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Tokyo Office Tour: MUFG opens co-working space in birthplace of banking in Japan

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See the original story in Japanese. This is part of our ‘Tokyo Office Tour’ series (RSS), a modest attempt to better understand how folks in the local startup scene are working every day. Over the last year several FinTech startup activity bases were established around the Tokyo Station. Finolab relocated and renewed their space, and a number of events were held at FinGate, which was established by Heiwa Real Estate. There are also many FinTech startups at the Global Business Hub Tokyo (GBHT), which is also home to 500 Startups Japan among others. The financial district in Tokyo is largely located across from Tokyo Station and divided between the Marunouchi-Otemachi side and the Yaesu-Nihonbashi side. The Marunouchi-Otemachi side was established by Yatarou Iwasaki, the founder of the former Mitsubishi Zaibatsu conglomerate, while the Yaesu-Nihonbashi side holds the origins of the modern financiers. As the name suggests, Marunouchi is the area directly in front of the Imperial Palace and there are not many properties to be had for startups just beginning, but in the Nihonbashi area, FinTech startup offices are popping up more and more. This spring, in a little corner of Nihonbashi’s Kabutocho neighborhood, MUFG Digital Accelerator, which is presided…

MUFG Digital Accelerator’s “The Garage” was born in Nihonbashi’s Kabutocho, Tokyo. There are many people who enter under the impression that it is a bank on account of the conspicuous signage.

See the original story in Japanese.

This is part of our ‘Tokyo Office Tour’ series (RSS), a modest attempt to better understand how folks in the local startup scene are working every day.

Over the last year several FinTech startup activity bases were established around the Tokyo Station. Finolab relocated and renewed their space, and a number of events were held at FinGate, which was established by Heiwa Real Estate. There are also many FinTech startups at the Global Business Hub Tokyo (GBHT), which is also home to 500 Startups Japan among others.

The financial district in Tokyo is largely located across from Tokyo Station and divided between the Marunouchi-Otemachi side and the Yaesu-Nihonbashi side. The Marunouchi-Otemachi side was established by Yatarou Iwasaki, the founder of the former Mitsubishi Zaibatsu conglomerate, while the Yaesu-Nihonbashi side holds the origins of the modern financiers. As the name suggests, Marunouchi is the area directly in front of the Imperial Palace and there are not many properties to be had for startups just beginning, but in the Nihonbashi area, FinTech startup offices are popping up more and more.

This spring, in a little corner of Nihonbashi’s Kabutocho neighborhood, MUFG Digital Accelerator, which is presided over by the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) opened up their first co-working space called The Garage. I popped in to see their space after the dust settled from renovations.

The MUFG Digital Accelerator currently operates a four month acceleration program about once a year, and it is time for them to finalize the batch for their second phase. The 7 startup teams currently participating in the batch have reached the final stage and are putting the finishing touches on their plans for collaboration for the demo day on July 28.

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The five teams that participated in last year’s first batch, as well as the logo of the seven teams of the second batch currently in progress are displayed at the entrance.

On the premise of cooperating together, “Facilitators” from the MUFG Digital Accelerator assign MUFG employees called “MUFG Mentors” to each of the seven participating startups, as well as external collaborators from VCs and other accelerators who are participating as “Pro-mentors”. Over the course of the program, monthly pitch days, weekly and biweekly mentoring, API meet-ups and mini Hackathon gatherings are held at The Garage.

The first floor houses a desk space overflowing with the feeling of openness
In the basement a living room space gives off a relaxed air
The demo day countdown timer. There are about 3 weeks left.

(Unlike corporate accelerators) an independent accelerator is one that aims to support entrepreneurs trying to develop businesses from scratch with various resources, encourage market-ready products to be released to the world, and lead the companies to the next fundraising round. On the other hand, corporate accelerators will look for startups to collaborate with, the aim being to create some sort of output, but it is rare for truly productive collaborations to be born by merely matching up startups and in-house business personnel.

In the case of MUFG, each group company recently established a department called the “FinTech Promotion Office”, and each company has devoted active internal personnel to lead, thus creating a smoother environment for collaboration with startups. Much like a reality talent competitions such as American Idol, during the second stage representatives from each group company listen to pitches made by the startups, nominate teams they see as compatible for potential business collaborations, and commit themselves to supporting the team until the program ends (or even after that).

Some people from the management team and participating startups of MUFG Digital Accelerator

The MUFG accelerator program has evolved from its first batch as a FinTech accelerator, to a broader scope with the second batch as a digital accelerator. Until now, participation in the program was restricted to domestic Japanese startups, but starting with the next batch, they will actively focus on accepting overseas startups. But before that, we look forward to the demo day for the second batch on July 28th.

