[The Bridge] Pairy, Japan’s social network for couples, raises $1 million

Tokyo-based Timers, the startup behind social network app Pairy, announced today that it has raised $100 million yen (approximately $970,000) from four Japanese investment firms: Incubate Fund, Itochu Technology Ventures, East Ventures, and NTT Docomo Ventures. Pairy helps couples better communicate with each other, with functions like private photo sharing, chatting, and sharing. 

This is the first funding for the company since its launch one and half years ago. ...

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The Bridge 12/18/2013 [en]

memo

• Pairly is one of six start-ups in the first batch of Docomo's seed accelerator program, and won the first award at its demo day. 
• http://pairy.com/ 

[e27] SlideStory clinches US$290K from East Ventures, Skyland Ventures

Japan-based holding company Nanameue today announced securing JPY 30 million (US$291,149) from East Ventures and Skyland Ventures to grow its smartphone movie maker app SlideStory, and expand into Asian markets. 

Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer (CCO), Nanameue, Takahiro Ishihama, tells e27 that SlideStory has garnered more than 400,000 users in two months. While the product can be promoted worldwide, he notes that the company will focus on Asian countries like Japan, Thailand, China, Taiwan, Indonesia and Singapore. ...

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e27  12/9/2013 [en]

memo

• SlideStory allows users to create short video using photos that they took with effect and music. The app recently added a new feature to take a video adding effect and music later. Mobile video is getting hot like Vine but there still seems no dominant player. It is interesting to see how the app and the startup will establish a position in the market.
• http://nanameue.jp/ 

eExpo, Japan's First Crowd Sourcing For Industry Raises 180M Yen / SankeiBiz

Distty, an operator of crowd sourcing service for industry, eEXPO Sourcing which connects needs of large corporations and seeds of local small and medium corporations and universities utilizing network of local coordinators, raises 180 million yen from Jafco.

The total amount dealt among corporations is expected to exceed 8 billion yen in just 4 months since the launch. ...

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SankeiBiz 12/10/2013 [jp]

memo

• Most of crowd sourcing sites match buyers and contractors directly on the web sites, but eEXPO actually outsources finding suppliers or partners to the coordinators. It seems a good idea because gathering enough number of industrial suppliers on the sites may be difficult. In case of most of existing crowd sourcing services, tasks are basically PC-based such as web design, translation or data input, so it may be much easier. A challenge would be that buyers would not use the service so often, because B2B industrial relationship may usually maintains longer.
• http://eexpo.jp/

Contents Marketing Service Provider, Innova Fundraises From Nippon Venture Capital / Cnet Japan

Along with the evolution of Google's search algorithm, traditional SEO techniques are drastically losing the effect. Different from the past when a number of hyperlinks matters, quality of contents becomes more important. Contents marketing is a new way of web marketing corresponding with the change.

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Cent Japan 12/2/2013 [jp]

memo

• Inova has over 400 writers and editors in its data base from which the company assigns right writers to create appropriate contents for its clients. 
• http://innova-jp.com/

[Tech In Asia] Coda Payments scores $2.3 million to make mobile payments without credit cards a cinch

Coda Payments, a Singapore-based company working with telcos to implement easy payments for digital products, has secured $2.3 million in Series A funding from GMO Global Payment Fund, Rakuten Ventures, CyberAgent Ventures, Golden Gate Ventures, and Skype co-founder Toivo Annus. With the money, Coda Payments plans to expand to Malaysia and Singapore. They’re also looking to hire a CFO and a product manager. 

The company, which launched in March 2013, has already forged relationships with over 30 digital content providers from Asia. It is also partnering with two Indonesian telcos, Axis and Esia Mobile, each with 12 million subscribers. ...

