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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,…

sketronics_featuredimage
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.  ↩

What’s in a name? For Japanese startups, sometimes alphabet soup

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Over the past few years we are seeing more Japanese startups than ever before looking beyond domestic borders to markets abroad. This is undeniably awesome. But this development is not without growing pains and awkwardness. What works in Japan doesn’t always work elsewhere, and this is particularly true of company names. From the point of view a non-Japanese person, there seems to me to be a very disproportionate number of companies in Japan that have crazy names. This problem has a number of symptoms, including: the triple-letter epidemic (see Niiice, Freee, Snapeee, and Calll) strange/random capitalization (see DoCoMo, DeNA CocoPPA, MiCHi) [1] names that sound just plain wrong (see Cunpic, Askiss) I’m a little reluctant to point this out, but when I read how Takafumi Horie named his latest app, Teriyaki, it really made me think about the problem a little more. With hopes of global expansion potential, we decided to name the app ‘Teriyaki’ — something familiar to non-Japanese people too. Too few Japanese startups do this. In fact, our own team here fallen into this trap as well, although having rebranded as The Bridge recently, I’m glad we’re out of it! [2] Evasive maneuvers So if you are…

alphabet soup

Over the past few years we are seeing more Japanese startups than ever before looking beyond domestic borders to markets abroad. This is undeniably awesome. But this development is not without growing pains and awkwardness. What works in Japan doesn’t always work elsewhere, and this is particularly true of company names.

From the point of view a non-Japanese person, there seems to me to be a very disproportionate number of companies in Japan that have crazy names. This problem has a number of symptoms, including:

I’m a little reluctant to point this out, but when I read how Takafumi Horie named his latest app, Teriyaki, it really made me think about the problem a little more.

With hopes of global expansion potential, we decided to name the app ‘Teriyaki’ — something familiar to non-Japanese people too.

Too few Japanese startups do this. In fact, our own team here fallen into this trap as well, although having rebranded as The Bridge recently, I’m glad we’re out of it! [2]

Evasive maneuvers

So if you are a Japanese company, how can you avoid this sort of problem? I’d like to share a few points that I think should be considered when choosing a name for your company or service. Keep in mind, I don’t claim to be any sort of naming expert. But I’ll try to offer a few points that I think can help.

  1. Ask the crowd you know – Make use of the poll features in Google Drive or Facebook to gather feedback from as many of your friends as possible, and from a diverse range of people if you can.
  2. Ask the crowd you don’t know – If you don’t know any English-speaking people who can offer suggestions, consider using a service like PickyDomains, where you can crowdsource some domain name ideas for a reasonable price [3]. If you can’t manage to get feedback from English-speaking people using modern day internet tools, you should probably reconsider doing business abroad.
  3. The telephone test – A really great name is one that you can tell someone over the phone without any big problem.
  4. The t-shirt test – Is your name and logo something that your employees would wear on a t-shirt? If not, maybe reconsider.
  5. Don’t be afraid to use a Japanese name, even if you are targeting global markets. Some names can be just fine for global use. Rakuten, Origami, Gengo, and Niconico are all easy to say and remember. Some Western companies even choose names that sound Japanese because they sound sort of cool (see tech blog Kotaku).

Let’s face it, choosing a good name for your company or service is really hard. And if you have to do it for two markets, then it’s twice as difficult. Given that limitation, the best strategy might be simply choose a name that doesn’t suck in either market.

Of course if you have no plans on expanding beyond Japan, feel free to disregard everything I’ve just said. But if you think there is even a chance you might expand your business abroad in the future, it doesn’t hurt to factor that possibility into your naming decision.


  1. CocoPPa is actually doing quite well overseas, which is good to see. As an editor though, I really despise those double Ps. For the record, I wrote about unusual capitalization a long time ago, so I’m not going to bother going into that mess again.  ↩

  2. This is sort of getting to be a thing for me. Join a company and try to rename it…  ↩

  3. I think that actual domain names are not quite as important as they used to be in this mobile age. Our choice of ‘The Bridge’ was a tough one, because it’s not so SEO friendly. But SEO isn’t what it used to be, thankfully!  ↩

NTT Docomo Ventures establishes a work space for its startups

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See the original story in Japanese. NTT Docomo Ventures [1], the incubation arm of Japan’s largest telco, unveiled its new office today, which features a co-working space and an event space for its startups. The company launched an incubation program called Docomo Innovation village back in February. 124 startups initially applied for inclusion, and six teams of those made the cut for the first batch in April. The selected teams will receive grants of 2 million yen (approximately $20,000) each, as well as support in the form of work spaces and mentoring. The participating teams explained their reasoning for applying to the program, citing Docomo’s successful investment in Evernote and possible partnerships opportunities with the telco as potential benefits of inclusion. Regarding their experiences at the incubation program thus far, they say they have learned much from mentors, with lots of opportunities to reach other companies through Docomo’s business network, helping them learn more about app development. They are obliged to visit the office at least every Tuesday, where they have a meeting to share recent developments with each other. These six teams will unveil the results of their six-month incubation program on Thursday, September 26th. Previously known as Docomo Innovation Ventures,…

MG_8687See the original story in Japanese.

