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Japan, Thai startups unite to support younger selves; Inaugural meeting held with ministers

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This is a guest post authored by Bangkok-based Japanese entrepreneur Kazuki Kamiya. This article was first appeared in Japanese on Bsearch News but translated and edited by The Bridge for republication. Since 2014, he has been running a startup called HubAsia in Thailand for offering crowdsourced translation and interpretation services. In June of 2016 he released Thai-focused Japanese-language business portal site BSearch. Additionally, all photos in this article were taken by photographer Fumi Tanaka aka Bunshow. On Friday, a group of Japanese and Thai startups responsible for generating new industries, along with their respective governments, established the Japan-Thailand Innovation Support Network (hereafter referred to as JTIS) in order to promote cooperation between startups and larger companies. 10 startups from each country participated along with more than twenty big names including Toyota Motor Thailand and Thailand’s largest supplier of raw materials, Siam Cement Group (SCG). The government of Thailand has been supporting startups as an essential means of economic growth by hosting events throughout the country and creating a fund of several billion baht (tens of millions US dollars). In order to reach the objectives for both countries, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) and the Japanese Embassy…

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Kazuki Kamiya

This is a guest post authored by Bangkok-based Japanese entrepreneur Kazuki Kamiya. This article was first appeared in Japanese on Bsearch News but translated and edited by The Bridge for republication.

Since 2014, he has been running a startup called HubAsia in Thailand for offering crowdsourced translation and interpretation services. In June of 2016 he released Thai-focused Japanese-language business portal site BSearch.

Additionally, all photos in this article were taken by photographer Fumi Tanaka aka Bunshow.


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On Friday, a group of Japanese and Thai startups responsible for generating new industries, along with their respective governments, established the Japan-Thailand Innovation Support Network (hereafter referred to as JTIS) in order to promote cooperation between startups and larger companies. 10 startups from each country participated along with more than twenty big names including Toyota Motor Thailand and Thailand’s largest supplier of raw materials, Siam Cement Group (SCG).

The government of Thailand has been supporting startups as an essential means of economic growth by hosting events throughout the country and creating a fund of several billion baht (tens of millions US dollars). In order to reach the objectives for both countries, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) and the Japanese Embassy in Thailand also recently held (August 31st) Embassy Pitch, a separate event that helps connect Thai startups with Japanese and Thai large corporations.

After attending Embassy Pitch, the Thai Minister of Science and Industry, Dr. Pichet Durongkaveroj shared his impressions on social media.

I’m with (Japanese) Ambassador Sadoshima in thinking that ‘innovation’ is what will drive the economic development of our country. We believe by connecting startups and big business Thailand will be able to continue its economic growth.

Dr. Durongkaveroj described the event as, “an event that should be admired” and reportedly rushed to be a part of the inaugural JTIS event on Friday.

JTIS is served by Omise’s CEO and founder Jun Hasegawa, who took the position of President, working on fostering an environment to aid the growth of Thai startups, and will continue to play a role in recommending the relaxation of regulations and the development of laws to the government.

See also:

On the same day, the Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Hiroshige Seko, Thailand’s Minister of Science and Industry Dr. Durongkaveroj, and Japanese Ambassador Sadoshima oversaw the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding with Thailand Tech Startup Association (TTSA), as well as entered into cooperation.

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In addition, prior to the signing ceremony Minister Seko had an opportunity to exchange opinions with Japanese entrepreneurs working in Thailand, with the entrepreneurs explaining the current state of the Thai startup scene to the minister. Participants were also able to make demands for deregulation and support measures.

The minister himself actively questioned the entrepreneurs, and conveyed that he recognizes it is in the national interest for the government to boost Japanese big business and startups abroad, encouraging them.

JTIS intends to prepare for the next Embassy Pitch event by strengthening their call for large companies and startups from both countries and recruiting broadly for interested parties.