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Tech in Asia 12/3/2013 [en]

memo

• CyberAgent Ventures has been continuously investing in start-ups in South East Asia for the past several years, but it is not common for three Japanese Internet companies together invest. Payment is absolutely the key for most of Southeast Asian countries to grow and monetize Internet services. The Japanese companies may see huge potential in the start-up.
• https://www.codapayments.com/ 

[Sd] Japan-based restaurant finder app Retty raises $3.2M

Tokyo-based Retty, the startup behind the restaurant finder app of the same name, announced today that it has raised 330 million yen (approximately $3.2 million) in a series B round from Itochu Ventures, Mizuho Capitalm, and other investors. Prior to this round, the company raised $22 million yen ($285,000) from CyberAgent Ventures and an angel investor back in August of 2011, and 100 million yen ($1.2 million) from Gree Ventures, NTT Investment Partners, and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital back in October of 2012. ...

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Sd 12/2/2013 [en]

memo

• Retty reached 1 million monthly users in October. The service adds social aspects to allow users to view restaurant reviews from their friends or other users who they trust or have similar taste.   
• http://retty.me/

[Sd] Japanese crowdsourcing platform ‘Crowdworks’ raises $10.7 million

Tokyo-based Crowdworks, the startup behind the crowdsourcing platform of the same name, announced today it has raised 1.1 biillion yen ($10.7 million) from CyberAgent, DG Incubation, and Dentsu Digital Fund. These investors will reportedly aid the company in its global business expansion and help diversify its services. Prior to this funding, the company raised 300 million yen (about $3 million) from Itochu Technology Ventutes, DG Incubation, and Suneight Investment. 

Since its initial launch in late 2011, the company has facilitated crowdsourced tasks from over 18,000 companies, worth a total of over 5 billion yen ($48.8 million). It has acquired 80,000 crowdsourced workers on its platform. ...

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Sd 12/2/2013 [en]

memo

• Crowd sourcing is definitely one of the hottest area in Internet service recently. Lancers, another large crowd sourcing in various tasks raised about $3M back in May. Also there are many vertical crowd sourcing services appeared recently, among which some start-ups raised a large amount of capital this year.
• https://crowdworks.jp/  

INCJ Invests In Global Brain's Fund As LP / Cnet Japan

Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, a manager of Japanese government owned fund, announced investment up to 10 billion yen in a new fund established by Global Brain, which is a venture capital to create and raise IT related ventures.

The target categories include IT ventures related to social, ad tech, security, abd cloud as well as start-ups focusing on "Internetization of real business". ...

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Cnet Japan 11/26/2013 [jp]

memo

• The new fund plans to receive money from other investors. Global Brain is operating KDDI's venture fund. 

Real Estate Support Service, Itandi Raises 300M Yen From Globis and Nissay Capital / Cnet Japan

Itandi announced fundraising from Globis Capital Partners, Nissay Capital, and SMBC Venture Capital.

Itandi runs HEYAZINE, a rent information portal site placing only properties from real estate agencies which directly deal with the owner of the property. The service launched back in this March and acquired 2000 agencies in about 9 months.

In addition, it provides REcS, cloud based system supporting real estate companies to manage properties, customers, and deals among agencies. ...

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Cnet Japan 11/22/2013 [jp]

memo

• One of the problems of existing real estate portal sites is that the same property appears many times because many agencies deal with the property. HEYAZINE tries to solve the problem by focusing on a prime contractor. It may raise a question about existing players competing based on a number of properties. It is also interesting to provide solutions to real estate companies as well.
• http://itandi.co.jp/

[The Bridge] Japan’s Toyro brings life insurance online, raises funds from CyberAgent Ventures

Toyro, a startup which operates an online insurance products platform called Insnext, announced that it has raised funds from CyberAgent Ventures, a figure in the tens of millions yen. 

Toyro is a startup founded by former members from Zynga Japan. They have formerly launched comap, a curation service based on location information. Their mission was to fill people’s information gap in some way, and after researching many industries, they found that a particularly severe information gap in the life insurance and pharmaceutical industry. 

... 

One of the more interesting functions provided on Insnext is a life simulator. Users enter their annual earnings, their amount of savings, and how many children they have. Then a projected chart of their future savings and some financial advice will appear, as well as their expected lifetime earnings and expenses. In addition, insurance services needed to prepare for potential risks will also be displayed. And on the next page, users can compare different kinds of life insurances.  ...

