See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based A.L.I. Technologies (formerly known as Aerial Lab Industries) gave the press a demonstration of the prototype of its hoverbike named Speeder today. This was the first tine to show the hoverbike capable of flying with a person while the company showcased a mock-up of it at press conference announcing the establishment of Drone Fund’s No.2 fund last year. Since the company thinks that it requires some time to realize a manned drone due to undeveloped legal system, it first aims the practical application of a hoverbike that can run on public roads floating in the air. They are currently in negotiation with tjhe Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and the National Police Agency about the possible permission to ride a hoverbike with both a medium-sized motorcycle license and a drone license. The company also expects to ask purchasers of Speeder to get a lecture or training in advance at an authorized drone school for the consideration of safety. In the demonstration, they showed the hoverbike’s various functions working properly: altitude control by ultrasonic sensor, auto-attitude control by IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit), buoyancy control by duct effect / ground effect as…
Tokyo-based A.L.I. Technologies (formerly known as Aerial Lab Industries) gave the press a demonstration of the prototype of its hoverbike named Speeder today. This was the first tine to show the hoverbike capable of flying with a person while the company showcased a mock-up of it at press conference announcing the establishment of Drone Fund’s No.2 fund last year.
Since the company thinks that it requires some time to realize a manned drone due to undeveloped legal system, it first aims the practical application of a hoverbike that can run on public roads floating in the air. They are currently in negotiation with tjhe Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and the National Police Agency about the possible permission to ride a hoverbike with both a medium-sized motorcycle license and a drone license. The company also expects to ask purchasers of Speeder to get a lecture or training in advance at an authorized drone school for the consideration of safety.
Speeder, A.L.I.Technologies’ hoverbike under development Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
In the demonstration, they showed the hoverbike’s various functions working properly: altitude control by ultrasonic sensor, auto-attitude control by IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit), buoyancy control by duct effect / ground effect as well as braking system. This prototype mounts a generic but customized engine but the detailed specification including how much power output it has was not disclosed.
A.L.I. Technologies starts taking orders for Limited Edition of Speeder Standard Model (only 100 will be sold) in early May while the finished product will be delivered in the first half of 2021. The expected price is $80,000 to $120,000. No down payment of deposit is needed but the firm plans to conduct pre-purchase examination for purchasers including license possession status in order to prevent the abuse of the product.
A.L.I. Technologies also plans to produce Speeder Sports Model targeting high-end users (the expected price is $300,000 to $500,000), although the production volume is still to be fixed. As for the mass production type of Speeder following Limited Edition, it will work using electric motors without gasoline engine and propeller but the company has not disclosed about how they will make it float in the air. In the demonstration event, Shuhei Komatsu (Chirman, A.L.I. Technologies), Kotaro Chiba (General Partner, Drone Fund / Managing Director & Investor, A.L.I. Technologies ) and Soichiro Imaeda (member of the House of Representatives, Diet Members Caucus supporting Drone Business) celebrated the hoverbike has stepped into the new development phase.
L to R: Kotaro Chiba (General Partner, Drone Fund / Managing Director, A.L.I. Technologies), Soichiro Imaeda (Member of the House of Representatives, Japan / Executive Director, Diet Members Caucus supporting Drone Business), Shuhei Komatsu (Chairman, A.L.I. Technologies) and Daisuke Kataoka (CEO, A.L.I. Technologies) Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Japan’s Drone Fund, the fund led by the Japanese angel investor Kotaro Chiba focusing on investment into drone startups, last month announced the establishment of its second fund. The second fund will be offered from 1st of August and be closed on 30th of this September. The fund is seen reaching 3 billion yen (about $27 million) to 5 billion (about $45 million) at the highest, with oversubscription twice the size of their first fund. They offered the first fund expecting 1 billion yen and fully closed for 1.6 billion yen this February. The Drone Fund has already invested in 20 companies (19 domestic companies and U.S.-based Sabrewing). The anchor investors of the second fund include anew Mizuho Bank, KDDI, the founding family of Mabuchi Motor, footballer Keisuke Honda as KSK Angel Fund and Sega Sammy Group, along with first fund investors such as Canal Ventures (VC arm of Japanese leading system integration company Nihon Unisys), FFG Venture Business Partners (the Bank of Fukuoka’s venture capital), Mistletoe, Aucfan, Japan Asia Group and Leave a Nest that are continuing to take part in the second fund. See also: Drone Law Japan During the press conference held…
For the press conference at Ryugasaki Airport in Ibaraki, a drone demonstration flight was given, having obtained permission from the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Japan’s Drone Fund, the fund led by the Japanese angel investor Kotaro Chiba focusing on investment into drone startups, last month announced the establishment of its second fund. The second fund will be offered from 1st of August and be closed on 30th of this September. The fund is seen reaching 3 billion yen (about $27 million) to 5 billion (about $45 million) at the highest, with oversubscription twice the size of their first fund. They offered the first fund expecting 1 billion yen and fully closed for 1.6 billion yen this February. The Drone Fund has already invested in 20 companies (19 domestic companies and U.S.-based Sabrewing).
