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Japan’s Laxus raises $2.5 million to help women enjoy more luxury brand handbags

Yukari Mitsuhashi Yukari Mitsuhashi
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See the original story in Japanese. Japanese startup Es Corporation, the company behind an online luxury handbag rental app called Laxus, announced on Tuesday that it has fundraised 300 million yen ($2.5 million) from Tokyo- and Silicon Valley-based investment fund WiL (World Innovation Lab). The company will use the funds for rental bag inventory fulfillment and customer acquisition, in addition to enhancing customer support with new hires. Pre-launched back in late February this year, the Laxus app is about to hit 50,000 downloads shortly while more than 2,500 users are subscribed to the service, which exceeds the company’s initial goal for the first year. Users can use the service for free for the first month, but 89% of them are converted into paying users after their second month. The user retention rate has often exceeded 90% over the last eight months since launch. Their variety of bags has now doubled to 2,000 items compared to 1,000 items back in February when the service began, dealing with bags from globally popular 36 luxury brands including Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Hermes, and Chanel. They now look to expand beyond into niche brands popular among fashionistas. The company recently added several features to the…

laxus_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Japanese startup Es Corporation, the company behind an online luxury handbag rental app called Laxus, announced on Tuesday that it has fundraised 300 million yen ($2.5 million) from Tokyo- and Silicon Valley-based investment fund WiL (World Innovation Lab). The company will use the funds for rental bag inventory fulfillment and customer acquisition, in addition to enhancing customer support with new hires.

Pre-launched back in late February this year, the Laxus app is about to hit 50,000 downloads shortly while more than 2,500 users are subscribed to the service, which exceeds the company’s initial goal for the first year. Users can use the service for free for the first month, but 89% of them are converted into paying users after their second month. The user retention rate has often exceeded 90% over the last eight months since launch.

Their variety of bags has now doubled to 2,000 items compared to 1,000 items back in February when the service began, dealing with bags from globally popular 36 luxury brands including Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Hermes, and Chanel. They now look to expand beyond into niche brands popular among fashionistas. The company recently added several features to the app, allowing users to submit their unneeded items for purchase as well as requesting additional items or brands they want to use.

Women are selective about clothes, shoes, and accessories but can’t get around to luxury bags. Laxus was started with the aim to help such women enjoy more fashion items. It will be interesting to see how the company can make the app a must-have for fashionistas by adding a series of features based on user voices.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japanese online printing startup Raksul fundraises $14.3 million

Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
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Raksul, a Tokyo-based startup providing online printing services, announced today that it has raised 1.45 billion yen (approximately $14.3 million) from WiL (World Innovation Lab), Global Brain, Itochu Technology Ventures, Plus (an office stationary company), GMO Venture Partners, and Mixi. Raksul is a fabless company that provides printing services in partnership with more than 1,600 printing facilities across Japan (as of November of 2013). Users can place printing orders at affordable rates because the company takes advantage of downtime at participating printers to complete those orders. According to Nikkei Business, Raksul will use the funds raised this time to prepare for global service operations, and to launch a new service that allows merchants to distribute their flyers via newspapers to consumers for affordable rates. By making the most of the internet and removing middleman costs, their flyer distribution service gives local merchants a better chance to promote their services for less than 10% of the price usually seen in this sector. Raksul was founded in 2009 and raised a total of 230 million yen ($2.4 million) during the last year from Nissay Capital, Yahoo Japan, and Anri.

raksul-team
From their Facebook page

Raksul, a Tokyo-based startup providing online printing services, announced today that it has raised 1.45 billion yen (approximately $14.3 million) from WiL (World Innovation Lab), Global Brain, Itochu Technology Ventures, Plus (an office stationary company), GMO Venture Partners, and Mixi.

Raksul is a fabless company that provides printing services in partnership with more than 1,600 printing facilities across Japan (as of November of 2013). Users can place printing orders at affordable rates because the company takes advantage of downtime at participating printers to complete those orders.

According to Nikkei Business, Raksul will use the funds raised this time to prepare for global service operations, and to launch a new service that allows merchants to distribute their flyers via newspapers to consumers for affordable rates. By making the most of the internet and removing middleman costs, their flyer distribution service gives local merchants a better chance to promote their services for less than 10% of the price usually seen in this sector.