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JTIS executives:

  • President: Jun Hasegawa (Omise)
  • Administration officers: Shinsuke Wakai (BuzzCommerce), Hiroyuki Okamoto (Withfluence)
  • Secretaries: Secretary-General Yojiro Koshi (TalentEx), Kazuki Kamiya (HubAsia)

JTIS secretaries:

  • Secretary-General: Yojiro Koshi (TalentEx)
  • Deputy secretary: Kazuki Kamiya (HubAsia)

Startup members:

Supporting companies and organizations:

  • Japanese companies: Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi Electric, Sharp, dmLab (Dentsu Media Laboratory), Panasonic, NTT Communications, Fuji Film, Mitsui & Co., Itochu, Sumitomo Corporation, Nomura Research Institute, ABeam Consulting, etc.
  • Thai companies: Siam Cement Group (SCG), ThaiBev, Saha Group, AIS, True, Singha Group, Amata Group, Charoen Pokphand Group, etc.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

GREE Ventures closes $50M fund to target Asian startups

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GREE Ventures has just announced the initial closing of its second fund. Dubbed the AT-I Investment Limited Partnership, this is a 5 billion yen fund (or about $50 million) which it will use to target tech startups in Japan and South East Asia, mostly series A stage companies at about 100 million yen to 300 million yen per company ($1 million to $3 million). Investors in the fund include GREE Inc, SME Support Japan, Credit Saison, Ateam Inc, and Mizuho Capital. The announcement notes that a second closing will likely come later this summer. GREE Ventures (PDF)

gree-ventures

GREE Ventures has just announced the initial closing of its second fund. Dubbed the AT-I Investment Limited Partnership, this is a 5 billion yen fund (or about $50 million) which it will use to target tech startups in Japan and South East Asia, mostly series A stage companies at about 100 million yen to 300 million yen per company ($1 million to $3 million).

Investors in the fund include GREE Inc, SME Support Japan, Credit Saison, Ateam Inc, and Mizuho Capital. The announcement notes that a second closing will likely come later this summer.

GREE Ventures (PDF)

Evernote’s success driven by Japanese market

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I’m late to the party on this one, but after Evernote hit 100 million users earlier this week (101 million to be specific), I was surprised to see that the Asia Pacific was the company’s biggest regional market, accounting for about 35 million of its users (see above). This prompted me to reflect on when Evernote CEO Phil Libin dropped the following numbers about their Japan users a year ago: About 20% of our users and 30% of our revenue comes from Japan. The Japanese aesthetic really influences us. We have said from the beginning that we want to make it a 100 year startup, and that was influenced by Japan. Japan understands this idea of long term thinking, and we hope to combine that with the best of Silicon Valley. It’s a nice sentiment, and it’s good to see they’ve paid so much attention to Japan. Assuming that those percentages haven’t changed much over the past year, Japan may very well be Evernote’s biggest national market (or at least second biggest) in terms of both users and revenue. Via Evernote Read about this in Japanese

evernote

I’m late to the party on this one, but after Evernote hit 100 million users earlier this week (101 million to be specific), I was surprised to see that the Asia Pacific was the company’s biggest regional market, accounting for about 35 million of its users (see above).

This prompted me to reflect on when Evernote CEO Phil Libin dropped the following numbers about their Japan users a year ago:

About 20% of our users and 30% of our revenue comes from Japan. The Japanese aesthetic really influences us. We have said from the beginning that we want to make it a 100 year startup, and that was influenced by Japan. Japan understands this idea of long term thinking, and we hope to combine that with the best of Silicon Valley.

It’s a nice sentiment, and it’s good to see they’ve paid so much attention to Japan. Assuming that those percentages haven’t changed much over the past year, Japan may very well be Evernote’s biggest national market (or at least second biggest) in terms of both users and revenue.