NTT Docomo Ventures [1], the incubation arm of Japan’s largest telco, unveiled its new office today, which features a co-working space and an event space for its startups.

The company launched an incubation program called Docomo Innovation village back in February. 124 startups initially applied for inclusion, and six teams of those made the cut for the first batch in April. The selected teams will receive grants of 2 million yen (approximately $20,000) each, as well as support in the form of work spaces and mentoring.

The participating teams explained their reasoning for applying to the program, citing Docomo’s successful investment in Evernote and possible partnerships opportunities with the telco as potential benefits of inclusion.

MG_8697
Representatives of the 6 first batch teams

Regarding their experiences at the incubation program thus far, they say they have learned much from mentors, with lots of opportunities to reach other companies through Docomo’s business network, helping them learn more about app development. They are obliged to visit the office at least every Tuesday, where they have a meeting to share recent developments with each other.

These six teams will unveil the results of their six-month incubation program on Thursday, September 26th.

MG_8702

MG_8680


  1. Previously known as Docomo Innovation Ventures, but it was rebranded on July 1st, 2013. ↩

CyberAgent Ventures now accepting startups to pitch at Rising Expo 2013

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Japanese VC firm CyberAgent Ventures announced on Monday that it would hold this year’s edition of the Rising Expo, the company’s annual startup conference, on September 6th. At last year’s edition, 51 other VC firms and 21 companies were invited to attend conference, where a number of outstanding startups and entrepreneurs pitched their ideas to the crowd. Smartphone-based credit card payment provider Coiney won the top prize of 2 million yen (about $20,000), and the startup subsequently raised 100 million yen ($1 million) from CyberAgent Ventures, East Ventures, and an individual angel investor. CyberAgent Ventures just started accepting applications for those who want to pitch at this year’s event. Applicants must meet the criteria listed below: Your business must be IT- or internet-related. Your service is already live, and has acquired some userbase or revenue. You should be exploring funding worth more than 100 million yen ($1 million) There will be preliminary screening process prior to the event. Applying companies do not need to be registered in Japan. As many of our readers may know, CyberAgent Ventures has many offices and representatives all around Asia, so that if you have an idea that you want to develop in the region,…

risingexpo2013

Japanese VC firm CyberAgent Ventures announced on Monday that it would hold this year’s edition of the Rising Expo, the company’s annual startup conference, on September 6th.

At last year’s edition, 51 other VC firms and 21 companies were invited to attend conference, where a number of outstanding startups and entrepreneurs pitched their ideas to the crowd. Smartphone-based credit card payment provider Coiney won the top prize of 2 million yen (about $20,000), and the startup subsequently raised 100 million yen ($1 million) from CyberAgent Ventures, East Ventures, and an individual angel investor.

CyberAgent Ventures just started accepting applications for those who want to pitch at this year’s event. Applicants must meet the criteria listed below:

  1. Your business must be IT- or internet-related.
  2. Your service is already live, and has acquired some userbase or revenue.
  3. You should be exploring funding worth more than 100 million yen ($1 million)

There will be preliminary screening process prior to the event. Applying companies do not need to be registered in Japan.

As many of our readers may know, CyberAgent Ventures has many offices and representatives all around Asia, so that if you have an idea that you want to develop in the region, they are one of the best teams that you could work with.

If you’re interested, you can apply here. The deadline is July 29th at 11am, Japan Standard Time.

Where are the startup incubators and accelerators in Asia? Here’s 100 of ’em

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Over on our Japanese site, my colleague Takuya has put together a very informative list of incubators and accelerators from around the Asia region. This follows his previous list of Japanese seed accelerators and VC firms, which I encourage you to check out as well. We thought that since there aren’t many places online where you can find such information all in one place, it might be a good idea to publish it here too. So with that, I present to you the list below, which despite its size is not meant to be totally comprehensive — so we welcome any suggestions for places we might have missed in the comments [1]. [Credits] Startmate (Australia): This accelerator has a five-month program that includes a trip to Silicon Valley. Ignition Labs (Australia): A three month program that focuses on clean tech. Pollenizer (Australia): Offers funding via Pollenizer Ventures, and menturing from the founders and others. PushStart (Australia): A three-month program. Incubated startups receive some funding as well as office space and mentorship. Venture Incubator Space (Australia): A one-year incubation period, subsidized working space. BlueChilli (Australia): This incubator has presences in Sydney and Melbourne. Angel Cube Melb (Australia): Based in Melbourne, this…

accelerators-incubators-asia-pacific

Over on our Japanese site, my colleague Takuya has put together a very informative list of incubators and accelerators from around the Asia region. This follows his previous list of Japanese seed accelerators and VC firms, which I encourage you to check out as well.

