted in the Japanese crowdfunding market, less than 5% of the US [transaction volume]. So Japan has great potential for growth in the crowdfunding market. We plan to launch the country’s first investment crowdfunding platform and help SMEs raise funds easier with this service.

According to Ohmae, crowdfunding services are categorized into five types corresponding to what you can get in return for investments: donations, rewards, loans, funds, and equity. Regarding the first two, these are relatively easy to launch since no license is required. But for the latter three types of crowdfunding services, operators are requested to get licenses from the Japanese monetary authority.

targetingarea

Taking full advantage of its status as a stock brokerage company, they plan to launch a loan crowdfunding service in August and an equity service next year. They aim to transact 10 billion yen ($100 million) among 10,000 customers using the platform by March of 2015.

The company was previously known as D-brain Securities, focused on dealing with unlisted stocks on Japanese stock exchanges (the Green Sheet Market). They have previously served more than 9,000 clients and managed underwriting for 140 companies. 16 companies of those have exited to an IPO or M&A, and to date the company has provided capital worth 10.7 billion yen ($107 million) to Japanese SMEs from the market.

Prior to joining this company, president Ohmae worked at E-Trade Japan, and was involved in an launching Exchange Corporation, the startup behind Japan’s leading social lending service Aqush.

The video below shows Ohmae giving a brief demo of how the new platform will work.

Japan’s Green Funding enables DIY crowdfunding for web publishers

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This is part of our Crowdfunding in Japan series (RSS). Services like KickStarter have become a global phenomenon with the power to let creative individuals take their ideas to new heights. It’s happening here in Japan too. Below is one example. Green Funding is a service that can be integrated into websites, allowing anyone to create crowdfunding project pages. Tokyo Calendar is a well-known Japanese lifestyle magazine, and it has recently used the service to launch a website called ‘Tokyo Calender Fund’, which showcases original crowdfunding projects. The most recent project aims to bring back the once famous and now very scarce Sri Lankan coffee bean. According to the project page, the making of Sri Lankan coffee is a national project and the country plants 20,000 trees per year as part of the production process. Unfortunately the amount exported to Japan is very scarce at 700 kg per year. For this project, Tokyo Calendar plans to develop its own original Sri Lankan coffee blend, collecting funds starting at 1,000 yen (or about $10). The project will run until July 15th, with the target sum being 100,000 yen (or about $1,000). Other interesting projects from Tokyo Calendar includes things like developing…

Tokyo-Calendar-GreenFunding

This is part of our Crowdfunding in Japan series (RSS). Services like KickStarter have become a global phenomenon with the power to let creative individuals take their ideas to new heights. It’s happening here in Japan too. Below is one example.

Green Funding is a service that can be integrated into websites, allowing anyone to create crowdfunding project pages. Tokyo Calendar is a well-known Japanese lifestyle magazine, and it has recently used the service to launch a website called ‘Tokyo Calender Fund’, which showcases original crowdfunding projects. The most recent project aims to bring back the once famous and now very scarce Sri Lankan coffee bean.

According to the project page, the making of Sri Lankan coffee is a national project and the country plants 20,000 trees per year as part of the production process. Unfortunately the amount exported to Japan is very scarce at 700 kg per year. For this project, Tokyo Calendar plans to develop its own original Sri Lankan coffee blend, collecting funds starting at 1,000 yen (or about $10). The project will run until July 15th, with the target sum being 100,000 yen (or about $1,000).

Other interesting projects from Tokyo Calendar includes things like developing original wine glasses shaped like a flamingo, or importing 20 kinds of tequila to Japan. Green Funding has also been used by a popular fashion magazine Nylon Japan.

Traditional media in Japan has been experiencing decreased readership, but publishers can leverage Green Funding to publish books and magazines on demand, and thus be less dependent on advertisements. It will also allow publishers to support creators or artists that they have interviewed or written about.

Hopefully services like this one can have a positive impact for publishers in the country.