Via Evernote

Read about this in Japanese

9 Japanese robotics startups to watch in 2014

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As you may have read recently, Google has acquired seven robotics startups from the world, as the company looks ahead to new business opportunities. One of these startups is Tokyo-based Shaft, which won the DARPA robotics challenge trials back in December. Japan is an advanced country in this space, so I’d like to highlight a few of the important players in this sector. Read on to learn more! 1. Kiluck Kiluck has developed Rapiro, a humanoid robot compatible with the popular Raspberry Pi computer kit. The company succeeded in raising over $75,000 on Kickstarter last year, compared to its original target of $20,000. In partnership with fellow startups TeamLab and Yukai Engineering, they have developed the famous Necomimi device, a wearable pair of cat-ears that moves in accordance with your brainwave activity. 2. Extrun Since it launched back in 2009, Extrun has been in the system integration business. But they recently started developing a mobile camera called Ilbo, a device which keeps watch inside your home while you’re out. You will be able to control the device using an iOS app, and view what’s happening in your room through your mobile in real time. It will transmit a real-time image,…

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Skeletonics

As you may have read recently, Google has acquired seven robotics startups from the world, as the company looks ahead to new business opportunities. One of these startups is Tokyo-based Shaft, which won the DARPA robotics challenge trials back in December. Japan is an advanced country in this space, so I’d like to highlight a few of the important players in this sector. Read on to learn more!

1. Kiluck

Kiluck has developed Rapiro, a humanoid robot compatible with the popular Raspberry Pi computer kit. The company succeeded in raising over $75,000 on Kickstarter last year, compared to its original target of $20,000. In partnership with fellow startups TeamLab and Yukai Engineering, they have developed the famous Necomimi device, a wearable pair of cat-ears that moves in accordance with your brainwave activity.

2. Extrun

Since it launched back in 2009, Extrun has been in the system integration business. But they recently started developing a mobile camera called Ilbo, a device which keeps watch inside your home while you’re out. You will be able to control the device using an iOS app, and view what’s happening in your room through your mobile in real time. It will transmit a real-time image, but in the future they also plan to roll out additional features like remote controls for air conditioners and lights. They expected to introduce the product this spring for about $100.

3. Liferobotics

Liferobotics is a company that develops commercial products based on technologies from Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Science and Technology, or AIST. They’re developing robotic arm products that can be used in various manufacturing industries, or in assisting seniors or those with physically disabilities.

4. Orylab

Orylab is a hardware manufacturing company backed by Waseda University’s startup incubator. For people with mobility issues, their robot OriHime can be used as a sort of avatar, allowing you to watch and listen to what’s happening in a remote location. You can talk with remote individuals using a live video chat as well. It can carried anywhere as a sort of stand-in on your behalf.

In this way, you could go on picnic with your family virtually, or even attend a lecture virtually with your classmates.

orihime_photo

5. Mujin

Mujin was founded by robotics scientist Rosen Diankov and grew out of the University of Tokyo. His team has developed OpenRAVE, a motion planning software for real-world robotics applications, as well as Mujin Controller, software that allows you simulate various robotic motion patterns and optimize performance before you move to full-scale operation. The company raised 75 million yen (about $75,000) from the university’s venture fund in a series A funding back in 2012.

6. Yukai Engineering

Yukai Engineering was founded back in 2007 (and incorporated in 2011) by Teamlab’s co-founder Shunsuke Aoki. The startup is known to have introduced many interesting hardware devices like computing kit Konashi and smart baby camera Paby, and even helping Japanese smart glass startup Telepathy create their prototypes as well. Our readers may recall we interviewed Aoki back in November.

7. Doog

Doog was grew out of Tsukuba University, and has introduced a wheeled mobile robot (WMR) for purposes like advertising or baggage assistance. Some of their robots can follow you around wherever you go. The company wants to help people evolve their business and life further using robotics technology.

