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Japan’s CDN startup Mist Technologies raises from Global Brain for global expansion

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Mist Technologies, a startup that has been developing and providing a CDN (content distribution network) platform for rich media content, called MistCDN, announced earlier this week that it has fundraised an undisclosed sum from KDDI Open Innovation Fund, a startup-focused fund operated by Tokyo-based investment firm Global Brain. This round follows the startup’s previous funding of 75 million yen ($636,000) from Sirius Partners back in September 2014. MistCDN is a content distribution network leveraging the WebRTC technology, which requires no server but enables peer-to-peer data transfer using only web browsers between users, technically similar to the concept adopted by Skype. MistCDN allows users to receive content distribution from their near users in network topology. So if you distribute rich media content, which are likely to cause a heavy load for networks, MistCDN enables smooth data traffic without using existing commercial CDN services such as Akamai, Amazon CloudFront, and Livelight. Mist Technologies was born out of the 6th batch of KDDI Mugen Labo, the accelerator program by Japan’s second largest telco. Tokyo-based private broadcaster TV Asahi, one of the companies participating in an alliance program for the accelerator, is considering to adopt MistCDN, plus…

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See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Mist Technologies, a startup that has been developing and providing a CDN (content distribution network) platform for rich media content, called MistCDN, announced earlier this week that it has fundraised an undisclosed sum from KDDI Open Innovation Fund, a startup-focused fund operated by Tokyo-based investment firm Global Brain. This round follows the startup’s previous funding of 75 million yen ($636,000) from Sirius Partners back in September 2014.

MistCDN is a content distribution network leveraging the WebRTC technology, which requires no server but enables peer-to-peer data transfer using only web browsers between users, technically similar to the concept adopted by Skype. MistCDN allows users to receive content distribution from their near users in network topology. So if you distribute rich media content, which are likely to cause a heavy load for networks, MistCDN enables smooth data traffic without using existing commercial CDN services such as Akamai, Amazon CloudFront, and Livelight.

Mist Technologies was born out of the 6th batch of KDDI Mugen Labo, the accelerator program by Japan’s second largest telco. Tokyo-based private broadcaster TV Asahi, one of the companies participating in an alliance program for the accelerator, is considering to adopt MistCDN, plus KDDI has decided to deploy it into one of their corporate clients.

Mist Technologies will use the funds to strengthen product and business development and expand to the US.

WebRTC enables a stable data distribution regardless of increasing or decreasing browsing users. Because of the unnecessity of server scale-out, it is an ideal solution for startups, especially for those who provide services requiring huge network traffic but cannot afford to invest much on relevant infrastructure. However, the WebRTC technology requires a wide range of engineering knowledge across multiple layers, so not many Japanese startups have developed a business based on it.

NTT Communications unveiled a platform for developing apps using WebRTC in 2014, called SkyWay. Other available examples leveraging the technology by Japanese startups include Sensei Note, a vertical social network platform for schoolteachers.

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Mist Technologies’ CEO Shintaro Tanaka throws a pitch at KDDI Mugen Labo demo day. (Tokyo, July 2014)

Edited by Kurt Hanson

Japan’s handmade item marketplace Creema fundraises $1 million from KDDI

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Tokyo-based Creema, the startup behind the C2C marketplace for handmade items, announced today that it has raised 100 million yen (about $1 million) from KDDI Open Innovation Fund. The company plans to use the funds for system development efforts to give users better experience. In this space, we’ve seen many startups like Etsy (US), Creatty (Japan), and Pinkoi (Taiwan). But Creema is one of the oldest companies among them. Since its launch back in June of 2010, the company has acquired 18,000 creators and they have submitted over 500,000 items on the platform. Their founder and CEO Kotaro Marubayashi explained why they have grown their platform business spending a long time: I think this kind of websites usually takes time to make users understand what’s interesting. That’s why we’ve been carefully developing this community. What makes us unique from other similar services is that most of our creators are making a living by selling their items here. Their items are completely different from what people create as their hobby in their spare time. In order to gain people’s awareness for handmade products, the company holds an exhibition called ‘HandMade in Japan Fes‘ every year as well as has a real…

creema_featuredimage

Tokyo-based Creema, the startup behind the C2C marketplace for handmade items, announced today that it has raised 100 million yen (about $1 million) from KDDI Open Innovation Fund. The company plans to use the funds for system development efforts to give users better experience.

In this space, we’ve seen many startups like Etsy (US), Creatty (Japan), and Pinkoi (Taiwan). But Creema is one of the oldest companies among them. Since its launch back in June of 2010, the company has acquired 18,000 creators and they have submitted over 500,000 items on the platform.

Their founder and CEO Kotaro Marubayashi explained why they have grown their platform business spending a long time:

I think this kind of websites usually takes time to make users understand what’s interesting. That’s why we’ve been carefully developing this community. What makes us unique from other similar services is that most of our creators are making a living by selling their items here. Their items are completely different from what people create as their hobby in their spare time.

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Creema’s flagship store in Shinjuku

In order to gain people’s awareness for handmade products, the company holds an exhibition called ‘HandMade in Japan Fes‘ every year as well as has a real flagship store in the Shinjuku Lumine department store. As a result of these efforts, they have surpassed 15 million monthly page views, and the amount of transactions through their platform grows at a pace of 400% every year. Some creators earn more than $10,000 a month despite the fact that most of items are one-off originals.