We thought that since there aren’t many places online where you can find such information all in one place, it might be a good idea to publish it here too. So with that, I present to you the list below, which despite its size is not meant to be totally comprehensive — so we welcome any suggestions for places we might have missed in the comments [1].

[Credits]

    Flag_of_Australia.svg

  1. Startmate (Australia): This accelerator has a five-month program that includes a trip to Silicon Valley.
  2. Ignition Labs (Australia): A three month program that focuses on clean tech.
  3. Pollenizer (Australia): Offers funding via Pollenizer Ventures, and menturing from the founders and others.
  4. PushStart (Australia): A three-month program. Incubated startups receive some funding as well as office space and mentorship.
  5. Venture Incubator Space (Australia): A one-year incubation period, subsidized working space.
  6. BlueChilli (Australia): This incubator has presences in Sydney and Melbourne.
  7. Angel Cube Melb (Australia): Based in Melbourne, this three month intensive incubator accepts four teams, awarding $20,000 to each one.
  8. York Butter Factory (Australia): Focused on digital media. It also provides co-working space.
  9. Gen Innovation Australia (GENIAUS) (Australia): Focused on interactive media and digital art. Mentoring is peer-based, with assistance from experienced entrepreneurs.
  10. iLab (Australia): A paid incubator for early stage companies.
  11. Brisbane Technology Park (Australia): Provides access to business mentors and VCs.
  12. Gold Coast Innovation Centre (Australia): Focuses on early stage startups with mentorship provided.
  13. Innovation Centre (Australia): Focused on things like clean tech, health, and creative.
  14. Startup Tasmania (Australia): Focuses on fast-growth startups. There is a co-working space that also provides networking opportuities to meet investors.
  15. Innovyz (Australia): Offers a 12-week accellerator program, which includes cash, mentoring, and more.
  16. iCentre Brunei (Brunei): Focuses on ICT startups, and provides mentorship and networking.
  17. EME Business Incubator (Cambodia): Mentors high-potential entrepreneurs in the country.
  18. Flag_of_the_People's_Republic_of_China.svg

  19. Axlr8r (China): Established in 2010, helping companies improve their products for US and Chinese markets.
  20. Innovation Works (China): Established by Kaifu Lee back in 2009. The Innovation Works Development Fund is an early stage development fund co-managed with WI Harper Group.
  21. HAXLR8R (China): HAXLR8R is a seed program that offers mentorship for international hardware startups.
  22. Flag_of_Hong_Kong.svg

  23. SOFTLAYER CATALYST (Hong Kong): This virtual incubator from SoftLayer helps startups with hosting, development and support. It is based in Hong Kong, but covers all of the Asia Pacific region.
  24. NEST (Hong Kong): Holds monthly pitch days, and startups receive office space, some funding, and mentoring.
  25. StartupsHK.com (Hong Kong): Non-profit startup community.
  26. AcceleratorHK (Hong Kong): Provides co-working space and mentorship. It is run by entrepreneurs Stephen Forte and Paul Orlando.
  27. Flag_of_India.svg

  28. The Morpheus (India): Focused on early stage startups, and incubates companies for four months.
  29. T-Labs (India): Operated by Times Internet Limited, provides mentorship from entrepreneurs and angel investors.
  30. The Startup Centre (India): Has a resident program as well as an accelerator program.
  31. Microsoft Accelerator India (India): This program runs for four months, and brings in new batches in May and November.
  32. iAccelerator (India): Targets mobile and internet startups, providing them with capital as well as mentoring, networking opportunities, and a demo day.
  33. VentureNursery (India): Runs for 13 weeks with 8 startups selected, and is held twice a year.
  34. GSF India (India): This Delhi-based accelerator is actually a multi-city effort with presences in Mumbai and Bangalore as well. It is led by Rajeshi Sawhney, the former president of Reliance Entertainment.
  35. The Hatch (India): Has physical and virtual programs for startups. The incubator program runs for 52 weeks; accelerator for 13 weeks.
  36. INFUSE Ventures (India): Focuses on startups doing work in the areas of sustainable energy and clean tech. Has a partnership with the Indian government.
  37. Gemini New Media Ventures (India): Offers startups assistance with their business strategy, helping them grow to a sustainable state.
  38. Rural Technology & Business Incubator (India): Funded by both the World Bank’s InfoDev Project as well as DST. It has a rural focus.
  39. Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship(SINE), IIT Bombay (India): Focuses on entrepreneurial research, with financial assistance coming from DST.
  40. New Ventures India (India): This Indian incubator targets the ‘green business’ space.
  41. Technopark TBI (India): A joint initiative between Technopark and the DST.
  42. IIIT-Bangalore Innovation Centre (India): Targets seed-stage startups, providing support in the form of a work space and consultation.
  43. Startup Village (India): Supports student entrepreneurs in the Kerala region.
  44. 5ideas (India): Founded by Pearl Uppal and Gaurav Kachru, and aims to support entrepreneurship among women.
  45. Freemont Partners (India): India’s first global incubator and accelerator, focusing on tech startups
  46. MyfirstCheque (India): Invests in local startups, and provides mentorship. It is organized by a group of experienced entrepreneurs.
  47. Indian Angel Network Incubator (India): Supported by the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, the Department of Science and Technology, and the government of India.
  48. Technology Business Incubator, IIT Delhi (India): Accepting proposals by students, academic staff, or alumni.
  49. Veddis (India): Offers office space, insfrastructure, and support to startups. Investments range from $250,000 to $10M.
  50. Khosla Labs (India): Run by Srikanth Nadhamuni, the head of technology at the Unique Identificantion Authority of India.
  51. Flag_of_Indonesia.svg