8. Asratec

Asratec was launched by Mitou [1] super-creator Wataru Yoshizaki back in 2009. He has been developing a humanoid robot called V-sido. The robot’s primary advantage is that it’s easy to control, even for non-technicians. For most types of humanoid robots, if you make an arm movement, it is likely to fall down if you don’t keep other body parts balanced. This robot’s software calculates how much he needs to stoop or stretch other body parts to maintain balance, so all you need to do is focus on the arm movement. A Softbank executive is leading the company as their president, and several news sources say the Japanese telco plans to launch artificial intelligence and humanoid robotics projects through them.

9. Skeletonics

Skeletonics was created by several Japanese college students who came together to win a robotics contest back in 2008. Their robot moves in sync with the user’s arms and legs, and works and looks like an armored suit, like that in the popular Japanese animation series Ghost in the Shell. It doesn’t use an electric motor-based servo-mechanism but rather mechanical linkage to reduce the robot’s weight as well as possible chances of technical difficulties. As the team recently won the top prize at the ‘Todai to Texas’ Demo Day, they are expected to exhibit their robots at SXSW 2014 taking place in Austin this coming March.


  1. Mitou is a bi-annual software engineering promotion program run by a governmental IT promotional agency in Japan. In 2009, Yoshizaki’s humanoid project was chosen as one of 18 innovative projects out of 124 applicants.  ↩

Best of 2013: Nohana finds opportunities printing photos from mobile

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As the year 2013 winds to a close, I thought I’d take a look back on some of the mobile apps and services that have really stood out. As a new parent, many of my favorite apps this year have been related to managing baby pictures. And here in Japan, Nohana is a must-have for any parent, letting them use pictures taken on their smartphones to create and print small photobooks, which are then delivered by mail. Users can order one free book per month, paying only a 90 yen shipping fee (or about $1). Additional books cost What’s perhaps most interesting about Nohana to me is how it can bridge the digital divide in families. It provides an option to send a second copy of your photo book to another address, which could be grandparents, or other relatives who might not be very adept with smartphone communication [1]. At the end of this year we saw Nohana roll out a Nengajo (or Japanese New Year’s card) creation app, representing another means of monetizing for the company. And I expect that it’s a far more lucrative stream than the regular Nohana photo service. Each new year card costs 88 yen,…

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As the year 2013 winds to a close, I thought I’d take a look back on some of the mobile apps and services that have really stood out. As a new parent, many of my favorite apps this year have been related to managing baby pictures. And here in Japan, Nohana is a must-have for any parent, letting them use pictures taken on their smartphones to create and print small photobooks, which are then delivered by mail. Users can order one free book per month, paying only a 90 yen shipping fee (or about $1). Additional books cost

What’s perhaps most interesting about Nohana to me is how it can bridge the digital divide in families. It provides an option to send a second copy of your photo book to another address, which could be grandparents, or other relatives who might not be very adept with smartphone communication [1].

At the end of this year we saw Nohana roll out a Nengajo (or Japanese New Year’s card) creation app, representing another means of monetizing for the company. And I expect that it’s a far more lucrative stream than the regular Nohana photo service. Each new year card costs 88 yen, with a minimum base fee of 1480 yen and then 525 yen for shipping.

It will be interesting to see if the company publishes other occasion specific apps in the coming year. I’m not sure if the folks at Nohana have any ambition to expand beyond Japan, but a Christmas card service would certainly come in handy in many countries.

In addition to Nohana, 2013 was a year that saw lots of fun photo apps emerge in Japan. This is proving to be an area of expertise for the country, with many startups innovating to compete for the country’s mobile photo market, and opportunities beyond.

nengajo-1 nengajo-2


  1. For me, I typically use an application called Notabli to share photos with my own parents.  ↩

Postach.io: Could this be the perfect blog platform for Japan?