The anchor investors of the second fund include anew Mizuho Bank, KDDI, the founding family of Mabuchi Motor, footballer Keisuke Honda as KSK Angel Fund and Sega Sammy Group, along with first fund investors such as Canal Ventures (VC arm of Japanese leading system integration company Nihon Unisys), FFG Venture Business Partners (the Bank of Fukuoka’s venture capital), Mistletoe, Aucfan, Japan Asia Group and Leave a Nest that are continuing to take part in the second fund.
Japanese soccer star Keisuke Honda (left) shakes hands with and Kotaro Chiba (right), the founder of Drone Fund Image credit: Drone Fund
During the press conference held at Ryugasaki Airport in Ibaraki, Chiba explained the purpose of the second fund as focusing on investment in ‘creation of drone-based society’ and ‘preparation for air-mobility society’. Additionally, its official character Misora Kanata was introduced, aiming to improve awareness of drone and air-mobility society. This character, with the personality of a high school girl living in Tokyo’s Sumida Ward in 2022 was designed by Japanese designer Yamakitakumi.
Misora Kanata, Image character of Drone Fund Image credit: Drone Fund
After the press conference, demonstrations of the first fund’s investment targets were offered: Speeder-One, the hoverbike runnable on public roads as developed by Aerial Lab Industries and ACSL-PF1, industrial drone platform developed by ACSL. In addition, Chiba’s own light aircraft PA-28 Cherokee as his training plane was shown. The illustration of Misora Kanata is drawn on its main wings and main body.
Yukino Moroe, fashion model riding on mock-up of hoverbike Speeder-One Image credit: Masaru IkedaKeisuke Honda’s signature on head of mock-up of hoverbike Speeder-One Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Yoshihide Suga, the Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary, recently announced that the Japanese government will formulate a progression schedule of air-mobility development and promote entry of new drone-related players.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Kamakura Investment Management along with Japanese renowned investor Kotaro Chiba announced DroneFund, an investment fund focused on investing in drone startups, at a press conference held in Tokyo on Tuesday. June 1st marks the date of establishment of the fund on a scale of 1 billion yen (about $9 million US). There are six board members including Chiba and a number of drone experts; Yoshichika Sakamoto of ORSO, Motoaki Nishiwaki of Microsoft, Souki Oomae of Creative Hope, Daisuke Imai of Asratec, Shintaro Takahashi — special lecturer for Keio University’s Department of Media Studies, and Kazuhiro Obara — former executive director at Rakuten and former senior manager at Google Japan. At the time of establishment they are set to fund 11 drone startups: Drone Japan, Clue, Drone Department, iRobotics, Dron ë motion, Aerial Lab, Orone Iplab, Yodayoda.Inc, Kamomeya, FPV Robotics Inc., and Aeronext. Chiba had the following to say with regards to the circumstances behind the creation of DroneFund. I believe that from now drones will become an integral part of society. But, it will require the investment of risk money, internet based management methods, and the collaboration and production of good technology. The plan…
Kotaro Chiba, the man behind DroneFund, which is set to take the drone world by storm
Kamakura Investment Management along with Japanese renowned investor Kotaro Chiba announced DroneFund, an investment fund focused on investing in drone startups, at a press conference held in Tokyo on Tuesday. June 1st marks the date of establishment of the fund on a scale of 1 billion yen (about $9 million US).