A sign in front of The Garage showing the place of origin of Japan’s banks

Translated by Amanda Imasaka

Tokyo Office Tour: Xenodata Lab. uses AI to help investors analyze financial reports

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See the original story in Japanese. This is part of our ‘Tokyo Office Tour’ series (RSS), a modest attempt to better understand how folks in the local startup scene are working every day. We have started to see startups here and there renting houses around Tokyo to use as offices. Instead of rural or suburban areas, this is happening inside of the Yamanote loop train line where rental prices are comparatively high. When asked what they did before moving to their new office, they answer that they used members’ living rooms, or co-working spaces, or even the Renoir coffee shop (yes, the same Renoir where Japanese leading game developer Gumi got its start). It is probably even the case that some of the empty rooms in the houses are being used as living spaces for team members. As long as they apply to divide the areas at the tax office, they should be able to cut costs for the area used as offices, and through the separation of public and private space we could see the birth of a new environment that combines living and working areas. The challenge of how to approach work-life balance would come up, but such…

See the original story in Japanese.

This is part of our ‘Tokyo Office Tour’ series (RSS), a modest attempt to better understand how folks in the local startup scene are working every day.

We have started to see startups here and there renting houses around Tokyo to use as offices. Instead of rural or suburban areas, this is happening inside of the Yamanote loop train line where rental prices are comparatively high. When asked what they did before moving to their new office, they answer that they used members’ living rooms, or co-working spaces, or even the Renoir coffee shop (yes, the same Renoir where Japanese leading game developer Gumi got its start).

It is probably even the case that some of the empty rooms in the houses are being used as living spaces for team members. As long as they apply to divide the areas at the tax office, they should be able to cut costs for the area used as offices, and through the separation of public and private space we could see the birth of a new environment that combines living and working areas. The challenge of how to approach work-life balance would come up, but such a concept is foreign to a single entrepreneur looking to establish their company.

FinTech startup Xenodata Lab. recently rented a house between Ebisu and Hiroo in Tokyo to use as their base of operations. Prior to this, they had worked out of one of their member’s living rooms located in Roppongi, but are now ready to forge the foundations of their business from within their “new castle”.

Ebisu is a popular area for offices, and nearly ten years ago when I was doing business, had I rented offices there I remember the month rent per tsubo (about 3.3 square meters) did not drop below 60,000 yen (around $539 US). Often a 10 month security deposit is necessary for office spaces, making it difficult to use for a business, and of course, you must pay a no interest deposit of a few million yen (tens of thousands of US dollars) to the landlord upon renting. Using the nest egg collected from investors to pay for a deposit is something, as a proprietor, I’d like to see avoided, but in using a residential house as an office the security deposit becomes relatively cheap, significantly lowering the hurdle for finding a space to do business in.

Xeno Flash, developed by Xenodata Lab., specializes in listed stocks in Japan and uses XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) analysis, PDF table analysis, and PDF graph analysis to convert information attached to various financial-related materials into tabular data, which they then apply their own algorithm to in order to extract the most important financial points, and furthermore, through natural language processing, they are able to pull up a background of specific numerical values from an enormous amount of sentence data in the material.

Of the 3,600 listed Japanese stocks, only 500 companies, corresponding to 14% of all stocks, are issuing financial reports which individual investors can refer to when making investment decisions. In other words, since the price fluctuations are so intense, account analysis reports are not issued by most of the small and medium-sized companies invested in by individuals, but if they use Xeno Flash, it would be possible for companies to make them available.

Xenodata Lab. won the Grand Prix of MUFG FinTech Accelorator’s first batch last year. In February of this year, they raised 60 million yen (about $539K US) from the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Teikoku Databank, Kabu.com Securities and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital in a seed round.

Currently, Xenodata Lab. is focusing on sales to online and offline retail brokerage fims as well as financial analysts in investment banking departments of securities, and in the coming months we may expect big announcements from them, such as large collaboration projects with securities firms. Founder and CEO Yojiro Seki confided he would like to expand the range of automated analysis for financial data to include unlisted stocks and foreign listings, and also increase their clients by 50 to 100.

Although the engineering personnel necessary for the immediate system development seems to be satisfied, since the company’s business requires expert knowledge of analysis algorithms and natural language processing, etc., they are always looking for talented people in this field. If you are interested in a business that might be able to create a big impact on the securities industry, try getting in touch with them.

Translated by Amanda Imasaka

XenoHouse situated in a quiet neighborhood
At first glance the signboard appears to be that of a cafe or hair salon.
CEO Seki relaxing on the rooftop
xenoHouse rooftop panoramic image
View from the rooftop overlooking Ebisu (click to enlarge)
The engineer team busy developing.
The winning plaque of the MUFG Accelerator is transparent making it difficult to capture in a photograph.