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There are so many ways for people to start a blog these days. The recent trend of ‘static’ blog services like Scriptogr.am and Ghost are refreshing, because for a personal or casual blog, there really shouldn’t be any reason that you must have your own server running a database [1]. Dropbox lets is publish to the web, and a solution like Calepin (for example) can take advantage of that, serving your blog’s files from there. The idea behind Postach.io is similar. The brainchild of Vancouver-based Input Logic, it uses Evernote to post content to your blog, letting users choose between a number of wonderful design templates as well. The startup is off to a good start, having joined Evernote’s accelerator class having won the company’s Devcup this year. To date, I’m told there are 21,000 people blogging with Postachio so far. The big advantage for a service like this is that it enlists users by finding them on a platform they already use. They already live in Evernote, and can easily publish to Postachio just by adding a note with the tag ‘published’ to a specified Evernote notebook. Big in Japan About 20% of Evernote’s users (and about 30% of…

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There are so many ways for people to start a blog these days. The recent trend of ‘static’ blog services like Scriptogr.am and Ghost are refreshing, because for a personal or casual blog, there really shouldn’t be any reason that you must have your own server running a database [1]. Dropbox lets is publish to the web, and a solution like Calepin (for example) can take advantage of that, serving your blog’s files from there.

The idea behind Postach.io is similar. The brainchild of Vancouver-based Input Logic, it uses Evernote to post content to your blog, letting users choose between a number of wonderful design templates as well. The startup is off to a good start, having joined Evernote’s accelerator class having won the company’s Devcup this year. To date, I’m told there are 21,000 people blogging with Postachio so far.

The big advantage for a service like this is that it enlists users by finding them on a platform they already use. They already live in Evernote, and can easily publish to Postachio just by adding a note with the tag ‘published’ to a specified Evernote notebook.

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One of Postachio’s many themes, Apex

Big in Japan

Shawn pitches at demo day
Shawn pitches at demo day

About 20% of Evernote’s users (and about 30% of its revenue) come from Japan. Docomo, of course, was an early investor in Evernote [2], and has promoted Evernote Premium to its users. So the ties to Japan are already in place for Postachio to make this sort of overseas jump. So naturally, I was curious to see if the Postachio had any plans to push their blogging service in the country. Co-founder and designer Shawn Adrian explained a little their plans for the next year [3]:

We plan to internationalize, and a Japanese version is in the works. […] We’re going really dig in and improve our themes and the community around them. We’re also launching new social features to help users build their audience, and tools for pro bloggers and companies.

I understand the team has already met some representatives from Docomo Ventures in Silicon Valley, and I expect that whenever a localized version is ready, that it would be very well received here.

The team is also thinking to integrate other platforms too, letting people publish from just about anywhere. For me, I like the possibilities of publishing a Markdown note (Postachio does support Markdown) via Evernote’s publish-over-email function, sending from the mobile Drafts app on iOS.

Evernote's APAC GM Troy Malone users Postachio
Evernote’s APAC GM Troy Malone users Postachio

Static blogs are very trendy these days, but the degree of difficulty for many solutions like Jekyll or Pelican, or even the aforementioned Scriptogram, can be difficult for an average user to wrap their head around. Postachio, for someone who already understands Evernote, is very easy and accessible [4].

I got in touch with some Evernote reps here in Asia just to see how much this Postachio has caught on within the company. While I didn’t get any specific numbers I’m told that APAC general manager Troy Malone is a huge fan, running his own blog on Postachio. Even the Evernote South East Asia blog runs Postachio.

My colleagues here at The Bridge frequently share notes published to the web with Evernote. This interests me, since I myself tend to use Dropbox for that, and I wonder how many other Japanese users also prefer Evernote for web publishing. Perhaps I’m reading too much into a very small difference, but I think this sort of preference could bode well for Postachio.

To learn more about Postachio, check out their video demo below.