  52. MerahPutih (Indonesia): Provides working space and capital to early to mid-stage startups.
  53. investidea (Indonesia): Focused on early stage tech/web startups, providing funding, advice, and other support.
  54. Bandung Ventures (Indonesia): Bandung Ventures makes seed-stage investments in the Bandung region.
  55. Raja Capital (Indonesia): VC that focuses on tech startups in the seed/early/growth stages.
  56. Ideosource (Indonesia): Run by Andi S. Boediman, focusing on see investment. It launched in June of 2011.
  57. Project Eden (Indonesia): Claiming to be Indonesia’s first startup accelerator, this one is supported by Jardintech Capital.
  58. Batavia Incubator ( Indonesia): Joint venture run by Takeshi Ebihara, who is very experienced in the tech startup scene.
  59. Flag_of_South_Korea.svg

  60. SparkLabs (Korea): An accelerator focused on tech companies, with mentorship, office space, and advisors available.
  61. Strong Ventures (Korea): Targets young entrepreneurs and startups in the seed stage.
  62. KStartup (Korea): KStartup operates under AppCenter, and is a partner with Google for Entrepreneurs.
  63. Primer (Korea): Initiated by Primer Group, and headed by by CEO Douglas Guen.
  64. IgniteSpark (Korea): This incubator/accelerator is led by David Choi.
  65. Fast Track Asia (Korea): Initiated by same investors who backed TickerMonster.
  66. TJ Heaven(Startup Party) (Korea): Focuses primarily on mentoring for young startups, and is led by Gyumin Cho.
  67. Founders Camp (Korea): This accelerator is led by Heeseung Kang.
  68. Flag_of_Malaysia.svg

  69. Grey Attic (Malasya): Aspires to create new businesses and match them with business opportunities. It provides them with valable mentoring along the way. Update: We’re told this isn’t active these days.
  70. MAD Incubator (Malaysia): Makes assistance and incubation affordable to most entrepreneurs via its MAD programs.
  71. MVP’s Incubator (Philippines): Supported by a wide range of business interests.
  72. Launchgarage (Philippines): Early stage funding program supported by Globe Telecom.
  73. IdeaSpace (Philippines): Incubator and accelerator that aims to support entrepreneurship in the Philippines.
  74. Kickstart (Philippines): Began in March of 2012 to support tech entrepreneurship in the Philippines.
  75. Flag_of_Singapore.svg