Tokyo Office Tour: 500 Startups Japan further engages with entrepreneurs from new base

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See the original story in Japanese. This is part of our ‘Tokyo Office Tour’ series (RSS), a modest attempt to better understand how folks in the local startup scene are working every day. On July 1st, Global Business Hub Tokyo (GBHT) officially opened in Otemachi, the city’s financial district near Tokyo station. Thus, a new startup hub has additionally appeared in the area filled with various co-working spaces or event spaces such as Egg Japan, FINOLAB and 3×3 Lab Future. 500 Startups Japan, a 500 Startup’s micro-fund for the Japanese market, bases itself at this GBHT, and will likely frequently hold events like an “office hours” with entrepreneurs or a meet-up utilizing the public space, a bragging right for GBHT. See also: Tokyo’s FinTech startup hub FINOLAB holds its first growth hack seminar In the first $30 million-sized fund launched by 500 Startups Japan last September, Mixi, Mizuho Bank, Mistletoe and angel investor Kotaro Chiba participated as LP (limited partner), and recently it was revealed that Egg Japan and Mitsubishi Estate (which is also part of GBHT’s management matrix) had joined the LP. Although 500 Startups Japan is a fund originated in Silicon Valley, it is also a ‘made-in-Japan startup…

See the original story in Japanese.

This is part of our ‘Tokyo Office Tour’ series (RSS), a modest attempt to better understand how folks in the local startup scene are working every day.

On July 1st, Global Business Hub Tokyo (GBHT) officially opened in Otemachi, the city’s financial district near Tokyo station. Thus, a new startup hub has additionally appeared in the area filled with various co-working spaces or event spaces such as Egg Japan, FINOLAB and 3×3 Lab Future. 500 Startups Japan, a 500 Startup’s micro-fund for the Japanese market, bases itself at this GBHT, and will likely frequently hold events like an “office hours” with entrepreneurs or a meet-up utilizing the public space, a bragging right for GBHT.

See also:

In the first $30 million-sized fund launched by 500 Startups Japan last September, Mixi, Mizuho Bank, Mistletoe and angel investor Kotaro Chiba participated as LP (limited partner), and recently it was revealed that Egg Japan and Mitsubishi Estate (which is also part of GBHT’s management matrix) had joined the LP. Although 500 Startups Japan is a fund originated in Silicon Valley, it is also a ‘made-in-Japan startup fund’ in whicn most of the LPs are composed of Japanese companies or investors.

Since the fund’s launch last fall, 500 Startups Japan unveiled that it had invested in meeting space-sharing service Spacee, followed by Pocket Menu which runs an O2O (online-to-offline) service for restaurants named Pocket Concierge (series A round), a virtual reality content developer Dverse (seed round) and Sora, which runs MagicPrice that emanated from Tech Lab Paak 3rd batch (seed round).

See also:

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According to partners James Riney and Yohei Sawayama of 500 Startups Japan, two strategies upon investment are pointed out as factors for differentiating 500 Startups Japan, other than financials and its mentor network.

One is the “time machine” business. Like Spacee or Pocket Menu cases in their portfolio, some kind of business synergy are sought with startups in the same profession which already exists in US 500 Startups’ portfolio. Or, another case can be considered where US startups aiming to expand into Japan cooperate / combine / purchase Japanese startups in advance in the Japanese market. It is based on the idea of ‘buying time.’ Looking at 500 Startups as a whole, plural startups in the portfolio are able to associate and provide one worldwide services quickly, resulting in higher valuation.

The other corresponds to Dverse. Even if startups focusing on edge (specialized) technologies have the potential for global development, it is not unusual that they are not good at marketing. To support such tech-focused startups to enable global marketing by leveraging a network of journalists around the world is one of 500 Startups’ mission.

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When The Bridge started up its English version under the name of SD, I mentioned that Western investors who do not speak Japanese see the Japanese startup community as a black box. Riney and Sawayama noted that 500 Startups Japan has close ties to Silicon Valley which wants to make its ability to act becoming a guide for global investors as one of the company’s strength in order to make them more interesting to the Japanese startups and to call in further investment activities.

Upon locating its genuine base, 500 Startups Japan is currently recruiting a Marketing & Community Manager for management of events including office hours, meet-ups or for deepening engagement with startups, as well as an Executive Assistant or intern. Do check them out if interested.

gbht-community-space

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Tokyo Office Tour: Grooves wants to create new startup hub in Tokyo’s Champs-Élysées

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See the original story in Japanese. This is part of our ‘Tokyo Office Tour’ series (RSS), a modest attempt to better understand how folks in the local startup scene are working every day. Startups in the growth stage are often forced to relocate their office due to the rapid increase of their employees. As I wrote in this story before, since every district in Tokyo has its own characteristics in terms of property size or public transit access, it is common for startups to move to other district as they grow. However, Grooves, a Japanese startup providing human resources technology (HR tech) solutions, has been relocating its office only in the Omotesando district, sometimes referred to as Tokyo’s Champs-Élysées or Rodeo Drive, for over ten years. We recently visited Groove’s newest office facing a main road in the area to speak with their founder and CEO Yuhikiro Ikemi. He said that the this area’s presence as a startup hub has been gradually growing amongst Tokyo’s other major startup hubs like Shibuya and Roppongi. Our readers may recall that MerryBiz, Japanese crowdsourced bookkeeping startup, established its office last year in this area which we also called a fintech startup hub in Tokyo….