  1. Or at least, no reason to pay for a server.  ↩

  2. Or more specifically, Docomo Capital.  ↩

  3. The other co-founder (and coder) is Gavin Vickery, and the third member is programmer Brandon Brown.  ↩

  4. As for my own preference, I’m planning to switch over my personal site to Pelican from Drupal pretty soon. I’d happily use something like Postachio, but because I’m studying Python, I’m going to opt for Pelican. I should also take this opportunity to express how much I really despise WordPress. It started out well, but when the WYSIWYG started randomly injected span and div tags into my code, I decided I had had enough. We still use WordPress on this blog, but for me, it’s not without frequent curse words.  ↩

Cooliris courts photo-crazed Japan with new localization

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Occasionally the folks from Palo Alto-based Cooliris swing through Tokyo as part of efforts to promote their photo sharing service in Asia. Our readers may recall that we spoke with them back in March, when they were making good progress in China with an early partnerships with social service Renren. So I was curious to see how Cooliris has progressed since then, both in China and Japan, and in surrounding Asian regions. CEO Soujanya Bhumkar tells me that China has seen particularly solid growth, with a 30% increase in downloads in the last quarter making the Middle Kingdom their number two install base after the US. They’ve made significant localization efforts in China, now with Sina Weibo on board as a connected service. Users can browse Weibo photos using the slick Cooliris interface, diving deep to explore pictures from various users, as well as those from people they follow or are followed by. Tencent Weibo and Baidu Yun are now also supported Cooliris services, having been added over the past year. Interestingly, India has been a new growth market for them thanks to increased smartphone adoption there, now suddenly a top ten country for Cooliris. Japan, which previously was Cooliris’s…

Occasionally the folks from Palo Alto-based Cooliris swing through Tokyo as part of efforts to promote their photo sharing service in Asia. Our readers may recall that we spoke with them back in March, when they were making good progress in China with an early partnerships with social service Renren. So I was curious to see how Cooliris has progressed since then, both in China and Japan, and in surrounding Asian regions.

CEO Soujanya Bhumkar tells me that China has seen particularly solid growth, with a 30% increase in downloads in the last quarter making the Middle Kingdom their number two install base after the US. They’ve made significant localization efforts in China, now with Sina Weibo on board as a connected service. Users can browse Weibo photos using the slick Cooliris interface, diving deep to explore pictures from various users, as well as those from people they follow or are followed by. Tencent Weibo and Baidu Yun are now also supported Cooliris services, having been added over the past year.

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Japanese interface

Interestingly, India has been a new growth market for them thanks to increased smartphone adoption there, now suddenly a top ten country for Cooliris.

Japan, which previously was Cooliris’s second biggest market, still remains one of their top five markets. But with the latest update of the Cooliris iOS app, Japanese localization has been added. I understand that the company isn’t going to be making significant marketing efforts, but the localization at least makes it more accessible here. They’ll continue to try to serve Japanese users in later versions.

Considering that Cooliris now supports integration with so many social services, the missing puzzle piece for the company here in Japan is obviously Line. The team couldn’t tell me too much on this point, but obviously users here would definitely like to see such an integration. So Line users should keep their fingers crossed, and stay tuned [1].

The Cooliris app has a few other significant changes recently, as Soujanya and his VP of business development Sebastian Blum (he’s the guy in the video above) inform me that the app’s group function is now the number one driver of user acquisition and user retention. Groups could be as small as just two people sharing photos privately, or it could be many more. Groups can be based around certain activities like weddings, vacations, with discussion happening on Cooliris even before that event takes place.

As I was speaking with Soujanya, I happened to have Yammer open on my Mac, as that’s one of the collaborative tools that we use here at The Bridge. He pointed out to me that while there are many corporate collaborative tools like this, there are few collaborate options for consumers. People’s photo experience is typically fragmented across multiple service and multiple friends, and Cooliris gives people a chance to bring them together in one place.

In total they have seen over 3 billion photos brought into the Cooliris app, and over 1 billion photo engagements [2]. And for those who share photos in many different online places, it will continue to be a useful service. Whether it can pick up some more steam in photo-crazy Japan remains to be seen, but this new localization is an encouraging first step.