  76. Seed Accelerator (Singapore (AUS)): An early stage VC/incubator targeting startups in Sydney and Singapore.
  77. Azione Capital (Singapore): This seed stage VC focuses on digital media and mobile communications.
  78. Golden Gate Ventures (Singapore): This incubator helps internet startups across Southeast Asia,
  79. Jungle Ventures (Singapore): Focuses on seed and Series A investments in the Asia Pacific region.
  80. IncuVest (Singapore): Focuses on mentoring young startup companies in the information technology space.
  81. TNF Ventures (Singapore): Includes many established individuals in the tech community, highly experienced in founding and mentoring young startups.
  82. Red Dot Ventures (Singapore): Operated by entrepreneur Leslie Loh. It provides support in the form of financing, mentoring, etc.
  83. Get2Volume Accelerator (Singapore): Focused on building companies in the microelectronics and semiconductor industries.
  84. The Biofactory (Singapore): This incubator creates biomedical companies.
  85. WaveMaker Labs (Singapore): Focuses on digital media and tech startups.
  86. Clearbridge Accelerator (Singapore): Clearbridge Partner’s incubator arm, comprised of Singaporean tech entrepreneurs and scientists.
  87. I2G Tech Accelerator (Singapore): Accelerator focused on clean energy, wireless, and medical technologies for B2B.
  88. Neoteny Labs Silicon Straits (Singapore): Early stage incubator founded by Joichi Ito.
  89. Plug and Play Singapore (Singapore): Established in 2006, invests in high tech startups.
  90. Social Slingshot (Singapore): Founded by MySpace.com founder Brad Greenspan, invests in social, mobile, clean tech.
  91. Small World Group (Singapore): Focused on clean tech and optical systems.
  92. Stream Global (Singapore): Venture ‘catalyst’ for tech startups.
  93. TechCube8 (Singapore): Private technology investor and incubator to promote entrepreneurship and high tech R&D.
  94. Gobi Partners (Singapore): Early stage VC firm for IT and digital media in China.
  95. JFDI.Asia (Singapore): Seed accelerator focusing on mobile and digital products for Asia.
  96. Expara (Singapore): Established in 2003, it invests in and nurtures entrepreneurs, mostly in the interactive and digital media spaces.
  97. Base@muvee (Singapore): An incubator and a co-working space.
  98. Founder Institute Singapore (Singapore): A four month training program for entrepreneurs in a range of industries.
  99. I.JAM INCUBATOR (Singapore): Supports startups with great ideas that can be developed into products and services.
  100. NUS Enterprise Incubator (Singapore): For both early and late stage startups, providing advice, mentoring, facilities and more.
  101. Crystal Horse Investment (Singapore): Primarily involved in angel investments, also providing advice, support, funding and expertise.
  102. Ruvento Ventures (Singapore): Manages RUVENTO’s venture funds. Focuses on incubating companies in Singapore, then giving them market access to Asia Pacifc and Greater China.
  103. NTU Ventures (Singapore): A greenlane incubator for a number of grant schemes.
  104. Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF) (Singapore): Works with many plaers in ICT, focusing on things like digital media, cloud computing, etc.
  105. QuestAccelerator (Singapore): Team is made up of people experienced in the Chinese market.
  106. Fatfish MediaLab (Singapore): Focused on mobile and social media apps.
  107. FocusTech Ventures (Singapore): Focused on hardware startups and manufacturing technologies.
  108. Angels Gate Advisory (Singapore): Manages the incubation of companies from the Angels Gate platform.
  109. PARCO next NEXT (Singapore): A fashion incubator that selects fashion designers for an 18-month training program.
  110. East Ventures (Singapore): First investments company for tech startups in Indonesia.
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  112. Appworks Venture (Taiwan): Focses in Chinese internet and mobile phone applications, founded in 2009.
  113. YSeed (Taiwan): Incubation program from Yushan Ventures, supporting startups by helping them with user acquisition, funding, and internationalization.
  114. M8VC (Thailand): Offers an accelerator program with seed funding, offices space, and mentorship.
  115. AIS (Thailand): A top startup incubator in Thailand.
  116. NSTDA BIC (Thailand): Thailand’s national business incubator supporting entrepreneurs.
  117. Flag_of_Vietnam.svg

  118. 5Desire (Vietnam): Incubator and conssulting firm focused on various sectors.
  119. FICO by FPT (Vietnam): This incubator primarily targets students.
  120. Topica Founder’s Institute (Vietnam): This is a 15-week program for leaders from successful startups.

Top 50: Japanese Startups You Should Know

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Asian startups are finally stepping into the spotlight, it seems. The region’s most prominent tech startup event, Echeleon, featured far more established startups this year in comparison to previous years. Many of them have already expanded their business globally, and I feel the same thing is now happening here in Japan. Here at SD Japan we have been adding Asian startup profiles to our database since January of 2013. We are proud to announce that we now have over 1000 entries for startups from Japan and around Asia. To celebrate this milestone, I’ve selected what I think are the best 50 Japanese startups from various internet sectors, in no particular order. Each is linked to its database entry, so for further information, just click through [1]. We hope this list can provide a little more visibility to standout entrepreneurs and startup folks in the country, as well as a better understanding of the space to our readers outside Japan. Update: Some people have suggested additional startups, and we’re making a note of them all for a future update [2]. So don’t hesitate to provide feedback in the comments. —RM Hot Startups Whill – A next generation personal mobility startup that…

Asian startups are finally stepping into the spotlight, it seems. The region’s most prominent tech startup event, Echeleon, featured far more established startups this year in comparison to previous years. Many of them have already expanded their business globally, and I feel the same thing is now happening here in Japan.

Here at SD Japan we have been adding Asian startup profiles to our database since January of 2013. We are proud to announce that we now have over 1000 entries for startups from Japan and around Asia. To celebrate this milestone, I’ve selected what I think are the best 50 Japanese startups from various internet sectors, in no particular order. Each is linked to its database entry, so for further information, just click through [1].

We hope this list can provide a little more visibility to standout entrepreneurs and startup folks in the country, as well as a better understanding of the space to our readers outside Japan.

Update: Some people have suggested additional startups, and we’re making a note of them all for a future update [2]. So don’t hesitate to provide feedback in the comments. —RM

Hot Startups

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  1. Whill – A next generation personal mobility startup that just got accepted into the latest 500 Startups program.
  2. Nanapi – A Japanese website that provides helpful tips for everyday life.
  3. Coiney – A mobile payment startup. Sort of a Square for Japan.
  4. CocoPPa – A mobile app that allows you to customise your phone’s icons and homescreen.
  5. Tokyo Otaku Mode – A Japanese digital media site focused on Japanese Otaku culture.

Marketplaces

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  1. Fril – A mobile marketplace app for girls where they can buy and sell clothing.
  2. Coconala – A site where users can offer their knowledge, skills and experiences for about 500 yen (or about $5).
  3. LISTOR – An online buy-and-sell marketplace.
  4. Jimoty – A sort of Craigslist for Japan.
  5. TicketStreet – A ticketing marketplace for buying and selling concert, sport, and theater tickets.