See the original story in Japanese.

This is part of our ‘Tokyo Office Tour’ series (RSS), a modest attempt to better understand how folks in the local startup scene are working every day.

Startups in the growth stage are often forced to relocate their office due to the rapid increase of their employees. As I wrote in this story before, since every district in Tokyo has its own characteristics in terms of property size or public transit access, it is common for startups to move to other district as they grow. However, Grooves, a Japanese startup providing human resources technology (HR tech) solutions, has been relocating its office only in the Omotesando district, sometimes referred to as Tokyo’s Champs-Élysées or Rodeo Drive, for over ten years. We recently visited Groove’s newest office facing a main road in the area to speak with their founder and CEO Yuhikiro Ikemi.

grooves-office-tour-2

He said that the this area’s presence as a startup hub has been gradually growing amongst Tokyo’s other major startup hubs like Shibuya and Roppongi. Our readers may recall that MerryBiz, Japanese crowdsourced bookkeeping startup, established its office last year in this area which we also called a fintech startup hub in Tokyo.

Since a typical office floor is about 200 square meters wide at most in this area, medium-sized companies move to towering buildings in subcenters of Tokyo such as Otemachi or Shinjuku when their office is to small for the increased number of employees. Because these companies typically leave furnishings or amenities when they move, the next tenant startup can take them over when renting these office without additional renovation or furnishings. When moving to the next location, these tenant startups would not need to restore the venue interiors to its original condition if they can find the next renter which can be satisfied with using it without changing the environment. This merits an original tenant company, a new tenant startup as well as an office room owner in terms of cost saving and renovation construction unneeded.

Guiding me inside his new office, Ikemi told us in a modest way that the new venue was far beyond their means but he could luckily rented the one having brilliant interiors and furnishings thanks to a real estate agent that he has known long.

grooves-board-members
L to R: Yukihiro Ikemi (CEO and founder), Minoru Kuriyama (MD, management strategy), Yuka Ouka (programmer), Akira Matsuda (MD, R&D), Takafumi Ohata (MD and co-founder)

Earlier this year, the company appointed Dr. Kenji Hirata, who has been involved in HR-XML (Human Resources eXtensible Markup Language) and standardizing the competence model for human resources development, as principal for the new research unit. And this time around, the company announced that Minoru Kuriyama, former McKinsey consultant and MBA lecturer, and Akira Matsurda, Japan’s only committer on Ruby and Ruby on Rails committer, have joined the board. Going forward, the company will more focused on expanding Forkwell, a platform helping engineers find new jobs by registering their skills portfolio, and CrowdAgent as channels for connecting general job seekers with recruitment agencies, in addition to developing HR technology solutions in the research unit.

Ikemi started the Omotesando Start-up Hub Project this year, encouraging as many entrepreneurs and startups as possible to run their business here together through organizing meet-ups at Apple Store Omotesando which is located in the very heart of the district. We are looking forward to seeing the high rise of the new startup hub, slightly different from conventional startup hubs in chaotic townscape like Shibuya or Roppongi.

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Lovely array of books in the meeting space with clients.
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Staffers are aggressively working in cubicles.
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Engineers discussing in serious manner, surrounded by user voices on post-it notes.
grooves-office-tour-5
With a sheepish grin, Ikemi said “there’s even a room for me” and guided me inside it.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda

Tokyo Office Tour: Premium space for IT developers launches in bustling Shibuya

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See the original story in Japanese. This is part of our ‘Tokyo Office Tour’ series (RSS), a modest attempt to better understand how folks in the local startup scene are working every day. The town of Shibuya is said to be constantly producing new trends but actually is in contrast surprisingly old. Go down any narrow alley and you will find decades-old crowded office space buildings crammed together in rows. In Shibuya, the center of Bit Valley, fresh out of the gate startups are many, but as these companies grow they often relocate to surrounding areas such as Ebisu or Yoyogi. It seems that the rather unique office condition in Shibuya might also have an effect on this. In Shibuya, meeting and co-working spaces aren’t scarce per se, but finding a place that can accommodate large numbers of people is difficult. If you’re planning on holding a modestly large event, you could of course borrow a conference room at a big company, but the majority of those will be thoroughly managed modern office buildings making it difficult to freely allow guests to come and go as they please. I payed a visit to the new event and community space ‘dots.’,…

See the original story in Japanese.

This is part of our ‘Tokyo Office Tour’ series (RSS), a modest attempt to better understand how folks in the local startup scene are working every day.

The town of Shibuya is said to be constantly producing new trends but actually is in contrast surprisingly old. Go down any narrow alley and you will find decades-old crowded office space buildings crammed together in rows. In Shibuya, the center of Bit Valley, fresh out of the gate startups are many, but as these companies grow they often relocate to surrounding areas such as Ebisu or Yoyogi. It seems that the rather unique office condition in Shibuya might also have an effect on this.