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  1. I confess, I used Cooliris for a while this year, but eventually drifted away from it. My mobile photo use is primarily restricted to Notabli, a family-focused photo app. I use Flickr as storage for pictures taken with my DSLR, but the majority of them are private. But I can see the potential of Cooliris for people more social than myself.  ↩

  2. I understand that an engagement is when you tap on a photo and view it in higher resolution.  ↩

Japan’s Netprice.com raises $7.7M from Digital Garage, intensifies ties for global business

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Japan-based internet giant Netprice.com (TSE:3328) recently announced that it has raised about 790 million yen (approximately $7.67 million) from fellow Japanese web conglomerate Digital Garage (TSE:4819). It will use the funds to intensify its efforts to discover new internet business opportunities in global markets. Both companies have been operating startup incubator Open Network Lab since 2010, and have also been working together on cultivating business opportunities in the Southeast Asian region, including co-investing in Indonesian payment processor Veritrans Indonesia back in 2012. Coinciding with this funding, the two companies intend to collaboratively discover more internet business opportunities in the US as well as emerging markets. Digital Garage purchased a multi-storey building in the heart of San Francisco last month, where it has set up an incubation space called DG717. To commemorate this, the city’s mayor Edwin Lee has declared November 5th as Digital Garage Day in San Francisco. Netprice.com is expected to make the use of the location to gain accessibility to high potential startups and other opportunities in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our readers may also recall that Netprice.com has established its own incubation program, Beenos, which is separate from the aforementioned Open Network Lab initiative.

netprice.com-and-digitalgarage

Japan-based internet giant Netprice.com (TSE:3328) recently announced that it has raised about 790 million yen (approximately $7.67 million) from fellow Japanese web conglomerate Digital Garage (TSE:4819). It will use the funds to intensify its efforts to discover new internet business opportunities in global markets.

Both companies have been operating startup incubator Open Network Lab since 2010, and have also been working together on cultivating business opportunities in the Southeast Asian region, including co-investing in Indonesian payment processor Veritrans Indonesia back in 2012. Coinciding with this funding, the two companies intend to collaboratively discover more internet business opportunities in the US as well as emerging markets.

Digital Garage purchased a multi-storey building in the heart of San Francisco last month, where it has set up an incubation space called DG717. To commemorate this, the city’s mayor Edwin Lee has declared November 5th as Digital Garage Day in San Francisco. Netprice.com is expected to make the use of the location to gain accessibility to high potential startups and other opportunities in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Our readers may also recall that Netprice.com has established its own incubation program, Beenos, which is separate from the aforementioned Open Network Lab initiative.

Ietty fundraises $500,000, aiming to disrupt Japanese home rental industry

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Based on our original story in Japanese. Ietty is a Japanese startup that provides an alternative to conventional househunting. The startup announced yesterday it has raised 50 million yen (approximately $500,000) from I Mercury Capital, the investment arm of Japanese social network Mixi [1]. Since its launch back in February of 2012, the company has been developing its service in stealth mode. But it seems that, coinciding with these new funds raised, they are turning up at many showcasing opportunities like Graph Hack Award 2013. Ietty, the platform that the startup provides under its company name, aims to solve problems for both homeseekers and property agents. When you use conventional home finder sites, you need to enter lots of criteria to find something to fit your preference. But Ietty uses your Facebook user profile, and agents propose some available options via the platform based on criteria you have entered in advance. Property agents will pay a commission to the platform on a performance basis, so they have no risk in signing up. The platform was launched back in June in beta, and has partnered with eight different agents to date. The startup’s CEO Taihei Ogawa explained what makes the platform…

iettyhouse

Based on our original story in Japanese.

