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Triple W Japan, developer of DFree urination predictor, secures $4.4M pre-series B round

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Triple W Japan, the startup which developed urination predictor device DFree, announced on Monday that it has raised 500 million yen (about $4.4 million US) from Nissay Capital and 2020, the Japanese investment partner fund of Taiwanese electronics outfit Foxconn, in a pre-series B round. For Triple W Japan, this follows their series A round back in July of 2017 raising 500 million yen (about $4.9 million US), including 1 million yen in loans from Mizuho Bank and Japan Finance Corporation. Nissay Capital also participated in a seed round back in April of 2015 while 2020 joined the series A round last year. Triple W Japan has a total of 1.5 billion yen (about $13.1 million) in funding to date. The company has rolled out the DFree urination prediction device into 150 nursery care facilities across Japan in partnership with the eldercare industry, including 116 facilities run by Sompo Care Next, where the solution has been adopted for 2,000 elderly patients. In France, a country which faces a typical aging population, Triple W Japan recently secured clinical testing of the solution at Paris and Poissy care facilities working with European eldercare giant Korian,…

DFree device and app
Image credit: Triple W Japan

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Triple W Japan, the startup which developed urination predictor device DFree, announced on Monday that it has raised 500 million yen (about $4.4 million US) from Nissay Capital and 2020, the Japanese investment partner fund of Taiwanese electronics outfit Foxconn, in a pre-series B round.

For Triple W Japan, this follows their series A round back in July of 2017 raising 500 million yen (about $4.9 million US), including 1 million yen in loans from Mizuho Bank and Japan Finance Corporation. Nissay Capital also participated in a seed round back in April of 2015 while 2020 joined the series A round last year. Triple W Japan has a total of 1.5 billion yen (about $13.1 million) in funding to date.

The company has rolled out the DFree urination prediction device into 150 nursery care facilities across Japan in partnership with the eldercare industry, including 116 facilities run by Sompo Care Next, where the solution has been adopted for 2,000 elderly patients. In France, a country which faces a typical aging population, Triple W Japan recently secured clinical testing of the solution at Paris and Poissy care facilities working with European eldercare giant Korian, readying to put it into practical use at these facilities. Beyond deployment at an unnamed major hospital in Singapore, the company will exhibit at Medica 2017, the world’s largest medical device-focused exhibition in Düsseldorf (Germany), aiming to cultivate sales channels in the US market.

Furthermore, Triple W Japan has been selected as a do-support company in the category of robotics tech for nursery care, a joint initiative of Japanese ministries overseeing welfare and economy (latter known as METI), while preparing to visit Israel next January under METI’s Hiyaku Next Enterprise tour of startup ecosystems.

DFree has been adopting the B2B (business-to-business) or the B2B2C (business-to-business-to-consumer) business model in terms of how to distribute devices and sell services. However, as they gain more exposure through various media outlets, more inquiries from individuals are incoming so they started working on the B2C (business-to-consumer) sales in response to such needs. According to Atsushi Nakanishi, CEO of Triple W Japan, stroke is the most frequent cause of elderly people becoming in need of long-term care, but he said that few systematic rehabilitation and training facilities exist focused on natural excretion to help get them back to regular daily life requiring no hospital care. By offering the DFree device, he explained that his company may help patients get back home and continue their daily life with dignity.

The pre-series B round at this time looks to help the company’s continued growth without sacrificing speed because an upcoming series B round will require more time to secure. The company plans to start raising for the series B round in earnest, so investors participating in the latest round are expected to exchange their convertible equities into common stocks when the series B round is closed. They target about 1 billion yen (about $8.8 million US) in the series B round next year.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Triple W Japan, developer of urination predictor, wins $610K grant for clinical research

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  See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Triple W Japan, the Japanese startup developing developer of urination predictor device DFree, announced last week that it was selected by NEDO for the corporate alliance program for R&D-focused startups, and will receive a subsidy of up to 70 million yen (about $610K US). The target for the subsidy is joint research with large companies in relation to DFree’s small size and high performance, and since the expenses required for research will be paid up to the maximum amount, it is possible to obtain the full subsidy. The contents of collaborative research with each of five major companies are as follows: Accenture…Collaborative research on nursing care packages combining various sensors and nursing care record data, joint development of algorithms and software, support for overseas development centered on Europe, etc. Itochu Chemical Frontier…Development of a high precision ultrasonic sensor, high accuracy coupled with algorithm development, etc. Itochu Techno Solutions…Feasibility studies, joint development of software, etc. Paramount Head…Improve accuracy through the combination with various sensors, joint solution development, etc. Revamp…Feasibility study at nursing care facilities, sales support, etc. Among these companies, Revamp also participated in the series A funding round that Triple W Japan…