In Shibuya, meeting and co-working spaces aren’t scarce per se, but finding a place that can accommodate large numbers of people is difficult. If you’re planning on holding a modestly large event, you could of course borrow a conference room at a big company, but the majority of those will be thoroughly managed modern office buildings making it difficult to freely allow guests to come and go as they please.

I payed a visit to the new event and community space ‘dots.’, which opened on the 1st of August near the intersection of Fire Street and Park Street in Shibuya. The first thing I was surprised by was how open it was and how nicely the space was laid out in terms of visibility, and in spite of the 126 square foot interior, there are no pillars or anything obstructing your view. This what’s called a supportless open space floor plan, characteristic of new construction methods. The space can accommodate 200 to 250 people seated and, if you were holding a lecture, even people in the very back of the room would probably be able to make direct eye contact with the speaker.

I was able to ask dots. producer Yuko Narukama about the reasoning behind the creation of this space.

A year after we started up our engineer event information service dots., we were doing 2 to 4 events a month. We rented a company seminar room and were managing it, but it started becoming a real hassle negotiating renting the space, setting everything up, and dealing with security management and stuff, so that’s when we decided to make our own event space.

In addition to dots. functioning as a work space, they often hold hands-on programming study sessions geared towards engineers on weeknights and weekends. The space is laid out so that there are a lot of large panel displays installed around the room, so wherever you are seated you can clearly see the code that the lecturer is explaining while being able to follow along.

In my experience, when selecting a venue to hold a programming study session for engineers, the space should be able to hold at least 150 participants; dots. can accommodate more than 200. Another feature of dots. is that the event space and the co-working space are connected, so for example it’s possible for people who are co-working at dots. to casually jump into an ongoing study session or event they’re interested in without having necessarily registered for the event beforehand.

Going forward we want to make it so that high quality events and output continue being hosted here.

Narukama and community manager Hiromi Ozawa have also begun offering various event series drawing on their social network and knowhow accumulated over more than a year of event organizing experience. One event series features discussions with and talks from the CTOs of famous companies over lunch called “Lunch with a CTO”. Another series, “Allstars”, features hints and tips from top runners in many different technology fields such as iOS, HTML5, big data, Android, and more.

I wondered if operating such a luxurious open space in Shibuya, one of most premium areas of Tokyo, wasn’t a little over optimistic, but with dots. fees running at 500 yen/hour or 2,500 yen/day for their co-working space, and also with personnel hiring opportunities, seminars for IT company branding, sales promotion exhibitions for IT vendor business, displaying videos and merchandise from sponsor companies, and more, it seems like they can at least expect to break even.

Use of dots. co-working space is free of charge during their August promotion, so if you happen to be in the Shibuya area we hope you’ll stop by and check it out.

Translated by Connor Kirk

shibuya-dots-broader-view
People were working on their own projects respectively while a hands-on workshop for Docker, a container virtualization technology, was underway in the back of the room.
shibuya-dots-coffee-server
A variety of coffee drinks are available for 100 yen each.
shibuya-dots-reception
A showcase at the reception is full of their original goods.
shibuya-dots-schedule
The monthly event schedule can be found on the side of the entrance. Producer Narukama’s mom completes this with her beautiful handwriting.

Tokyo Office Tour: Bookkeeping startup MerryBiz sets up shop at Tokyo’s fintech hub

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See the original story in Japanese. This is part of our ‘Tokyo Office Tour’ series (RSS), a modest attempt to better understand how folks in the local startup scene are working every day. Tokyo-based crowdsourced bookkeeping startup MerryBiz relocated their office to Omotesando, Tokyo, in September. The company had been operating out of 01Booster, a co-working space near Tokyo Tower, since its launch in 2011. MerryBiz snagged funding from Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital in May to boost their business. CEO Hiroki Kudo explained the reason for the office move: It was a good opportunity for us to mix with other startups at 01 Booster. However, we decided to move to the next stage in our business as our service concept had sufficiently jelled. Given our upcoming requirement to apply for the PrivacyMark certification, we believed it was the right time to move to an independent office. Securing funds was a big factor in the decision. The uniqueness of our service is not so prominent so we have to execute it as soon as possible to win the game. The financing was indispensable for us. While Kudo had been exploring fundraising for several years, it was a challenge to receive…

See the original story in Japanese.

This is part of our ‘Tokyo Office Tour’ series (RSS), a modest attempt to better understand how folks in the local startup scene are working every day.

Tokyo-based crowdsourced bookkeeping startup MerryBiz relocated their office to Omotesando, Tokyo, in September. The company had been operating out of 01Booster, a co-working space near Tokyo Tower, since its launch in 2011. MerryBiz snagged funding from Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital in May to boost their business.

CEO Hiroki Kudo explained the reason for the office move:

It was a good opportunity for us to mix with other startups at 01 Booster. However, we decided to move to the next stage in our business as our service concept had sufficiently jelled. Given our upcoming requirement to apply for the PrivacyMark certification, we believed it was the right time to move to an independent office.