Ietty is a Japanese startup that provides an alternative to conventional househunting. The startup announced yesterday it has raised 50 million yen (approximately $500,000) from I Mercury Capital, the investment arm of Japanese social network Mixi [1]. Since its launch back in February of 2012, the company has been developing its service in stealth mode. But it seems that, coinciding with these new funds raised, they are turning up at many showcasing opportunities like Graph Hack Award 2013.

Ietty, the platform that the startup provides under its company name, aims to solve problems for both homeseekers and property agents. When you use conventional home finder sites, you need to enter lots of criteria to find something to fit your preference. But Ietty uses your Facebook user profile, and agents propose some available options via the platform based on criteria you have entered in advance.

Property agents will pay a commission to the platform on a performance basis, so they have no risk in signing up. The platform was launched back in June in beta, and has partnered with eight different agents to date. The startup’s CEO Taihei Ogawa explained what makes the platform different from conventional services.

The property agent business connects homeseekers and landlords through a property. For users, even if you can find no property that fits your preference, we can help you connect to appropriate agents likely to introduce a good one for your search.

From an agent’s perspective, the more users the platform has, the more likely an agent is to close deals. For the users who receive no manual contact from agents, the platform has a recommendation engine that automatically proposes a set of available apartments based on your preference.

ietty-ogawa
Ietty founder/CEO Taihei Ogawa

Prior to launching the platform, the startup’s CEO Ogawa previously worked at Sumitomo Realty & Development, a well-established Japanese property agents. When he determined to launch a startup, he started studying about business models in the IT industry and participated in Incubate Camp, the program run by Japanese startup incubator Incubate Fund. Ogawa explains:

I’ve never seen any other industry where customer satisfaction so extremely low. That’s why this market is worth disrupting. By boosting our business, I believe the market can become more competitive and more transparent in how it presents information to consumers.

It will be interesting to see how this startup will might evolve such an old-fashioned industry, where consumers have been paying high incidental expenses for house relocation.


  1. The company’s name comes from the Japanese word for home ‘ie’, which they are apparenty turning into an adjective somehow.

Japanese personal finance app Moneytree raises $1.5 million

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Moneytree, a startup that provides a personal finance app, announced yesterday it that has raised 150 million yen ($1.5 million) from DG Incubation and other investors [1]. Users can register back accounts and credit accounts, and the app lets you aggregate up-to-date balances and expenses, browsing them in a single view. The app was launched back in April and quickly reached 130,000 downloads by August. Coinciding with the funding, the company also announced that it has surpassed 200,000 downloads. Looking at similar apps such as ReceReco and Zaim which both recently passes 1 million downloads, the Moneytree app still has much room to grow. With the funds raised this time around, the company is planning to integrate with more banks or financial institutions so that their users will be also able to use the app to check their balances. Upcoming plans also include adding new features, introducing a desktop and iPad version, and developing a new platform. We will follow up with an interview to hear more about what they have planned, so stay tuned. DG Incubation is the incubation arm of Japanese web conglomerate Digital Garage.↩

moneytreee

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Moneytree, a startup that provides a personal finance app, announced yesterday it that has raised 150 million yen ($1.5 million) from DG Incubation and other investors [1].

Users can register back accounts and credit accounts, and the app lets you aggregate up-to-date balances and expenses, browsing them in a single view. The app was launched back in April and quickly reached 130,000 downloads by August. Coinciding with the funding, the company also announced that it has surpassed 200,000 downloads. Looking at similar apps such as ReceReco and Zaim which both recently passes 1 million downloads, the Moneytree app still has much room to grow.

With the funds raised this time around, the company is planning to integrate with more banks or financial institutions so that their users will be also able to use the app to check their balances. Upcoming plans also include adding new features, introducing a desktop and iPad version, and developing a new platform.

We will follow up with an interview to hear more about what they have planned, so stay tuned.

moneytree-spending-group-1


  1. DG Incubation is the incubation arm of Japanese web conglomerate Digital Garage.