Ready? Fight! A summary of 6 fierce Japanese startup rivalries

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See the original Japanese version of this article If you’re a web startup, chances are you probably have a competitor or two. Maybe more. Here in Japan we are seeing rivals emerge in a number of service categories. Thankfully, with each struggling to stand out from the other, it means that users are most likely to benefit, at least in the short term. I will talk about the major players across six startup categories that have been getting attention here in Japan. Round 1: Stores.jp vs BASE (E-commerce platforms) ¶ I almost wanted to write about just this competition by itself, since both services have experienced rapid growth and the quality of their services is increasing by the day. This is a great example of how intense competition brings better quality product. See STORES.jp in our database See BASE in our database Base: The Japanese freemium e-commerce platform that’s following Shopify’s lead How Stores.jp is helping small businesses in Japan come online Round 2: iQON vs Origami vs MONOCO vs Fril (Smartphone x Fashion) ¶ iQON is media, Origami is commerce, Monoco is a concierge service, and Fril is C2C. Those startups all differ slightly but they share two common…

See the original Japanese version of this article

If you’re a web startup, chances are you probably have a competitor or two. Maybe more. Here in Japan we are seeing rivals emerge in a number of service categories. Thankfully, with each struggling to stand out from the other, it means that users are most likely to benefit, at least in the short term.

I will talk about the major players across six startup categories that have been getting attention here in Japan.

Round 1: Stores.jp vs BASE (E-commerce platforms)

I almost wanted to write about just this competition by itself, since both services have experienced rapid growth and the quality of their services is increasing by the day. This is a great example of how intense competition brings better quality product.

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Round 2: iQON vs Origami vs MONOCO vs Fril (Smartphone x Fashion)

iQON is media, Origami is commerce, Monoco is a concierge service, and Fril is C2C. Those startups all differ slightly but they share two common threads: ‘fashion’ and ‘smartphones’. All have maintained high levels of investor interest. And it is said that this field is about to face a host of new entrants, resulting in even more hype around this space.

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Round 3: CrowdWorks vs Lancers (Crowdsourcing)

The platform concept of these two services differs slightly. However, I feel both have the potential to change the concept of the way people work here in Japan, and that’s what differentiates them from other worker-client matching services.

IMG_4219

Round 4: Coiney vs Rakuten Smartpay vs Paypal

Competition this category is a little more fierce as the players are not all startups. But when I interviewed Coiney I felt that their strategy is not to compete head on with these other payment giants. Check out interview (in Japanese) for more details.

pr_start2

Round 5: Campfire vs Readyfor vs Countdown (Crowdfunding)

Campfire has gotten a lot of attention so far, but it hasn’t yet resulted in the same kind of impact that we have seen with big overseas players. The first out of the gate in this crowdfunding space was Readyfor, which has differentiated by focusing on social contributions, donations, and NPOs. A critical success factor will be its ability to generate news media exposure.

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Round 6: SmartNews vs Gunosy vs Vingow (News technology)

This field is pretty interesting because the competition depends on technology much more so than in the previously mentioned categories. SmartNews shows its users almost all the same news information, which is different from the other two players. The concept of personalized news is common to Gunosy and Vingow. But Vingow offers users updated information in real-time, different from Gunosy which updates information in batches. Many users might use both services, depending on the occasion.

Gunosy-for-iPhone

I confess, I also wanted to include C2C platforms in this article (such as ticket selling, for example), but I’ll come back to that another time.

Besides those listed above, Japan also has an abundance of camera applications and casual games, but many lack monetization plans and solid business models – so they are less news-worthy in my book. Most of the services listed above have established business models and firm financials, and of course that is a big attraction for investors.

If you’d like to suggest some other hot startup categories or rivalry, please let me know in the comments.

Support your favorite anime artists: Crowdfunding site Anipipo finally launches

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Tokyo- and Bangkok-based startup Goopa has launched its anime-focused crowdfunding site Anipipo today. The new site provides ways for anime project owners to find funding to support their productions. Supporters will receive a premium reward from project owners in return for their financial support. The site is not only geared towards motion picture projects, but it’s also open to application for music, games, books, event projects, and more. As of today, the following three projects are available and open to receive funding from supporters. Santa Company – A motion picture project by Itoso from Kenji Studio ABC of Akari – A motion picture project by Vincente from AnigoAnimtion Ponpon Pipopo – A picture book publication project by Moo The startup was launched by Japanese entrepreneur Hiroaki Taira. Some of our readers may recall that he helped us to organize our meet-up events up until last year. In addition to Taira, the board members include two young Thai entrepreneurs Vincent Sethiwan and Permsiri Tiyavutiroj, who are known for running the LaunchPad incubation space in Bangkok. The startup primarily conducts business development in Tokyo, and system development in Bangkok. Anipipo was originally planned to launch back in February, but had to adjust…

anipipo_screenshot

Tokyo- and Bangkok-based startup Goopa has launched its anime-focused crowdfunding site Anipipo today. The new site provides ways for anime project owners to find funding to support their productions. Supporters will receive a premium reward from project owners in return for their financial support. The site is not only geared towards motion picture projects, but it’s also open to application for music, games, books, event projects, and more.