Securing funds was a big factor in the decision. The uniqueness of our service is not so prominent so we have to execute it as soon as possible to win the game. The financing was indispensable for us.

While Kudo had been exploring fundraising for several years, it was a challenge to receive a favorable response from investors. In this situation, prominent investors and businesspersons like Terry Hayashiguchi (CyberAgent Ventures), Satoshi Maruyama (Venture United), Etsuji Otsuka (Trium Partners), and Tokyo-based Australian serial entrepreneur Terrie Lloyd, gave Kudo advice and helped him polish his business plan, which led to winning the funding in May.

See also:

They developed and rolled out their first web interface in July using the funds. Japanese cloud-based accounting startup Freee recently introduced an entire back-office solution for businesses; MerryBiz wants to take a different approach to better serve users. Kudo explained:

We don’t aim to replace certified accountants with our service. We’ll focus on providing outsourced paperwork services and help accountants focus on giving advice to their clients. We want our users to select convenient features from among our services and use them rather than providing them with a one-stop (full back-office) solution. So we have integrated with third-party services such as MoneyForward (online account book service) and Scanman (outsourced book scanning service).

Typical tech startups tend to market for user acquisitions via digital manners because their products are usually in digital form. However, Kudo thinks this approach has limits in reaching potential users so he plans to establish complementary partnerships with public accountants and other business professionals. Young accountants, many of whom have not been running businesses for very long, may be good partners for MerryBiz.

This space has competitors like F&M (JASDAQ:4771), which runs outsourced bookkeeping service TaxHouse. However, Kuro believes that MerryBiz can be a top player by bringing more technology-based solutions to the industry. As there are many fintech startups in Tokyo he has begun holding meet-ups to encourage people to connect in the fintech space. The second edition of the meet-up will take place on 26 November.

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The team has two engineers but is hiring now to accelerate their system development efforts.

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An awesome skyline towards Shinjuku from the MerryBiz office.
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The building of the MerryBiz office is facing Aoyama Dori, one of major thoroughfares in Tokyo. Their neighbors include fintech companies like Paypal Japan and Square Japan.

Tokyo Office Tour: At new office, Goodpatch preparing official launch of prototyping tool

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See the original story in Japanese. Japanese UX design firm Goodpatch fundraised 100 million yen (or about $1 million) from DG Incubation, the investment arm of Digital Garage (TSE:4819) in December 2013. Back then the firm was in Akihabara, but two months ago they moved to Shibuya, a major startup hub in Tokyo. Upon visiting the new Goodpatch office, this reporter met a familiar person in addition to the CEO, Naofumi Tsuchiya. It was Boris Friedrich Milkowski, a German who had studied at Keio Media Design (KMD). When he was attending the university, I had been requested by him to join a group focus interview where I offered him my insights about the UI/UX trends for Japanese apps as well as about local startups in Tokyo. He subsequently joined the Goodpatch team for business development to help accelerate the company’s global market expansion. Goodpatch launched rapid prototyping tool Prott as a “closed beta” in March, and their team is finalizing the release of its official version and its iOS app, scheduled to go live soon. CEO Naofumi Tsuchiya aims to disrupt the industry with the Prott app: Prototyping is not so common in Japan, but overseas, many developers typically prototype…

See the original story in Japanese.

Japanese UX design firm Goodpatch fundraised 100 million yen (or about $1 million) from DG Incubation, the investment arm of Digital Garage (TSE:4819) in December 2013. Back then the firm was in Akihabara, but two months ago they moved to Shibuya, a major startup hub in Tokyo.

Upon visiting the new Goodpatch office, this reporter met a familiar person in addition to the CEO, Naofumi Tsuchiya. It was Boris Friedrich Milkowski, a German who had studied at Keio Media Design (KMD). When he was attending the university, I had been requested by him to join a group focus interview where I offered him my insights about the UI/UX trends for Japanese apps as well as about local startups in Tokyo. He subsequently joined the Goodpatch team for business development to help accelerate the company’s global market expansion.

Goodpatch launched rapid prototyping tool Prott as a “closed beta” in March, and their team is finalizing the release of its official version and its iOS app, scheduled to go live soon. CEO Naofumi Tsuchiya aims to disrupt the industry with the Prott app:

Prototyping is not so common in Japan, but overseas, many developers typically prototype prior to app development commencement. We want to educate the Japanese app development industry about the need for prototyping in association with other companies in this sector.

A prototyping tool allows planners or designers to create a mock-up instantly even if they are less familiar with coding.

Existing design tools have many functions but less usability for mobile app designs. By adding various functions such as “drawing function” to Prott, we can bite into user bases held by other software, such as Adobe Photoshop.

The drawing function he mentioned will be supported in the future version of the Prott app. In addition, they are considering supporting other features like those enabling export of a prototype that has been created outside the prototyping tool.