Image credit: Triple W Japan

 

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Triple W Japan, the Japanese startup developing developer of urination predictor device DFree, announced last week that it was selected by NEDO for the corporate alliance program for R&D-focused startups, and will receive a subsidy of up to 70 million yen (about $610K US). The target for the subsidy is joint research with large companies in relation to DFree’s small size and high performance, and since the expenses required for research will be paid up to the maximum amount, it is possible to obtain the full subsidy.

The contents of collaborative research with each of five major companies are as follows:

  • Accenture…Collaborative research on nursing care packages combining various sensors and nursing care record data, joint development of algorithms and software, support for overseas development centered on Europe, etc.
  • Itochu Chemical Frontier…Development of a high precision ultrasonic sensor, high accuracy coupled with algorithm development, etc.
  • Itochu Techno Solutions…Feasibility studies, joint development of software, etc.
  • Paramount Head…Improve accuracy through the combination with various sensors, joint solution development, etc.
  • Revamp…Feasibility study at nursing care facilities, sales support, etc.

Among these companies, Revamp also participated in the series A funding round that Triple W Japan conducted last July. Also, in February of last year, the company acquired a subsidy of up to 70 million yen from NEDO’s another R&D venture support project (commonly known as the STS grant project).

DFree’s mobile app for nursing care facilities
Image credit: Triple W Japan

Recently, Triple W Japan won Grand Prize at the “Japan Healthcare Business Contest” conducted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on March 3rd. Interest from Europe is also high, and it seems that DFree was exhibited as a use case of Soracom, an IoT-focused mobile network service from Japan, which announced its advance into Europe at the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona earlier this month. They are also scheduled to represent Japan in the Netherlands’ startup conference competition Get in the Ring (which timing-wise overlaps with Tech in Asia Singapore 2017…) from May 17th to the 19th.  Moreover, in Kawasaki city, DFree is certified as the Kawasaki Innovation Standard with the city subsidizing expenses for its use in nursing care facilities, which is expected to spur introduction.

Triple W Japan’s CEO Atsushi Nakanishi had the following to say about the future of DFree:

I’d like to work with Kawasaki city to see it implemented for in-home nursing care and rehabilitation. In particular, most patients who have suffered from a stroke undergo a rehabilitation process where they’re forced to wear a catheter after surgery (to compensate for difficulty urinating), which they then have removed and wear diapers, finally graduating from those, in order to fully rehabilitate into society. DFree would be useful in the process of removing the diaper.

Nakanishi continued:

DFree has already begun to be used in French nursing home care facilities, and we will promote trials for full-scale introduction. We’re also in the process of contracting with a German company. We are collaborating in Europe since the structure of nursing care is well established. Regarding areas where nursing care is not easy, I’d like to consider making rehabilitation models and home care support tools and packages. I’d like to partner with insurance companies.

At the beginning of the project, DFree had set a goal of predicting bowel movements, but recently seems to be shifting its focus to urination control. On this, Nakanishi said that the technological development of urination prediction is the priority because urination is more frequent than bowel movements, making it easier to develop data and algorithms; also, throughout the world there are more people who are in need of support for urination rather than defecation. It appears that once they have answered the demand for urination prediction, they will once again return to the development of a solution for defecation prediction.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru IKeda