E-Commerce

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  1. BASE – A service that lets you create your own commerce site.
  2. Monoco – A mobile/web flash sale site that sells unique designer goods from around the world.
  3. Stores.jp – A service that lets you create your own commerce site. A BASE competitor.
  4. Panoplaza – An e-commerce service that produces virtual storefronts.
  5. Oh My Glasses – An e-commerce site for eye-glasses.

Fashion and Apparel

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  1. iQON – A fashion coordination app that allows users to create their favorite looks using fashion photos available on their app.
  2. Origami – A mobile app that lets you follow updates from your favorite brands or merchants.
  3. Locondo – A shoes and fashion e-commerce site.
  4. MUSE & Co. – A members-only flash sale site that gives users a substantial discount off the market price for a limited time.
  5. Pape.mu girls – A mobile fashion media that sends fashion recommendations to users.

Hardware

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  1. Pluto – A smartphone-based remote control system for home electronics.
  2. Cerevo – A company based in Akihabara that focuses on creating consumer network devices.
  3. Sassor – A hardware startup that has developed an ‘Energy Literacy Platform’, operating in a similar space as US-based Nest.
  4. ChatPerf – A hardware add-on for your iPhone that can produce smells.
  5. Terra Motors – An electronic vehicle startup targeting the Asia market.

Crowdsourcing

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  1. Gengo – A translation platform providing translation services to individuals and small businesses, or to larger enterprises via its API.
  2. Conyac – A human powered translation service.
  3. Lancers – A Japanese crowdsourcing giant.
  4. Designclue – A crowdsourcing site specializing in graphic design. Similar to 99Designs.
  5. CrowdWorks – A Japanese crowdsourcing giant that competes with Lancers.

Education

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  1. Schoo – An online education service that offers business 101 classes.
  2. Lang–8 – A free language-exchange social network.
  3. ShareWis – A learning app that provides various online learning courses.
  4. Best Teacher – An education startup that offers an online language learning service via Skype
  5. SmartEducation – A startup that develops educational apps for children.

Food

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  1. Mill – A photo sharing app focused on food.
  2. Retty – A recommendation app for restaurants, for mobile and web.
  3. Gochikuru – A search/portal site for lunch boxes and catering.
  4. SnapDish – A photo sharing app for food recipes.
  5. KitchHike – A website that lets travelers experience meals prepared by locals.

News

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  1. Vingow – A news aggregation and reading app that allows users to get an updated news feed in real time.
  2. Gunosy – A news app that determines your interests based on your social media accounts, serving up news updates that will likely fit your tastes.
  3. Sqpress – A mobile news app that aggregates articles from Twitter.
  4. Antenna – A curation magazine app that allows you to view articles from more than 130 selected media.
  5. SmartNews – A news aggregation and reading app.

Social Good

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  1. i-kifu – A social startup that helps Japanese non-profit organizations with their online fundraising.
  2. Pirika – A smartphone app that encourages users to clean up their environment, and share pictures of themselves collecting trash in an effort to encourage others to do the same.
  3. Trapro – A platform that allows users to plan and organize tours around important social issues.
  4. CollaVol – A social volunteer platform where users can donate their time to complete certain tasks.
  5. Readyfor – A crowdfunding platform. Most users put NPO and social cause projects on this site.

  1. I previously published an article about tech Incubators and VCs in Japan. If you’d like to check that out, you can find it here.  ↩

  2. Other notable mentions: Snapeee, Midokura.  ↩

Ready? Fight! A summary of 6 fierce Japanese startup rivalries

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See the original Japanese version of this article If you’re a web startup, chances are you probably have a competitor or two. Maybe more. Here in Japan we are seeing rivals emerge in a number of service categories. Thankfully, with each struggling to stand out from the other, it means that users are most likely to benefit, at least in the short term. I will talk about the major players across six startup categories that have been getting attention here in Japan. Round 1: Stores.jp vs BASE (E-commerce platforms) ¶ I almost wanted to write about just this competition by itself, since both services have experienced rapid growth and the quality of their services is increasing by the day. This is a great example of how intense competition brings better quality product. See STORES.jp in our database See BASE in our database Base: The Japanese freemium e-commerce platform that’s following Shopify’s lead How Stores.jp is helping small businesses in Japan come online Round 2: iQON vs Origami vs MONOCO vs Fril (Smartphone x Fashion) ¶ iQON is media, Origami is commerce, Monoco is a concierge service, and Fril is C2C. Those startups all differ slightly but they share two common…

See the original Japanese version of this article

If you’re a web startup, chances are you probably have a competitor or two. Maybe more. Here in Japan we are seeing rivals emerge in a number of service categories. Thankfully, with each struggling to stand out from the other, it means that users are most likely to benefit, at least in the short term.

I will talk about the major players across six startup categories that have been getting attention here in Japan.