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The Bridge 11/22/2013 [en]

memo

• There are many life insurance comparison sites in Japan. Some of them have simulation features. It is interesting to see how Insnext will beat existing services in the crowded market.
• http://insnext.com/ 

[The Bridge] Leading Mark raises 50 million yen, launches online platform for recruiting

Tokyo-based startup Leading Mark, announced on November 5th that it has launched an alpha version of Recme, an online platform that aims to create a more efficient recruitment process. The company also announced that it has raised 50 million yen from CyberAgent Ventures. 

Leading Mark is a startup that Yuji Iida founded while he was a student at Tokyo University. The company organizes recruitment fairs, having succeeded in attracting more than 15,000 students from prestigious universities in Japan and China, with about 1000 students for each event. Their clients include major companies, providing them with recruitment consulting services as well. 

... In Japan, the average number of companies that students approach during their job hunt is over 100. That means for recruiters less than 1% of students they meet will actually join the company. Leading Mark aims to reduce this mismatching between recruiters and students by providing a platform for students to showcase their strengths through video. ...

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The Bridge 11/15/2013 [en]

memo

• Recme would be used not only for students but also for any other looking for a  job. Archiving videos in addition to text-based information would allow the company to differentiate from other job matching services. 
• https://www.recme.jp/

Real Estate Portal, O-uccino To Be Listed On Mothers / Venture Now

Real estate information sites operator, O-uccino will go to be listed on Mothers on December 11th.

O-uccino was established in April 2003 as Home Advisor. In addition to a portal of newly built condominium, HomePLAZA (now called Shinchiku O-ucchino), which was launched in April 2004, the company runs various portal sites for selling and buying real estate, reform, and rent. From November 2011, it unified brands into O-uccino and changed the company name as well.

The revenue ending December 2012 is 1.4 billion yen and the net income is 120 million yen.

Venture Now 11/11/2013 [jp]

memo

• There are many real estate portal sites in Japan including listed large corporations such as Suumo by Recruit, Sumaity by Kakaku.com and Home's. Start-ups such as Ietty are also increasing recently. It may be still not efficient enough to find a home for most of people. There would be opportunities for innovation in the area.
• http://www.o-uccino.jp/

Web conferencing, V-cube Goes IPO On Mothers / Venture Now

TV and web conferencing solution provider, V-cube is accepted for IPO on Mothers market. The planned date is December 10th.

...

V-cube was founded in October 1998 as V-cube Net. It became a corporation in 2001 and changed the name to V-cube in 2002. ... Currently it has 8 subsidiaries overseas centered around Asia to provide web conferencing system to companies, educational institutes, and governments.

The latest revenue ending December 2012 is 1.95 billion yen with 126 million yen of net income.

Venture Now 11/5/2013 [jp]

memo

• A web conference solution is not a new area and strong competitors including Cisco's WebEx exist. But along with speed up of mobile network, its use cases will be broaden. It may be a good timing to go IPO to accelerate the expansion.
• http://jp.vcube.com/

E-coupon, Moggy Fundraises From Interspace / Cnet Japan

Moggy revealed fundraising from Interspace. The amount is not disclosed but it is considered to be around several tens of million yen.

Moggy provides electric coupon service for smartphones. Shops can provide not only one-time coupons, but also a book of coupon tickets which users can use with serial code of a card the shop sells. ...

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Cnet Japan 11/5/2013 [jp]

memo

• Shops who distribute coupons do not need any device to read the coupon but just flick the coupon in the app of an user's smartphone. Smartphone coupon services are getting red ocean recently with a buzz word, O2O. It would be advantage for Moggy to partner with the Internet advertising company.
• https://moggy.in/

[The Bridge] Japan’s Meetrip acquired by social game developer Donuts, relocates to Bangkok

Meetrip is a service that gives you a chance to discover authentic travel experiences arranged by locals in 14 cities across Asia. Tokyo-based Duckdive, the startup behind the service, announced today that it is to be acquired by Tokyo-based social gaming developer Donuts for a undisclosed sum. The latter previously acquired Social Lunch, a website that helps students find jobs. 

Coinciding with this announcement, the startup revealed that it will relocate its base from Tokyo to Bangkok, where the gaming company has a development center. The startup was launched back in June by Takashi Kiyama and his co-founder Nobuhiro Ariyasu, who recently sold private lesson portal Cyta.jp to Cookpad for over 1 billion yen. ...