From Monozukuri Hub Meetup: The Power of Storytelling

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This is a guest post by Joey Ho Nihei, a volunteer supporter for Kyoto-based hardware startup accelerator Makers Boot Camp as well as a student from National University of Singapore (Department of Global Studies). The accelerator holds the Monozukuri Hub Meetup event in Kyoto on a monthly basis. Additionally, all photos in this article were taken by professional photographer Kengo Osaka. Makers Bootcamp is Japan’s leading hardware accelerator and the organizer of the wildly successful Monozukuri Hub meetups. These meetups aim to build, support and inspire a community of makers by acting as a platform for international collaboration and knowledge exchange. In the latest edition of 2016 Monozukuri Hub meetup titled “The Power of Storytelling”, Makers Bootcamp has brought together some of the tech industry’s most seasoned storytellers, investors and start-up founders for an evening packed with insights on how to build and leverage on compelling stories for startups. This meetup largely revolved around the theme of how powerful and effective storytelling is quintessential to startups in every single way — from picking investor’s initial interest to effectively projecting a startup’s value to consumers. Simply put, storytelling is a powerful tool that must be harnessed by startups in order to secure not only investments…

Joey Ho Nihei

This is a guest post by Joey Ho Nihei, a volunteer supporter for Kyoto-based hardware startup accelerator Makers Boot Camp as well as a student from National University of Singapore (Department of Global Studies). The accelerator holds the Monozukuri Hub Meetup event in Kyoto on a monthly basis.

Additionally, all photos in this article were taken by professional photographer Kengo Osaka.


Makers Bootcamp is Japan’s leading hardware accelerator and the organizer of the wildly successful Monozukuri Hub meetups. These meetups aim to build, support and inspire a community of makers by acting as a platform for international collaboration and knowledge exchange.

In the latest edition of 2016 Monozukuri Hub meetup titled “The Power of Storytelling”, Makers Bootcamp has brought together some of the tech industry’s most seasoned storytellers, investors and start-up founders for an evening packed with insights on how to build and leverage on compelling stories for startups.

This meetup largely revolved around the theme of how powerful and effective storytelling is quintessential to startups in every single way — from picking investor’s initial interest to effectively projecting a startup’s value to consumers. Simply put, storytelling is a powerful tool that must be harnessed by startups in order to secure not only investments but also its survival.

Three main perspectives dominated the evening’s presentations: the perspectives of the story consultant, the investor and the startups. The beauty of this meetup was in seeing the storytelling process from these closely related yet distinct perspectives.

The evening was kicked-off by Sabrina Sasaki from Makers Bootcamp who succinctly introduced the art of storytelling and its significance to a startup’s growth to get everyone warmed up for the magic that was about to happen in the following presentations. Her presentation served as an easily digestible introduction to those unacquainted to the art of storytelling (myself included). One key message that she conveyed in her presentation was how stories play a crucial role in a startup’s marketing and how it is no less important than building a revolutionary product.

Björn Eichstädt, Managing Partner, Storymaker

The first speaker for the evening, Storymaker‘s Björn Eichstädt, offered the perspective of the consultant, sharing snippets from his vast experiences managing a story-oriented communications consulting, PR and digital communications firm. He spoke about how having a powerful story to communicate a company’s identity and value is increasingly important in a world constantly bombarded with a multitude of information, and how originality (instead of jumping onto trends) is the only real way ahead. One of his sharings that left a particular impression on his audience was when he drew parallels between a story and dashi (Japanese soup stock), saying “a story is just like dashi – it can only be made with the right ingredients, and this dashi can be expressed in so many different ways. If customers and the media like it, they will retell it”.

See also:

James Riney, Head of 500 Startups Japan

James Riney, Head of 500 Startups Japan, followed Björn’s sharing by presenting the investor’s perspective to story-telling: What are investors really looking out for when they listen to pitches? One theme that he constantly emphasised on was the need for simplicity when presenting their idea and value and the need to earn trust and confidence quickly in the little bit of time they have to present to investors. The best way to do this, he advices, is to highlight the key strengths of the startup either in terms of traction, team, target market, media coverage or fundings from highly sought-after investors and funds. Simply put, all you need to do is to convey “why this? why now? And why you?”  and just KISS (Keep-it-simple-stupid). He also highlighted the importance of keeping things simple when startups ask for funding — just share with investors how much you need, what you will use it for, and how long this is going to last you.

See also:

The second half of the presentations saw Atsushi Nakanishi (AT) and Shota Takase sharing the stories of Dfree and Blincam respectively. Their stories were living proof of how startups can effectively leverage on powerful stories in order to propel their startups forward.