Round 1: Stores.jp vs BASE (E-commerce platforms)

I almost wanted to write about just this competition by itself, since both services have experienced rapid growth and the quality of their services is increasing by the day. This is a great example of how intense competition brings better quality product.

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Round 2: iQON vs Origami vs MONOCO vs Fril (Smartphone x Fashion)

iQON is media, Origami is commerce, Monoco is a concierge service, and Fril is C2C. Those startups all differ slightly but they share two common threads: ‘fashion’ and ‘smartphones’. All have maintained high levels of investor interest. And it is said that this field is about to face a host of new entrants, resulting in even more hype around this space.

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Round 3: CrowdWorks vs Lancers (Crowdsourcing)

The platform concept of these two services differs slightly. However, I feel both have the potential to change the concept of the way people work here in Japan, and that’s what differentiates them from other worker-client matching services.

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Round 4: Coiney vs Rakuten Smartpay vs Paypal

Competition this category is a little more fierce as the players are not all startups. But when I interviewed Coiney I felt that their strategy is not to compete head on with these other payment giants. Check out interview (in Japanese) for more details.

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Round 5: Campfire vs Readyfor vs Countdown (Crowdfunding)

Campfire has gotten a lot of attention so far, but it hasn’t yet resulted in the same kind of impact that we have seen with big overseas players. The first out of the gate in this crowdfunding space was Readyfor, which has differentiated by focusing on social contributions, donations, and NPOs. A critical success factor will be its ability to generate news media exposure.

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Round 6: SmartNews vs Gunosy vs Vingow (News technology)

This field is pretty interesting because the competition depends on technology much more so than in the previously mentioned categories. SmartNews shows its users almost all the same news information, which is different from the other two players. The concept of personalized news is common to Gunosy and Vingow. But Vingow offers users updated information in real-time, different from Gunosy which updates information in batches. Many users might use both services, depending on the occasion.

Gunosy-for-iPhone

I confess, I also wanted to include C2C platforms in this article (such as ticket selling, for example), but I’ll come back to that another time.

Besides those listed above, Japan also has an abundance of camera applications and casual games, but many lack monetization plans and solid business models – so they are less news-worthy in my book. Most of the services listed above have established business models and firm financials, and of course that is a big attraction for investors.

If you’d like to suggest some other hot startup categories or rivalry, please let me know in the comments.

Japan’s U-Note wants to make sure you don’t miss out on important events

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Last Friday at the Infinity Ventures Summit LaunchPad event, Tokyo-based startup U-Note pitched a web solution for taking notes at public events. The company’s CEO, Yuto Koide, explained that they want to transfer event memos online. He says that while many people want to attend local events, they can’t possibly make it to every one – either due to time or money constraints. But U-Note provides user accounts of high profile events on its site, a valuable resource to those who cannot make it in person. In terms of the technology, the interface looks very much like Storify.com, allowing users to drag and drop rich media elements like Tweets, photos, videos, and more, in addition to text content. As for mobile note-taking, they have an Android app already released, and one for iPhone on the way. U-Note has nine categories of events on site, such as talks from celebrities, or startup events just like this one [1]. So far the platform is seeing good progress, and May saw 250% growth over the previous month, says Koide. As for monetization, they have editorial ads that they sell for 150,000 yen. They want the user to enjoy the contents, so the editorial…

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U-Note CEO Yuto Koide pitches at Infinity Ventures Summit

Last Friday at the Infinity Ventures Summit LaunchPad event, Tokyo-based startup U-Note pitched a web solution for taking notes at public events.

The company’s CEO, Yuto Koide, explained that they want to transfer event memos online. He says that while many people want to attend local events, they can’t possibly make it to every one – either due to time or money constraints. But U-Note provides user accounts of high profile events on its site, a valuable resource to those who cannot make it in person.

In terms of the technology, the interface looks very much like Storify.com, allowing users to drag and drop rich media elements like Tweets, photos, videos, and more, in addition to text content. As for mobile note-taking, they have an Android app already released, and one for iPhone on the way.

U-Note has nine categories of events on site, such as talks from celebrities, or startup events just like this one [1].

So far the platform is seeing good progress, and May saw 250% growth over the previous month, says Koide. As for monetization, they have editorial ads that they sell for 150,000 yen. They want the user to enjoy the contents, so the editorial ads aspire to be more interesting so that users are more receptive to them.

The content business is a tough one, but U-Note’s tool is certainly useful, capitalizing on Japan’s love of creating ‘matome’ or list posts. And assuming that people use it frequently enough. The U-Note page could prove a useful destination for event coverage.

