Recruit Technologies

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Recruit Technologies brings five Berlin startups to pitch in Tokyo

Masaru Ikeda 2014.05.31

Recruit Technologies, the IT company operating under Japanese human resources company Recruit Holdings, held an event called Berlin Innovation Meetup in Tokyo this week. Several entrepreneurs from Berlin presented about services they are developing and related aspects of their own startup scene back in Germany. Berlin is one of the world’s major tech hub, and Recruit Technologies has started a collaboration project with the startup community there last year, sending its engineers to work together with startups in Berlin. Through this experience, those engineers can understand more about the entrepreneurial mindset, perhaps becoming more inventive and innovative themselves in the future. The presentation session started with Xyo’s CEO Zoe Adamovicz. Her startup has developed an app discovery platform which gives users a new way to find mobile apps they like. HeadWave CEO Sophie Willborm presented her helmet loudspeaker device, which lets users listen to music while motorbiking, cycling, skiing, or snowboarding [1]. Peter Bihr introduced his Berlin-based hardware accelerator Hardware.co and IoT-focused conference Thingscon. Kiwi.ki is a startup that has developed a keyless entry solution using a small dongle and a smartsphone. Currently Recruit Technologies’ developer Yugo Kuzuhara is collaboratively working with the team. New York-born Leah Stuhltrager introduced her…

berlin-innovation-startup_featuredimage — HeadWave CEO Sophie Willborm

Berlin is one of the world’s major tech hub, and Recruit Technologies has started a collaboration project with the startup community there last year, sending its engineers to work together with startups in Berlin. Through this experience, those engineers can understand more about the entrepreneurial mindset, perhaps becoming more inventive and innovative themselves in the future.

berlin-innovation-startup_image1 — Xyo’s CEO Zoe Adamovicz

The presentation session started with Xyo’s CEO Zoe Adamovicz. Her startup has developed an app discovery platform which gives users a new way to find mobile apps they like. HeadWave CEO Sophie Willborm presented her helmet loudspeaker device, which lets users listen to music while motorbiking, cycling, skiing, or snowboarding ^[1]. Peter Bihr introduced his Berlin-based hardware accelerator Hardware.co and IoT-focused conference Thingscon.

berlin-innovation-startup_image2 — The Wye’s founder Leah Stuhltrager

Kiwi.ki is a startup that has developed a keyless entry solution using a small dongle and a smartsphone. Currently Recruit Technologies’ developer Yugo Kuzuhara is collaboratively working with the team. New York-born Leah Stuhltrager introduced her co-working space called The Wye, renovated from a historic post office in the heart of Berlin.

It will be interesting to see how this effort will bring something of value to the the startup communities in Berlin and Tokyo. If you missed out on this event but are interested, delegates will hold another meetup event at Samurai Startup Island on Monday, so please check it out.

I’m a little concerned that listening while on a street or in a public space may cause possible dangers. ↩

news

Japanese internet giant Recruit unveils its first wearable device

Junya Mori 2014.03.29

The Wearable Tech Expo 2014 took place this week in Tokyo, where Recruit Technologies showcased its wearable device, Lily. By linking with your smartphone, the device notifies you when you receive a call or chat message from someone, when a friend is near by, or when you’ve accidentally left your smartphone behind somewhere. Wrist-type wearable devices can be generally categorized into two types. The Smartband type includes smart watches such as Pebble, Xperia Style, and Galaxy Gear. The Basicband type are typically activity monitors or sleep tracking devices like the Nike FuelBand or Up by Jawbone. Typical Smartband devices have many features, many of which you can access even on your smartphone. Basicband devices can transmit accumulated data to a smartphone, but have no feature to pass on notifications from your smartphone. By providing features only around notification, Lily aims to fit in a niche in where existing wrist-type wearable devices are not. Since the device is a prototype, the company has no immediate plan to sell it commercially. Nevertheless, it is remarkable that even non-hardware company like Recruit wants to get involved in recent the Internet-of-Things trend. From our make.thebridge.jp site (Japanese)

The Wearable Tech Expo 2014 took place this week in Tokyo, where Recruit Technologies showcased its wearable device, Lily.

By linking with your smartphone, the device notifies you when you receive a call or chat message from someone, when a friend is near by, or when you’ve accidentally left your smartphone behind somewhere.

Wrist-type wearable devices can be generally categorized into two types. The Smartband type includes smart watches such as Pebble, Xperia Style, and Galaxy Gear. The Basicband type are typically activity monitors or sleep tracking devices like the Nike FuelBand or Up by Jawbone.

Typical Smartband devices have many features, many of which you can access even on your smartphone. Basicband devices can transmit accumulated data to a smartphone, but have no feature to pass on notifications from your smartphone.

By providing features only around notification, Lily aims to fit in a niche in where existing wrist-type wearable devices are not.

Since the device is a prototype, the company has no immediate plan to sell it commercially. Nevertheless, it is remarkable that even non-hardware company like Recruit wants to get involved in recent the Internet-of-Things trend.

From our make.thebridge.jp site (Japanese)