As of today, the following three projects are available and open to receive funding from supporters.

  1. Santa Company – A motion picture project by Itoso from Kenji Studio
  2. ABC of Akari – A motion picture project by Vincente from AnigoAnimtion
  3. Ponpon Pipopo – A picture book publication project by Moo

The startup was launched by Japanese entrepreneur Hiroaki Taira. Some of our readers may recall that he helped us to organize our meet-up events up until last year. In addition to Taira, the board members include two young Thai entrepreneurs Vincent Sethiwan and Permsiri Tiyavutiroj, who are known for running the LaunchPad incubation space in Bangkok. The startup primarily conducts business development in Tokyo, and system development in Bangkok.

Anipipo was originally planned to launch back in February, but had to adjust the schedule a little bit. Everything was prepared for launch at that time, but they ran into difficulties getting approval from PayPal to become a merchant, an essential step in order to provide users with adequate payment methods. According to Taira, this is because PayPal has raised the bar for merchant accounts for crowdsourcing platforms. He actually visited PayPal headquarters in San Jose, and persuaded them on this issue. There appears to be a number of dubious crowdfunding sites around the world right now, so this is probably why Paypal is being careful. But the deployment of such strict regulations on their part indicates that the market has become too big to be ignored.

You may remember that Gyao and GREE jointly formed an anime-focused investment fund back in February, another significant development that should help the anime businesses. There is also illustration crowdsourcing service MugenUp and voice crowdsourcing service Voip.

Anipipo previously fundraised 4.5 million yen (approximately $45,000) from Tokyo startup incubator Samurai Incubate. With the service’s official launch, we should expect to see another round of funding pretty soon.

Kickstart this: 14 of Japan’s top crowdfunded projects

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Visualizing.info is a website that visualizes statistics and metrics from market surveys. On May 1st, the website was updated for the first time in almost a month, and it presented some interesting statistics from the Japanese crowdfunding space. The website has collected figures from the major Japanese crowdfunding sites: Readyfor, Campfire, Motion Galery, Countdown, and Kibidango. It presented an overview of what projects are trending or are most influential by counting the number of supportive ‘likes’ or the accumulation of funds raised. So what projects are the most popular in Japan in terms of the amounts raised? Let’s have a quick look below. All the statistics were current as of April 30th, 2013. Readyfor 1st place: Fill an empty library Raised 8.2 million yen from 862 people This project aims to help a library in Rikuzen Takada fill its shelves with with books. The library is located in the heart of an area that was devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, where most books were damaged or destroyed by the subsequent tsunami. 2nd place: Support the koalas Raised 4.8 million yen from 677 people It aims to help a zoo in Nagoya grow eucalyptus to feed their…

visualizing.info

Visualizing.info is a website that visualizes statistics and metrics from market surveys. On May 1st, the website was updated for the first time in almost a month, and it presented some interesting statistics from the Japanese crowdfunding space. The website has collected figures from the major Japanese crowdfunding sites: Readyfor, Campfire, Motion Galery, Countdown, and Kibidango. It presented an overview of what projects are trending or are most influential by counting the number of supportive ‘likes’ or the accumulation of funds raised.

So what projects are the most popular in Japan in terms of the amounts raised? Let’s have a quick look below. All the statistics were current as of April 30th, 2013.

Readyfor

1st place: Fill an empty library

  • Raised 8.2 million yen from 862 people

This project aims to help a library in Rikuzen Takada fill its shelves with with books. The library is located in the heart of an area that was devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, where most books were damaged or destroyed by the subsequent tsunami.

library

2nd place: Support the koalas

  • Raised 4.8 million yen from 677 people

It aims to help a zoo in Nagoya grow eucalyptus to feed their koalas. As some of our readers may know, koalas don’t eat anything other than eucalyptus. But these trees don’t grow naturally, and have to be grown artificially. Due to a lack of funds from the local government, this project raised money by turning to the public for financial support.

coala

3rd place: Send young artists to Italy

  • Raised 4.2 million yen from 388 people

Elementary school students living in the area affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake have created artwork made from the debris left by the devastation. These are to be exhibited at the Toy Museum in Zagarolo, Italy. The project owners wish to take the children to attend the exhibition.

artwork_from_debris

Campfire

1st place: From Fukushima to Chernobyl

  • Raised 6 million yen from 728 people

Three famous Japanese journalists and critics who have been observing the devastated area affected by the 2011 disaster are planning to visit Chernobyl to cover what’s has been happening there after the nuclear power plant accident. The three have raised money for a trip and will bring the latest reports and information to their audience in return.