U-Note publishing interface
U-Note publishing interface

  1. In fact, someone on U-Note actually put together a roundup of the startups competing at the LaunchPad event.  ↩

Japan’s LifeTimer is redefining the calendar app

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This is part of our coverage of the startup LaunchPad event from the Infinitity Ventures Summit in Sapporo, Japan. To read about other startups who pitched, you can read our other reports here. One of the most interesting startups to pitch at the IVS Launchpad event was Pickles Inc. Readers may recognize the Tokyo-based mobile app development studio as the team that developed the clever Stamp Messenger app for Facebook messaging which we recently featured. But the service the brought to Sapporo this week was drastically different, as CEO Minoru Tanaka presented LifeTimer, a sort of personal scheduling or calendaring app that makes you think about time a little differently. LifeTimer shows you your important life events as a countdown, thus conveying a sense of urgency, a kind of constant reminder that we might not have as much time as we think. The clock is after all ticking for us all, and LifeTimer is a good reminder of that. Upon first opening the app, you have the option of connecting to your Facebook account, thus importing many if the events that may be on your schedule. You are also asked for your birthday, and when I did so it resulted…

lifetimer-logo

This is part of our coverage of the startup LaunchPad event from the Infinitity Ventures Summit in Sapporo, Japan. To read about other startups who pitched, you can read our other reports here.


One of the most interesting startups to pitch at the IVS Launchpad event was Pickles Inc. Readers may recognize the Tokyo-based mobile app development studio as the team that developed the clever Stamp Messenger app for Facebook messaging which we recently featured. But the service the brought to Sapporo this week was drastically different, as CEO Minoru Tanaka presented LifeTimer, a sort of personal scheduling or calendaring app that makes you think about time a little differently.

LifeTimer shows you your important life events as a countdown, thus conveying a sense of urgency, a kind of constant reminder that we might not have as much time as we think. The clock is after all ticking for us all, and LifeTimer is a good reminder of that.

Upon first opening the app, you have the option of connecting to your Facebook account, thus importing many if the events that may be on your schedule. You are also asked for your birthday, and when I did so it resulted in a countdown showing me when I’m going to turn forty! [1] I understand they are also looking at Google Calendar integration as well.

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You can input your working hours, when you wake up or go to sleep, as well as important birthdays or other custom events. Repeating events can be set to recur yearly, monthly, or daily.

In this way, says Tanaka, they hope to dissect your day so that you can have a better understanding of time, and improve your life as a result. So far users appear to be responding well, with very positive ratings and reviews. For monetization, so far the app depends on ads, but premium features or add-ons will also be part of its business.

The nine-person team is planning to produce a version of LifeTimer in English, so stay tunes for that. But for now, if you’d like to try the Japanese version of the app, it’s available for download over on Apple’ App Store or on Google Play.

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lifetimer


  1. Thankfully I still have over five years left, but it’s nice to have a constant reminder to tell me that I’m not as young as I used to be.  ↩

Japanese startup CocoPPa lets you collaboratively create the cutest iPhone homescreen

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This is part of our coverage of the startup LaunchPad event from the Infinitity Ventures Summit in Sapporo, Japan. To read about other startups who pitched, you can read our other reports here. Accounting startup CFO won the Infinity Ventures Launchpad event with Freee, its financial service for small business. But it was followed in second place by CocoPPa, a very clever service that lets you customize you iPhone icons and homescreen. While there are many services out there that let you do such customizations to your mobile, where CocoPPa is unique is that it offers a platform where users around the world can share and collaborate on these kind of designs. So for example, if a person in Japan creates a cute icon, someone on the other side of the world could create a wallpaper to match. This collaborative process is, I think, what sets it apart from other customization services. While you could make a design in practically any style you wish, it looks like many of the creations that users are submitting fall into the kawaii category. And as we have seen in the past, such Japan-made apps that offer cute services like this have great appeal…

CocoPPa
CocoPPa pitches at Infinity Ventures Summit

This is part of our coverage of the startup LaunchPad event from the Infinitity Ventures Summit in Sapporo, Japan. To read about other startups who pitched, you can read our other reports here.


Accounting startup CFO won the Infinity Ventures Launchpad event with Freee, its financial service for small business. But it was followed in second place by CocoPPa, a very clever service that lets you customize you iPhone icons and homescreen. While there are many services out there that let you do such customizations to your mobile, where CocoPPa is unique is that it offers a platform where users around the world can share and collaborate on these kind of designs.

So for example, if a person in Japan creates a cute icon, someone on the other side of the world could create a wallpaper to match. This collaborative process is, I think, what sets it apart from other customization services.

While you could make a design in practically any style you wish, it looks like many of the creations that users are submitting fall into the kawaii category. And as we have seen in the past, such Japan-made apps that offer cute services like this have great appeal with overseas users.

The service was originally launched last July, and since then they have seen over 7.5 million downloads, with half of those coming from the US. They have 1.35 million monthly active users, and are seeing impressive growth. The word-of-mouth buzz around CocoPPa is good, with users sharing their screen designs on social platforms like Pinterest and Instagram (for example, see screens from Pinterest user lindsayw72 below).

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Back in April they released a web version, and and Android version of the service will be coming soon too. As for monetization, currently the startup depends on ad revenue, but they will be looking to other options as well in the future.

For more information, you can check out CocoPPa’s promo video below.