Atsushi Nakanishi, CEO of Dfree

Dfree CEO Atsushi Nakanishi has pooped his pants before — and he’s not ashamed to share it with the world because that was exactly what inspired the world’s first wearable device that aims to maintain every human’s dignity by using ultrasound to monitor changes in the body to predict toilet timings. His product’s vision to create “a world where nobody has to soil their pants” was as revolutionary as the way he presented his story — he began by asking the audience if “anyone pooped their pants before?” ensuing in a roar of laughter. Such personal, relatable anecdotes peppered with embarrassing examples have proven to be a key element in storytelling which values originality and surprise elements. To close his presentation, he shared Dfree’s future trajectories — a trajectory that would vastly change the way everyone lives in the future by “predicting everything” from toilet timings, appetites, menstrual cycles, aging and even one’s lifespan.

See also:

Shota Takase, CEO & Founder of Blincam

The last presentation for the evening was by Shota Takase, CEO & Founder of Blincam. Blincam’s story started by coincidence at a Startup Weekend session and has since been fueled by Shota’s strong desire capture natural and beautiful photographs of his family. The key inspiration behind Blincam was how Shota could never take candid photographs of his daughter because she would always make funny faces at the camera when she knew her photo was being taken. This desire to capture candid, beautiful pictures of our own children resonated with many people and this vision-turned-startup was what Blincam was all about: A wearable, hands-free camera that captures candid pictures with a blink of an eye. Shota then carried on to share every step of his journey from starting up in a garage all the way to securing a whopping 2640% of funding in Makuake and another 150% in Indiegogo just recently.

See also:

This event saw some of the most insightful stories and had some of the industry’s most seasoned storytellers and listeners (investors). Makers Bootcamp would once again like to extend our warmest regards to every single person who participated and we hope this meetup enriched you as much as it did for us! We hope to see everyone again soon!

Click here if you would like to check the presentation deck from all speakers, with detailed information about each one.

Triple W Japan, developer of bowel movement notifier, gets $4.9M from Foxconn, others

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See the original story in Japanese. Triple W Japan, developer of wearable bowel movement predictor DFree, recently announced that they have fundraised 400 million yen ($3.9 million) from 2020, iSGS Investment Works, Daiwa Corporate Investment, Mizuho Capital, SBI Investment and Revamp in a series A round, in addition to 100 million yen (about $980,000) in loans from Mizuho Bank and Japan Finance Corporation. 2020 is the investment arm in Japan of Taiwan-based hardware manufacturing giant Foxconn. This funding round follows their previous undisclosed amount of funding from Nissay Capital and iStyle Capital (now known as iSGS Investment Works) back in April last year as well as up to 120 million yen (about $1 million at the exchange rate then) funding from the Japanese governmental business promotion agency NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization) and Osaka-based Hack Ventures. Triple W Japan was launched back in February of 2015 (US operations started in June of 2014) by UC Berkeley graduate Atsushi Nakanishi. He had unexpected incontinence when moving to a new home in Berkeley, which triggered him to launch the business to solve humanity’s universal problem – excretion. DFree uses ultrasonic waves to measures the size of excreta in the…

d-free_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Triple W Japan, developer of wearable bowel movement predictor DFree, recently announced that they have fundraised 400 million yen ($3.9 million) from 2020, iSGS Investment Works, Daiwa Corporate Investment, Mizuho Capital, SBI Investment and Revamp in a series A round, in addition to 100 million yen (about $980,000) in loans from Mizuho Bank and Japan Finance Corporation. 2020 is the investment arm in Japan of Taiwan-based hardware manufacturing giant Foxconn.

This funding round follows their previous undisclosed amount of funding from Nissay Capital and iStyle Capital (now known as iSGS Investment Works) back in April last year as well as up to 120 million yen (about $1 million at the exchange rate then) funding from the Japanese governmental business promotion agency NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization) and Osaka-based Hack Ventures.

triple-w-japan-5-million-funding-round-investor-logos

Triple W Japan was launched back in February of 2015 (US operations started in June of 2014) by UC Berkeley graduate Atsushi Nakanishi. He had unexpected incontinence when moving to a new home in Berkeley, which triggered him to launch the business to solve humanity’s universal problem – excretion.