Raksul was founded in 2009 and raised a total of 230 million yen ($2.4 million) during the last year from Nissay Capital, Yahoo Japan, and Anri.

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  1. Japan’s fabless printing startup Raksul fundraises $33.7 million
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Japanese mobile app developer TriFort raises $3.9 million from WiL fund

Junya Mori Junya Mori
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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup TriFort announced today it has raised about $400 million yen (about $3.9 million) from WiL (World Innovation Lab), a fund recently formed by Japanese venture capitalist Gen Isayama. Since its launch back in August of 2012, the company has been working on contract-based software development for social gaming and smartphone app developers. They have rapidly grown to 100-person team in just 1.5 years. The company will use the new funds to start developing and marketing its own mobile apps globally. Our readers may recall that this investment fund was formed back late December, raising over $300 million from a number of Japanese companies. It aims to promote Open Innovation activities and to nurture Japanese entrepreneurs who can lead Japan into the next generation.

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From the left: TriFort CEO Shintaro Otake and CTO Taimei Omata (From their Facebook page)

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based startup TriFort announced today it has raised about $400 million yen (about $3.9 million) from WiL (World Innovation Lab), a fund recently formed by Japanese venture capitalist Gen Isayama.

Since its launch back in August of 2012, the company has been working on contract-based software development for social gaming and smartphone app developers. They have rapidly grown to 100-person team in just 1.5 years. The company will use the new funds to start developing and marketing its own mobile apps globally.

Our readers may recall that this investment fund was formed back late December, raising over $300 million from a number of Japanese companies. It aims to promote Open Innovation activities and to nurture Japanese entrepreneurs who can lead Japan into the next generation.

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Japanese companies form new $300M investment fund to target promising startups

Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
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Japan’s Nikkei reported today that Silicon Valley-based investment company WiL (World Innovation Lab) has formed a new fund focused on startups in Japan and the Valley, raising $300 million from a number of Japanese companies: All Nippon Airways, NTT Group, Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings, Hakuhodo DY Group, Daiwa Securities, JVC Kenwood, Benesse Holdings, and Innovation Network Corporation of Japan [1]. Their potential investees are startups developing new products and services in fields like consumer electronics, e-commerce, or motor vehicles, making the most of smartphone and big data technologies. They expect the size of each investment to be in the range from $5 million to $50 million, with about six to eight investments being made per year. The Nikkei says that $300 million is a figure that equate to 30% of all startup investments in Japan in FY 2012. The investment fund was founded by Japanese venture capitalist Gen Isayama, who previously worked at the investment firm DCM, where he invested in Renren, a social network service in Mainland China. According to his recent Facebook posting, this new effort was made possible by working with co-founding members Shiichi Saijo and Masataka Matsumoto [2]. Innovation Network Corporation of Japan is the country’s state-run…

goodinvestment_featuredimage
Image credit: Big Stock Photo

Japan’s Nikkei reported today that Silicon Valley-based investment company WiL (World Innovation Lab) has formed a new fund focused on startups in Japan and the Valley, raising $300 million from a number of Japanese companies: All Nippon Airways, NTT Group, Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings, Hakuhodo DY Group, Daiwa Securities, JVC Kenwood, Benesse Holdings, and Innovation Network Corporation of Japan [1].

Their potential investees are startups developing new products and services in fields like consumer electronics, e-commerce, or motor vehicles, making the most of smartphone and big data technologies. They expect the size of each investment to be in the range from $5 million to $50 million, with about six to eight investments being made per year. The Nikkei says that $300 million is a figure that equate to 30% of all startup investments in Japan in FY 2012.

The investment fund was founded by Japanese venture capitalist Gen Isayama, who previously worked at the investment firm DCM, where he invested in Renren, a social network service in Mainland China. According to his recent Facebook posting, this new effort was made possible by working with co-founding members Shiichi Saijo and Masataka Matsumoto [2].

  1. Innovation Network Corporation of Japan is the country’s state-run initiative for investing in innovative activities and companies. ↩
  2. Shinichi Saijo was previously the CEOs of CyberAgent Ventures and CyberAgent America. He was appointed director at Japanese payment startup Coiney earlier this year, and has been helping Japanese startups expand their businesses. Masataka Matsumoto co-founded a web service company called P.I.M. in late 1990 and sold it off to Yahoo Japan back in 2000. He has held several executive posts at the portal company for almost ten years, but quit in 2012. ↩

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