Coinciding the funding, the company drives user traffic from Au Smart Pass, the unlimited app download service by KDDI, planning to add several payment methods for KDDI’s smartphone subscribers. Marubayashi added:

We’ve been developing our service diligently and steadily. We have a good revenue stream but we can try out something new using the money raised this time. But we’re not interested in increasing page views using ads. We believe there’s a huge potential in the manufacturing culture. We’ll focus on improving our system infrastructure to better serve our users.

In view of the Japanese C2C market, this handmade item market can create new values while second-hand platforms are saturated with mobile apps like Mercari and Fril. Since Japanese manufactured items are favorably rated among foreign consumers, we can expect this marketplace to meet demands from outside the country as well.

Japanese premium outlet site Luxa raises $3.3 million from KDDI

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Tokyo-based Luxa, the startup running a members-only discount e-commerce platform, has announced today that it has raised 330 million yen ($3.3 million) from KDDI Open Innovation Fund, the fund operated by Japanese telco KDDI. Prior to this funding, the company raised a total of investment worth over $10 million from Japanese investment company Jafco. Coinciding with these new funds, Luxa plans to provide limited-offer discounts to mobile subscribers via au SmartPass, the telco’s flat-rate app subscription program. Since its initial launch back in August of 2010, the website has acquired over 450,000 members, mostly people in their 30s and 40s. Their products are wide-ranging, with a heavy slant towards cosmetics and appliances. The company claims that its smartphone access ratio has risen from 8% to 35%, which indicates a rapid transition of users from desktop to mobile both in revenue and traffic [1]. With this new partnership with KDDI, the startup expects to boost its user base to 4.5 million by the end of 2016. KDDI also revealed that it has invested in iRidge, the startup behind an O2O (online-to-offline) solution using mobile geolocation and notification features. The investment sum was undisclosed. This year, the telco has invested in several…

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Tokyo-based Luxa, the startup running a members-only discount e-commerce platform, has announced today that it has raised 330 million yen ($3.3 million) from KDDI Open Innovation Fund, the fund operated by Japanese telco KDDI. Prior to this funding, the company raised a total of investment worth over $10 million from Japanese investment company Jafco. Coinciding with these new funds, Luxa plans to provide limited-offer discounts to mobile subscribers via au SmartPass, the telco’s flat-rate app subscription program.

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Luxa’s storefront for KDDI mobile subscribers only

Since its initial launch back in August of 2010, the website has acquired over 450,000 members, mostly people in their 30s and 40s. Their products are wide-ranging, with a heavy slant towards cosmetics and appliances.

The company claims that its smartphone access ratio has risen from 8% to 35%, which indicates a rapid transition of users from desktop to mobile both in revenue and traffic [1]. With this new partnership with KDDI, the startup expects to boost its user base to 4.5 million by the end of 2016.

KDDI also revealed that it has invested in iRidge, the startup behind an O2O (online-to-offline) solution using mobile geolocation and notification features. The investment sum was undisclosed.

This year, the telco has invested in several other e-commerce startups, including Origami and Monoco. This indicates how the company plans to leverage its huge user base, developing an entirely new revenue stream, making it more than a conventional dumb pipe business.


  1. From January of 2012 to September of 2013.

Japanese lifehack sharing site Nanapi raises $2.7 million

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Nanapi is a popular Japanese site where users can share their favorite lifehacks. The company announced today it has raised 270 million yen (approximately $2.7 million) from KDDI’s Open Innovation Fund [1]. and Globis Capital Partners. This follows a previous round of funding worth 330 million yen from Globis Capital Partners. The startup was founded back in 2007 by former Recruit staffer Kensuke Furukawa and former Rakuten engineer Shuichi Wada. The pair and their colleagues launched the lifehack sharing site back in 2009, and have acquired more than 12 million users to date. Users exchange practical how-tos and daily tips, such as how to better cut vegetables, how to better clean up toilets, or how to wash your neckties in the washing machine. A partnership with Japan’s leading web portal Yahoo Japan came in 2012, and subsequently startup has pulled lots traffic from there, accounting for 10% to 20% of its 60 million monthly page views. With these new funds, the startup plans to intensify development, especially for smartphone users. KDDI Open Innovation Fund is jointly managed by Japan’s second largest telco KDDI and VC firm Global Brain. ↩

nanapi_logoNanapi is a popular Japanese site where users can share their favorite lifehacks. The company announced today it has raised 270 million yen (approximately $2.7 million) from KDDI’s Open Innovation Fund [1]. and Globis Capital Partners. This follows a previous round of funding worth 330 million yen from Globis Capital Partners.

The startup was founded back in 2007 by former Recruit staffer Kensuke Furukawa and former Rakuten engineer Shuichi Wada. The pair and their colleagues launched the lifehack sharing site back in 2009, and have acquired more than 12 million users to date. Users exchange practical how-tos and daily tips, such as how to better cut vegetables, how to better clean up toilets, or how to wash your neckties in the washing machine. A partnership with Japan’s leading web portal Yahoo Japan came in 2012, and subsequently startup has pulled lots traffic from there, accounting for 10% to 20% of its 60 million monthly page views.

With these new funds, the startup plans to intensify development, especially for smartphone users.

nanapi_screenshot


  1. KDDI Open Innovation Fund is jointly managed by Japan’s second largest telco KDDI and VC firm Global Brain. ↩