DFree uses ultrasonic waves to measures the size of excreta in the intestine; it then estimates when the sacrum will be stimulated and when the user will begin to feel the urge to go to toilet. A user will then have sufficient time to find a toilet and be relieved from the stress of bowel incontinence. Parkinson’s disease sufferers, the physically handicapped, or the elderly who have difficulty to go to toilet will no longer need to use diapers, thus helping people regain their dignity.

dfree-bowel-app

In a crowdfunding campaign for the DFree device last year, the company succeeded in raising over 12 million yen (more than $100,000). During the first batch of Heart Catch, the two-month mentoring program for startups to brush up products, they revealed that they were exploring better design and marketing strategies.

Based on the capital partnerships with the aforementioned investors, Triple W Japan expects to provide comprehensive support in the following areas respectively.

  • 2020 – Engineering and business expansion to Asia through its parent company Foxconn
  • iSGS – Expansion to health and beauty verticals through iStyle, the leading investor of the VC firm and the owner of Japan’s top beauty products portal @Cosme.
  • SBI Investment – Expecting support in the healthcare, biomedical and ICT fields, the bailiwick of the VC firm’s investment manager Yukiko Kato who won the top in the Japanese version of Midas List issued by Forbes Japan last year.
  • Revamp – Offering testing opportunities and building sales channels to nursing facilities

Upon funding this time, the company also announced addition of new people to the team. In June, Yuichiro Kuzuryu, who was previously working at iPad music keyboard developer Miselu, was named CTO while mechatronics authority Akihiro Kawata joined the team as Executive Engineer to facilitate product development and manufacturing of the DFree device.

heart-catch-2015-d-free
CEO Nakanishi delivered his pitch at Heart Catch 2015.

According to Nakanishi, DFree is currently under clinical testing at four nursing facilities in Japan, expecting to increase up to 20 facilities by September. They are planning to move from a testing phase to launch phase this fall, followed by commencing a B2B2C (business-to-business-to-consumer) service through nursing homes next year.

Since excretion is becoming a common problem for aging societies in developed countries, the company has been garnering attention from outside Japan as well. Korea’s Seoul Broadcasting System features on its news site what had triggered founder Nakanishi to start developing the DFree device. Furthermore, they have been receiving inquiries from Australia, China, Taiwan, France and others. Because of tangible needs out there, their global expansion can be smoothly implemented as long as they can find relevant local partners in each respective country.

Triple W Japan consists of seven employees and three interns now. By hiring more engineers, the company wants to contribute to society by helping hardware engineers get out from big corporates into startups taking advantage of Japan’s strong manufacturing base.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s D Free, bowel movement and urination predictor, secures $1 million

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See the original story in Japanese. Triple W Japan, developer of wearable bowel movement predictor D Free, recently announced that they have been certified by Japanese governmental business promotion agency NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization) to join its support program for R&D-oriented startups and venture businesses in the seed stage. With this certification, Triple W Japan can receive up to 70 million yen (about $620,000) in subsidies. They also announced that they have secured 50 million yen ($450,000) from Hack Ventures invested by the City Government of Osaka, Hankyu Corporation, and others. The total amount of the two funds is 120 million yen (about $1 million). This follows their undisclosed sum of funding from Nissay Capital and iSGS Investment Works (formerly iStyle Capital) in April 2015. D Free uses ultrasonic waves to measures the size of excreta in the intestine; it then estimates when the sacrum will be stimulated and when the user will begin to feel the urge to go to toilet. A user will then have sufficient time to find a toilet and be relieved from the stress of bowel incontinence. Parkinson’s disease sufferers, the physically handicapped, or the elderly who have difficulty to go…

heart-catch-2015-d-free-usecase

See the original story in Japanese.

Triple W Japan, developer of wearable bowel movement predictor D Free, recently announced that they have been certified by Japanese governmental business promotion agency NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization) to join its support program for R&D-oriented startups and venture businesses in the seed stage.

With this certification, Triple W Japan can receive up to 70 million yen (about $620,000) in subsidies. They also announced that they have secured 50 million yen ($450,000) from Hack Ventures invested by the City Government of Osaka, Hankyu Corporation, and others. The total amount of the two funds is 120 million yen (about $1 million). This follows their undisclosed sum of funding from Nissay Capital and iSGS Investment Works (formerly iStyle Capital) in April 2015.