2nd place: iPhone Polaroids

  • Raised 5.3 million yen from 268 people

A hardware manufacturing group called Impossible Instant Lab is planning to produce a device that allows you to develop Polaroid-style physical photos using the iPhone.

3rd place: Akihiro Nishino’s picture books

  • Raised 5.3 million yen from 585 people

Popular Japanese comedian Akihiro Nishino has created his own original picture books. He is hoping for a global outreach, and is planning to hold an exhibition at a gallery in New York.

Motion Gallery

1st place: Herb & Dorothy

  • Raised 14.6 million yen from 915 people

Japanese film maker Megumi Sasaki created a documentary film called Herb & Dorothy. It focuses on how an elderly couple living in NYC assembled one of the most important post–1960 art collections in history, on their modest civil-service salaries. Megumi wants to show the movie at a Japanese theater.

2nd place: Like someone in love

  • Raised 5.6 million yen from 244 people

Award-winning Iranian film maker Abbas Kiarostami shot a film in Japan called Like Someone in Love. Abbas once gave up on shooting the film due to the Great Earthquake, but eventually production was finished. The story revolved around an old man and a young prostitute in Japan, and thus far has been well received by critics. This effort aimed to raise funds to go towards the film’s distribution in Japan.

3rd place: Remembering Yanana

  • Raised 3.2 million yen from 132 people

These days, many Japanese local governments have introduced mascot characters called ‘Yuru-chara,’ primarily in an effort to promote local products and tourism in their areas. “Yanana” is one of the characters hailing from Gifu, Japan, but she subsequently had to stop her activities because her promotion schedule was unexpectedly terminated. For the purpose of keeping her alive in the minds of locals, some fans are raising money to hold retirement event, establish a monument, and even create a movie in her honor.

yanana

Countdown

1st place: Gamarjobat

  • Raised 8.4 million yen from 399 people

Japanese comedy duo Gamarjobat has been performing pantomime shows in 32 countries around the world. The duo has appeared on the BBC variety show Blue Peter and their next destination is Hollywood. To help them make it there, they want to create a promotional video about themselves.

2nd place

  • Raised 4.1 million yen from 115 people

A Japanese inn owner hopes to found a co-working space in a hot spring resort. Located in the Tohoku region just three hours away from Tokyo by bullet train, the owner wants to create a facility where everyone can comfortably work – but given the relaxing environment, heal at the same time.

3rd place: Online sign language dictionary and keyboard

  • Raised 2.9 million yen from 132 people

This project aspires to create the world’s first online dictionary for sign languages. Readers may recall that we previously featured this idea back in February.

Kibidango

1st place: The perfect camera bag

  • Raised 6.5 million yen from 226 people

Ulysses is the ideal camera bag. The creators have been polishing the idea for eight years, and they’ve finally invented one which uses natural materials but is still durable and easy-to-use.

2nd place: Pinot noir from Niigata

  • Raised 2.5 million yen from 107 people

A winery owner in Niigata plans to create a new wine using a Pinot noir grape. He wants to cultivate a grape vineyard, create his wine, and finally ship it. His customers (investors) have to wait five years for the wine to mature.

New portal site for crowdfunding projects helps Japanese creators and entrepreneurs fundraise globally

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See the original story in Japanese. One More Inc., a Tokyo-based startup specializing in providing an ASP-based crowdfunding site platform, has released a portal site called Green Funding. The new site aggregates updates on crowdfunding projects from its seven partner sites: Tokyo Calendar Fund, Nylon Project, Tokyo Crowdfunding Club, Sportie Fund, Sustena Crowdfunding, Allez! Japan, and Green Girl. The startup aspires to help get crowdfunding projects featured on overseas crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo as well. One More’s CEO Takehiko Numata explains: In order to feature your project on crowdfunding sites outside Japan, you will need to register your company in that country and have an account at a local bank there. The qualification process can be very cumbersome and you’ll face many issues before getting your project featured. We’re considering partnership with those crowdfunding sites, which will make the process easier. We’ll help project owners submit their proposals to Kickstarter and Indiegogo, and introduce those projects on our portal site so as to encourage Japanese people to back those projects. As of 2012, the global market for crowdfunding services was worth about 2.8 billion yen (about $28 million). These days, a variety of new crowdfunding services are popping…

green-funding

See the original story in Japanese.