Because the Protto app has been developed in Japan, it obviously supports the Japanese language. But 70% of users are overseas. We are keen to see how their global release and expansion efforts go.

Goodpatch aims to create a comfortable working environment similar to that of startups in Silicon Valley. The company spent a lot on relocation and interior design, but Tsuchiya says the investment will be worthwhile if it can attract talented people.

An unconfirmed report has it that the Tokyo event of Finland’s annual startup conference Slush will take place at the Goodpatch office on October 3rd. The 2013 event took place at Open Network Lab. By helping organize such events, Goodpatch can contribute to the local startup community in Tokyo and bring in a lot of international perspectives and entrepreneurial spirit.

Goodpatch consists of a 32-person team, of which seven are developing the Prott app. Another prototyping tool Pop, which came from Silicon Valley and Taiwan, recently announced their full-fledged entry into the Japanese market, which indicates this space is heating up. To expand Prott and other UI/UX-focused projects, Goodpatch is hiring, so those interested in working there are advised to immediately contact the firm.

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At the entrance.
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Many flowers from startup folks celebrating Goodpatch’s new office.
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Rilakkuma is always seated on the best position.
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A standing desk is good for people like me who have a sore back.
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A comfortable meeting room overflowing an opening feeling.
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We see pingpong tables at many startup offices these days.
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If you visit this corner, you may feel like as if you’ve visited a stylish bar.

Tokyo Office Tour: Japan’s Sansan wants to evolve how the world does contact management

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Our readers may recall we have featured Tokyo-based Sansan more than a few times in the past. Since the company’s launch back in 2007, it has been providing business card-based contact management solutions, in the form of its services Sansan [1] (for companies) and Eight (for individuals). Recently I received several notifications from the Eight app letting me know that a number of my contacts at the company had changed their profiles, because they had moved to a new office. The new space is located between Shibuya and Omotesando in Tokyo, a district that’s home to many prominent fashion brands. There is a cozy space available not only for their employees but also for the local community, with a great view of the city and lots of interesting potted trees and plants. One of the biggest reasons behind the company’s relocation is the rapid enlargement of their team. The number of their clients using the Sansan solution reached 1,500 companies as of this past December, up from 1,000 companies back in June. Eight, the freemium service for individuals, has acquired more than 600,000 users to date. The company may add premium features such as a mass e-mailing to your contacts…

Our readers may recall we have featured Tokyo-based Sansan more than a few times in the past. Since the company’s launch back in 2007, it has been providing business card-based contact management solutions, in the form of its services Sansan [1] (for companies) and Eight (for individuals).

Recently I received several notifications from the Eight app letting me know that a number of my contacts at the company had changed their profiles, because they had moved to a new office. The new space is located between Shibuya and Omotesando in Tokyo, a district that’s home to many prominent fashion brands. There is a cozy space available not only for their employees but also for the local community, with a great view of the city and lots of interesting potted trees and plants.

One of the biggest reasons behind the company’s relocation is the rapid enlargement of their team. The number of their clients using the Sansan solution reached 1,500 companies as of this past December, up from 1,000 companies back in June. Eight, the freemium service for individuals, has acquired more than 600,000 users to date. The company may add premium features such as a mass e-mailing to your contacts or exporting profiles for use in other apps.

In order to make it easier for Eight users to scan business cards from new contacts, Sansan has announced new services today in partnership with some business solution providers. The company has tied up with 10 co-working spaces in Tokyo, where entrepreneurs and SME owners can easily save the profiles of their contacts onto Eight using scanners at those sites. They will also provide a similar service at certain printing outlets.

Sansan has been intensifying its promotional efforts in the North American market as well, and it will be interesting to see how their solutions are accepted in regions beyond Japan.

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The Eight team
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At reception, you can call them using the digital board for an appointment.
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A nice soft sofa for employees when they get a little tired.
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This gong is rung when a significant announcement is made, if they achieve a sales milestone for example.
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A scanner for the Sansan and Eight solutions
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Hiroshi Senju, director of marketing for ‘Eight’
Flowers sent from well-known entrepreneurs and investors celebrating Sansan’s office relocation

  1. Previously known as Link Knowledge.

Tokyo Office Tour: Zendesk gets set to serve Japan from its new space

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Our readers may recall that online customer support platform provider Zendesk established a presence in Japan back in March. The company was initially launched back in 2007 in Copenhagen, but relocated its headquarters to San Francisco to develop more global business opportunities. They have set up a branch here in Tokyo, and we were invited to their recent launching party, hosting many of their customers from the local startup community. This is the fifth regional branch for them, following London, Melbourne, Copenhagen, and Dublin. CEO Mikkel Svane was in attendance, on his way back from the Infinity Venture Summit in Kyoto. He and his country manager, Kan Kunimura, broke open a ceremonial Japanese sake barrel together to serve drinks to guests. They also hired the kind of Japanese food stall often seen at shrine festivals, where anyone can order their favorite foods out of fried noodles, beef rice balls, and the more. I was curious to see that they still have only three people at this branch despite the large office, spanning over 100 square meters. But their marketing manager Shoko Yanagisawa told me they will be hiring more people to serve better their Japanese clients, so we can expect…

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Zendesk CEO Mikkel Svane (Left) and Kan Kunimura broke open a Japanese sake barrel.