D Free uses ultrasonic waves to measures the size of excreta in the intestine; it then estimates when the sacrum will be stimulated and when the user will begin to feel the urge to go to toilet. A user will then have sufficient time to find a toilet and be relieved from the stress of bowel incontinence. Parkinson’s disease sufferers, the physically handicapped, or the elderly who have difficulty to go to toilet will no longer need to use diapers, thus helping people regain their dignity.

Triple W Japan is conducting trials at nursing homes of the D Free Beta version, which predicts urination. Based on the results, they will mass-produce, and they plan to start selling as a package for excretion care service to nursing homes this spring or later.

Last year, the Triple W Japan team participated in the first batch of Heart Catch, the two-month mentoring program for startups to brush up products. During this program, they told that they aim to promote this product to women who take care of their inner body not only outside and suggest them natural way for elimination without laxatives or supplements, in addition to active seniors who have elimination problems.

Last March, Triple W Japan won the Tokyo preliminary round of the Pioneers Festival, a startup conference in Austria. Yusuke Kawada (diagnostic radiology specialist at Japan’s National Center for Global Health and Medicine), Shoji Fukuda (director of Japan’s leading healthcare staffing firm SMS), and Minako Makino (Tokyo metropolitan area bureau chief, Japan Continence Action Society) have taken up posts as advisers to Triple W Japan.

Translated by Minako Ambiru via Mother First
Edited by Kurt Hanson

‘D Free’ bowel movement notifier from Japan secures funding; launches crowdfunding campaign

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See the original story in Japanese. Triple W Japan, the startup behind a wearable device that predicts the timing of bowel movements, announced on Friday that it has fundraised an undisclosed sum from Nissay Capital and iStyle Capital. Nissay Capital is the investment arm of a Japan’s leading insurance company while iStyle Capital is that of the company behind Japan’s largest online cosmetics review site. The device, D Free, is derived from the phrase ‘diaper free.’ Using ultrasonic waves it estimates how much time a person has until the feces will stimulate the sacral bone, which triggers the urge to defecate. In this way, users will not have to rush to the bathroom, and it will free them from worries about the risk of incontinence. It will help non-handicapped persons, as well as Parkinson’s sufferers, the physically challenged, and the elderly, who might be have to wear a diaper regain their dignity. Triple W Japan CEO Atsushi Nakanishi started developing D Free because he realized that the state of feces and the bowel condition can be monitored from outside the body using the same technology that fetal ultrasound scans use. The D Free device monitors the speed of feces growing…

d-free_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Triple W Japan, the startup behind a wearable device that predicts the timing of bowel movements, announced on Friday that it has fundraised an undisclosed sum from Nissay Capital and iStyle Capital. Nissay Capital is the investment arm of a Japan’s leading insurance company while iStyle Capital is that of the company behind Japan’s largest online cosmetics review site.

The device, D Free, is derived from the phrase ‘diaper free.’ Using ultrasonic waves it estimates how much time a person has until the feces will stimulate the sacral bone, which triggers the urge to defecate. In this way, users will not have to rush to the bathroom, and it will free them from worries about the risk of incontinence. It will help non-handicapped persons, as well as Parkinson’s sufferers, the physically challenged, and the elderly, who might be have to wear a diaper regain their dignity.

Triple W Japan CEO Atsushi Nakanishi started developing D Free because he realized that the state of feces and the bowel condition can be monitored from outside the body using the same technology that fetal ultrasound scans use.

The D Free device monitors the speed of feces growing and estimates the time to defecation. When using the device for the first time, users will be requested to enter their BMI (body mass index) via the app for grabbing their skinfold thickness, while the device will learn personal equation more precisely as users keep using it longer. Towards the start of shipping in April 2016, the team will improve the prediction algorithm, mountability, and wearing touch so please remind that some technical specifications are subject to change.

d-free-readyfor

In addition, the Triple W Japan team launched a funding campaign on Japanese crowdfunding site Ready for D Free. The project raised over 10% of its initial goal of 12 million yen ($100,000) on the first day of the 90-day the crowdfunding campaign.