One More Inc., a Tokyo-based startup specializing in providing an ASP-based crowdfunding site platform, has released a portal site called Green Funding. The new site aggregates updates on crowdfunding projects from its seven partner sites: Tokyo Calendar Fund, Nylon Project, Tokyo Crowdfunding Club, Sportie Fund, Sustena Crowdfunding, Allez! Japan, and Green Girl.

green-funding-partner

The startup aspires to help get crowdfunding projects featured on overseas crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo as well. One More’s CEO Takehiko Numata explains:

In order to feature your project on crowdfunding sites outside Japan, you will need to register your company in that country and have an account at a local bank there. The qualification process can be very cumbersome and you’ll face many issues before getting your project featured.

We’re considering partnership with those crowdfunding sites, which will make the process easier. We’ll help project owners submit their proposals to Kickstarter and Indiegogo, and introduce those projects on our portal site so as to encourage Japanese people to back those projects.

greenfunding

As of 2012, the global market for crowdfunding services was worth about 2.8 billion yen (about $28 million). These days, a variety of new crowdfunding services are popping up all around Asia.

On a related note, we recently reported that Japanese internet tycoon Takafumi Horie said he might be taking on a special advisory role for Campfire, one of Japan’s largest crowdfunding services.

Meet the Japanese company that’s making a sign language keyboard

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Here’s a great crowdfunding project that’s currently getting some attention in Japan. An initiative from Fujisawa-based ShuR, the SLinto project aspires to be the world’s first crowdsourced dictionary for sign language, with the world’s first sign language keyboard [1]. While it might be easy to look up words in an English, French, or Chinese dictionary [2], for those who use sign language, how would you go about looking up a specific sign? The company describes their solution (pictured above) as follows: Our sign language keyboard makes the whole process much easier. There are four main components for a sign; location, handshape, orientation, and movement. Our special keyboard allows you to look up a sign using its location and handshape and provide search results in videos. This is a remarkable idea not only because it will help people who already use sign language, but also because it will enable people who don’t use sign language to study it more easily. SHuR’s initiative also includes the very lofty goal of creating a crowdsourced dictionary of sign languages [3], with Wikipedia-style additions from users in video form, able to keep up with any new words or jargon that are added to sign languages…

slinto-dictionary

Here’s a great crowdfunding project that’s currently getting some attention in Japan. An initiative from Fujisawa-based ShuR, the SLinto project aspires to be the world’s first crowdsourced dictionary for sign language, with the world’s first sign language keyboard [1].

While it might be easy to look up words in an English, French, or Chinese dictionary [2], for those who use sign language, how would you go about looking up a specific sign? The company describes their solution (pictured above) as follows:

Our sign language keyboard makes the whole process much easier. There are four main components for a sign; location, handshape, orientation, and movement. Our special keyboard allows you to look up a sign using its location and handshape and provide search results in videos.

This is a remarkable idea not only because it will help people who already use sign language, but also because it will enable people who don’t use sign language to study it more easily.

SHuR’s initiative also includes the very lofty goal of creating a crowdsourced dictionary of sign languages [3], with Wikipedia-style additions from users in video form, able to keep up with any new words or jargon that are added to sign languages over time.

Appropriately, ShuR has turned to the power of the crowd to fund its project, calling for financial supporters over on Countdown, targeting 1.5 million yen (just over $16,000) in its 60 day campaign which has just recently begun. If you’d like to throw your support behind this novel idea, credit cards and Paypal payments are accepted.

For more information about this project, check out the TedxTokyo talk below from ShuR co-founder Junto Ohki.

This is part of our Crowdfunding in Japan series (RSS). Services like KickStarter have become a global phenomenon with the power to let creative individuals take their ideas to new heights. It’s happening here in Japan too, and this has been just one example.


  1. This project is a cool idea, but I really wish Japanese companies would quit with the weird capitalization in their names…  ↩

  2. Ok, ok… It’s not at all easy to look up words in a Chinese dictionary.  ↩

  3. ‘Sign languages’ is plural because there are 130 varieties in the world currently.  ↩