Our readers may recall that online customer support platform provider Zendesk established a presence in Japan back in March. The company was initially launched back in 2007 in Copenhagen, but relocated its headquarters to San Francisco to develop more global business opportunities. They have set up a branch here in Tokyo, and we were invited to their recent launching party, hosting many of their customers from the local startup community. This is the fifth regional branch for them, following London, Melbourne, Copenhagen, and Dublin.

CEO Mikkel Svane was in attendance, on his way back from the Infinity Venture Summit in Kyoto. He and his country manager, Kan Kunimura, broke open a ceremonial Japanese sake barrel together to serve drinks to guests. They also hired the kind of Japanese food stall often seen at shrine festivals, where anyone can order their favorite foods out of fried noodles, beef rice balls, and the more.

I was curious to see that they still have only three people at this branch despite the large office, spanning over 100 square meters. But their marketing manager Shoko Yanagisawa told me they will be hiring more people to serve better their Japanese clients, so we can expect it to fill up in the not-too-distant future. For the time being, staffers at their Melbourne branch will be assisting with Japanese clients since they’re in close time zone.

Zendesk’s Tokyo office is located alongside a busy street filled with many Japanese bars and diners. If you visit them in evening, it will be easy to find a place in their neighborhood to chat over drinks.

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From the office entrance. Some guests have already started networking.
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Flowers and foldable bags
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Who has two thumbs and apparently likes to kick ass? This guy!
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Mikkel orders from a food stall.
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One of their team members celebrated his birthday as well

Tokyo Office Tour: Find your dream job with friends on Wantedly

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We recently featured Tokyo-based startup Wantedly as one of the nominees in last week’s CNet Japan Startup Awards. The company has taken an innovative approach to helping people in their job search, providing a platform that leverages your social graph to ensure you find a better fitting job. The ideas is, that by being introduced to jobs by friends and mutual friends, you have a higher chance if finding a job that you’ll love. So far the platform has over 60,000 users and 1800 clients, which is not bad considering that they are just a year and a half old. Their team is growing, and they like to point out that they have brought on new members using the Wantedly platform. In addition to their multi-talented CEO, Akiko Naka, some of folks that I spoke to seem to have ridiculously impressive pedigrees, many coming from places like Facebook, Google, Yahoo, or Goldman Sachs [1]. Wantedly just recently moved into a new office on Meguro, and they were nice enough to allow me to bring my camera by and take some pictures. The office sits just adjacent to a beautiful park, giving the staff a pretty inspiring view, especially at this…

Wantedly CEO Akiko Naka
Wantedly CEO Akiko Naka

We recently featured Tokyo-based startup Wantedly as one of the nominees in last week’s CNet Japan Startup Awards. The company has taken an innovative approach to helping people in their job search, providing a platform that leverages your social graph to ensure you find a better fitting job. The ideas is, that by being introduced to jobs by friends and mutual friends, you have a higher chance if finding a job that you’ll love.

So far the platform has over 60,000 users and 1800 clients, which is not bad considering that they are just a year and a half old. Their team is growing, and they like to point out that they have brought on new members using the Wantedly platform. In addition to their multi-talented CEO, Akiko Naka, some of folks that I spoke to seem to have ridiculously impressive pedigrees, many coming from places like Facebook, Google, Yahoo, or Goldman Sachs [1].

Wantedly just recently moved into a new office on Meguro, and they were nice enough to allow me to bring my camera by and take some pictures. The office sits just adjacent to a beautiful park, giving the staff a pretty inspiring view, especially at this time of year with all the fall foliage still hanging around.

It will be interesting to see what kind of ideas they hatch from this new space. Given that there’s lots of English on their front page right now, I think we can expect Wantedly to make an overseas push in 2014 (or a push to neighboring Asian markets), although for the time being they aren’t saying much on that point. The team has more than a few fluent English speakers, so I think they’ll be far better prepared to go global than most other Japanese startups.

You can check out some of the photos below for a better idea of the layout of their new space, as well as a short video intro from the CEO [2].

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Wantedly office entrance: Ring the bell to say hi
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lounge space
Engineers at work
Engineers at work
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I’ve seen this dog somewhere before…
Engineers at work
More engineers at work
Engineer's super-keyboard of the future
Engineer’s super-keyboard of the future
Busy in the meeting room
Busy in the meeting room

  1. Akiko herself is ex-Facebook. But overall she’s a pretty remarkable talent, who in addition to being a programmer, has also dabbled with making her own manga. As we talked in her office, one of her paintings was propped against the sofa.  ↩

  2. It was really cool of her to give this video a try in English. Not many Japanese startups have dared to do that so far in our series.  ↩