Nakanishi elaborated:

Many people want to monitor how much food or liquids they have consumed using various devices or apps but not for how much they have excreted. To stay healthy requires managing what to eat, how much to exercise, and mental balance.

By matching data of how much they have eaten and that of how much they have excreted, the context coming out of that will advise them to take some rest or drink some water when needed to improve their condition.

In addition, colorectal cancer is the leading cause of women’s death. I think the app can help prevent the disease as well as allow insurance companies to collect precise data in order to measure the risk of the disease, improving the fair value of their insurance contracts.

Triple W Japan is a 20-person team including four core members, designers, and clinical testers. Based in Japan and the US, they have a good reputation globally and were covered by foreign news media.

A survey reports that 48% of Japanese women are suffering from constipation. We sometimes read news articles saying that train drivers and conductors cannot seem to go to the bathroom when they are on duty but have a sudden bowel movement. Since science is well developed today, it’s probably we can expect science to help solving these bowel issues. Other interesting ideas include integrating the device with a public toilet finder app or AirPnP.

The team won the Tokyo preliminary for the Pioneers Festival conference last month, and they will appear at Pioneers’ pitch competition finals in May in Vienna, Austria.

Edited by Kurt Hanson

Bowel movement notifier D Free wins Tokyo pitch event, moves on to Pioneers Festival in Vienna

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See the original story in Japanese. Pioneers Festival is a startup conference held annually in Vienna, Austria. The festival started in 2011, and the fifth edition will be held 28-29 May. A qualifier was held in Tokyo last weekend to select the Japanese delegation for the conference, where D Free, the team developing a bowel movement tracking device under the same name, won the top award. Let’s have a quick rundown on startups that had good results in the competition. Judges for the competition were: Nikola Pavesic, CEO of Justa.io Vickie Paradise Green, Founder of Paradigm / Chairman of the board at Run for the Cure® foundation Tadaaki Kimura, CEO of Addlight Shingo Potier de la Morandière, co-founder of Impact HUB Tokyo Tim Romero, former representative director of Engine Yard, K.K., Host of Disrupting Japan podcast Impact Hub Community Award winner: D Free D Free is a wearable device that predicts the timing of bowel movements. Using ultrasonic waves it predicts how much time a person has until the feces will stimulate the sacral bone, which triggers the urge to defecate. In this way, users will not have to rush to the bathroom as it will free them from worries…

pioneers-festival-tokyo-2015-winner-featuredimage
The D Free team wins Impact Hub Community Award.
Japan Airlines gives them complimentary mileages for covering their trip from Tokyo to Vienna.

See the original story in Japanese.

Pioneers Festival is a startup conference held annually in Vienna, Austria. The festival started in 2011, and the fifth edition will be held 28-29 May.

A qualifier was held in Tokyo last weekend to select the Japanese delegation for the conference, where D Free, the team developing a bowel movement tracking device under the same name, won the top award.

Let’s have a quick rundown on startups that had good results in the competition.

Judges for the competition were:

Impact Hub Community Award winner: D Free

pioneers-festival-tokyo-2015-dfree-1

D Free is a wearable device that predicts the timing of bowel movements. Using ultrasonic waves it predicts how much time a person has until the feces will stimulate the sacral bone, which triggers the urge to defecate. In this way, users will not have to rush to the bathroom as it will free them from worries about the risk of fecal incontinence. It will help non-handicapped persons, as well as Parkinson’s disease patients, the physically challenged, and the elderly, who might be hard to make it to the bath room and forced to wear a diaper, helping them get back their human dignity.

The device’s learning feature complements individual differences and improves accuracy. They will start marketing to self operators in early 2016, followed by nursing care homes and hospitals in third quarter 2016.

pioneers-festival-tokyo-2015-dfree-2

2nd place award winner: Mister Suite

pioneers-festival-tokyo-2015-mister-suite-1

Mister Suite is an outsourcing service for small inn owners and hosts of short-term lodging facilities such as AirBnB. Instead of these hosts and owners, Mister Suite provides a variety of services such as guest relations, handing keys to guests, and room cleaning. In the year of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, while 20 million foreign visitors are expected to come to Tokyo, available hotel rooms are increasing at a pace of 1,800 rooms every year so lodging facilities for 3.7 million visitors will be lacking annually. On the other hand, the vacancy rate of residences in Tokyo is as high as 17%, so the Mister Suite team wants to these vacant rooms to be used as lodging facilities.