There are six board members including Chiba and a number of drone experts; Yoshichika Sakamoto of ORSO, Motoaki Nishiwaki of Microsoft, Souki Oomae of Creative Hope, Daisuke Imai of Asratec, Shintaro Takahashi — special lecturer for Keio University’s Department of Media Studies, and Kazuhiro Obara — former executive director at Rakuten and former senior manager at Google Japan.
Board Members of DroneFund
At the time of establishment they are set to fund 11 drone startups: Drone Japan, Clue, Drone Department, iRobotics, Dron ë motion, Aerial Lab, Orone Iplab, Yodayoda.Inc, Kamomeya, FPV Robotics Inc., and Aeronext.
Drone startups funded by DroneFund
Chiba had the following to say with regards to the circumstances behind the creation of DroneFund.
I believe that from now drones will become an integral part of society. But, it will require the investment of risk money, internet based management methods, and the collaboration and production of good technology.
The plan is to clear these hurdles with the fund and disseminate Japanese drone technologies and services to the world.
Also, through a business collaboration with R&D company Leave A Nest, of which every member has a PhD., they will utilize a network of 3,500 small factories and university researched development technology. The company has already carried out a project to research and develop a manned hover bike (think flying motorcycle).
In terms of the technology related to drones developed through research, DroneFund revealed their plan to acquire patents through cooperation with the intellectual property management institution initiative Drone IP Lab, whose investment/establishment was also announced during this press conference.
According to Chiba, we can think of the fund as a kind of “Japanese Drone Co., LTD.”
In our image it will balance investment in all four layers: the development of core technologies, service offerings, software apps, and the hardware encasement to create one large company.
In his explanation, the drone market will reach about 140 billion yen (around $1.3 billion US) by 2022, and a 900% growth is expected, but Japan is lagging. Following these market backgrounds, the fund aims to increase the number of drone startups that can compete around the world by cooperating with them in terms of both hardware and software, and by promoting alliances with enterprises in Japan.
11 funded startups are as follows:
Dron ë motion: Offering an aerial shooting package for regional revitalization
iRobotics: Large-scale system integrator using 24-hour flying drones
Drone IP Lab: A company for special patent co-filing for drones
Yodayoda: Developing a location detecting technology without using global positioning system (GPS)
The following are summaries of three out of the companies that struck me the most.
Drone Japan: Agricultural remote sensing for rice
Aigamo: the drone for managing water quality (under development)
Drone Japan develops agricultural remote sensing specialized in rice. They are promoting using drones to produce rice.
The company aims for an IT conversion of the agricultural field, and creates a system that uses drones to carry out agricultural production all the way through to its promotion. As opposed to on-site management, the company manages water quality and the conditions of rice growth through data collected by drones, and then implements work such as the application of fertilizer. They also record the growth of the rice and take pictures of the farmer who produced it and include this information through the QR code attached on the package to increase PR.
The founder and CEO Kiichiro Katsumata aims to use drones as the opening to deliver Japanese rice to the world.
Aerial Lab develops a flying bike. The prototype made an appearance during the press conference.
It has a length of 4.3m and a breadth of 1.5 m. It is 1m tall and has a dry weight of 55kg. It can hold a maximum weight of 100kg. It is powered by a 2-stroke gasoline engine and is propelled through the air by a fan.
Although a projected date of sale and price are undecided as the project is under development, a future where people can fly in the sky by motorcycle may be close at hand.
Kamomeya: Land, sea, and sky drones for remote islands; comprehensive control system development
Kamomeya is a drone startup hailing from Japan’s western city of Takamatsu, Kagawa. They are developing a delivery system for remote islands using drones.
The company aims to provide transport services by drone for remote islands that it takes time to deliver goods to. They are creating a system capable of transporting parcels by unmanned transport ships, unmanned aerial vehicles, and unmanned transportation vehicles which are controlled by an integrated control system called Kazamidori. After asking the company, it appears they can currently transport one package of oranges.
At the time of the demonstration in the spring of 2017, their future development is underway with the goal to deliver medicines to remote islands combined with remote medical treatment.
At the press conference Chiba remarked, “Market development is expected in the areas of agriculture, inspection, and surveying.” With the establishment of DroneFund, I look forward to seeing what services will be provided and what their impact on the market will be in the future.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
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