Their online booking system integrates with a dispatching system of room cleaners, and it will show when a room is available for a new guest after a guest leaves. The company wants to expand to small hotels, Japanese inns, hot spring inns, and other sharing economy businesses.

pioneers-festival-tokyo-2015-mister-suite-2

3rd place award winner: Wovn.io

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Wovn.io instantly turns a website into a multilingual environment only by adding a single Javascript code to the website source. There are three billion internet users in the world, but 70% are non-English speakers. So Wovn.io helps websites reach out to these non-English speaking users.

Since its launch nine months ago, the service has translated 120,000 web pages for users. Website owners can choose from machine translation and human translation, and the former uses Google Translate while the latter relies on crowdsourced translation service Gengo. They are working on the next update that will allow users to easily integrate into major content management systems such as WordPress and Drupal.

See also:

The following startups did not win but gave interesting pitches.

Tamecco

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Tamecco is a platform that applies Amazon.com’s recommendation user experience to the face-to-face shopping scene. Using an artificial intelligence-based mobile app to collect consumer behavior data, the platform allows store owners to recommend items at storefronts and distribute rewards, such as discount coupons, to potential customers on what they like or where they are.

Tamecco targets franchises of beauty salons, massage shops, ramen restaurants, and other retail businesses. The platform has been installed at selected outlets of Yoshinoya restaurants, a standing sushi bar chain, and Re.Ra.Ku massage places. Unlike typical iBeacon-based technologies that cannot serve Android users, Tamecco perfectly captures iPhone users as well as Android users. It is easy to use so that even the elderly, who are less familiar with mobile apps, can take advantage of it.

See also:

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Jandi

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Jandi is a cloud-based communication platform for enterprise use. Slack is popular in this space, but the Jandi team claims that Slack does not always meet the demand from business in Asia as it was developed in Western countries. With offices in Tokyo, Taipei, and Seoul, the Jandi team wants to differentiate itself from other communication platforms.

In November, the company fundraised $2 million from Softbank Ventures Korea, China’s Cherubic Ventures, and Korea’s Ticket Monster CEO Hyun-sung Shin.

Paygate

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Paygate has developed a credit card payment system. Using a strategy that differentiates itself from similar payments platforms like Square or Coiney, Paygate targets the payment needs of big retail companies, which tend to require higher system reliability and security, providing devices accepting IC chip-embedded credit cards. The company provides payment SDKs (software development kits) in compliance with the PCI-DSS certification, which allows developers to easily develop apps with payments functions without applying for certification.

See also:

FlashTouch

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Typical NFC-based authentication systems or payments systems require users to have a smartphone with a higher operation system version and a mobile app for each of the systems. FlashTouch uses a mobile web browser and delivers a user’s authenticity via light flashing patterns from his or her mobile screen to a light-signal receiving device, which are typically located at storefronts so that it enables mobile payments, identification, smart key authentication, and other purposes. Based on the patent-approved technology, the company provides the solution for $20 per ID (required on every receiving device) every month.

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Odigo

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Odigo is a trip planning and experience sharing platform for foreign visitors to Japan, where local photographers and authors introduce hidden attractions, destinations, and sightseeing spots. The company plans to monetize receiving budget from local governments for their tourism promotion.

Zest

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Zest has developed an auto dispatch and scheduling system for staffers in various industries, and is currently validating its usability in the building inspection industry. The service is available for one-tenth the cost of similar products, and users only have to pay $100,000 for installation and $2,000 for monthly usage. Zest plans to set up an office in Singapore to expand into the Asian market.

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Swingnow

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Swingnow is a platform that aims to streamline messaging, calendar management, and contact management. It consists of three mobile apps – Swingmail, Swingcal, and Swingbooks – all available on the iTunes AppStore in English-speaking and Nordic countries, but only Swingmail has been launched in Japan.


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A presenter doing Q&As with judges
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Pioneers Festival founder Andreas Tschas (right), Pioneers Tokyo qualifier organizer Andre Casaclang (left)

Edited by Kurt Hanson
Proofread by “Tex” Pomeroy