The Bridge 11/5/2013 [en]

memo

• As in the article, the social game developer acquired Social Lunch last year which is also non-gaming service. Diversifying service lines is its strategy, which is not so common for game developers.
• http://meetrip.to/

Quan Fundraises From Daiwa PI Partners And Others / Cnet Japan

Quan announced finance from Daiwa PI Partners and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital. Quan was founded in August 2011 to develop services for smartphone.

The company partners with Thai largest telecom operator, AIS to distribute AIS myStickerShop for Thai market. Also it started providing sticker contents to WeChat, Chinese Tencent's messenger app from October 22nd. ...

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Cnet Japan 11/1/2013 [jp]

memo

• Along with rapid growth of messenger apps in Asia, stickers are becoming a key revenue source for developers of messenger apps. LINE actually sells over $10 million of stickers every month. The partnership with WeChat would bring huge potential to Quan.
• http://quan-inc.jp/ 

Stock Photos Service, PIXTA Raises 70M Yen / Cnet Japan

Stock photos, videos, and illustrations sales site, PIXTA  revealed fundraising from Globis Capital and others to secure 70 million yen. In addition, it launched a subsidiary in Singapore to expand into Asian market seriously.

PIXTA sells photos, videos, and illustrations which creators such as professional and high amateur cameramen posted. More than 5 million materials are available now. Copyright belongs to cameramen but it is possible to modify the materials. It launched the service in English from July. ...

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Cnet Japan 11/1/2013 [jp]

memo

• PIXTA raised the same amount about two years ago from Globis and others. 
• http://pixta.jp/ 

Cloud Business Card Management, Sansan Forms Capital Alliance With Salesforce / Venture Now

Sansan provides business card management service which allows users to share their human network in their company by scanning business cards. It keeps the data up-to-date with patented technology to push personnel change information automatically. As of October 2013, it has over 1500 corporate users.

The service started service integration with Salesforce Sales Cloud from 2008. With the capital alliance, it plans to accelerate global expansion with a new service.

Venture Now 10/30/2013 [jp]

memo

• Sansan also provides similar service focusing on consumers, Eight, with which users can manage business cards by taking photos with is mobile app. The company raised 500 million yen back in April 2013.
• http://www.linkknowledge.net/

SNS Platform, Revolver Raises 52.5M / Venture Now

Revolver announced fundraising of 52.5 million yen from CyberAgent Ventures, Mizuho Capital and E-Guardian. The company develops and operates a platform allowing celebrities and luxury brands to build SNS dedicated to their fans easily.

Revolver was founded on July 2012 and received investment of 20 million yen from CyberAgent Ventures a month later. It also got funded 50 million yen by the same investor. ...

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Venture Now 10/31/2013 [jp]

memo

• The platform allows celebs or brands not only to develop Pinterest-like social networking site but also to provide paid services in the site such as video streaming.
• http://rvlvr.co/

[The Bridge] Japanese mobile payments processor Coiney secures $8M in funding

Japan’s Nikkei reported that Tokyo-based mobile payments processor Coiney will soon raise up to 800 million yen (approximately $8 million) from Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, the country’s state-run investment fund which promotes emerging technology businesses. 

Our readers may recall that the startup raised 500 million yen ($5 million) back in August from Credit Saison, one of Japan’s top credit card companies. The company expects to transact more than 1 trillion yen ($10 billion) through its payment platform in the next five years. ...

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The Bridge 10/28/2013 [en]

memo

• INCJ invested in another credit card payment service, Royal Gate recently. It seems bit strange to invest in the same area, but it seems Coiney mainly targets small shops, while Royal Gate focuses on enterprise customers. Needless to say, competitors from US such as Square and Paypal are very strong. INCJ may hope to grow Japanese company to compete with others because payment is a platform for commerce.
• http://coiney.com/

[The Bridge] Japanese personal accounting startup Money Forward raises $5 million

Tokyo-based Money Forward, the startup behind the personal accounting app of the same name, announced today that it has raised 500 million yen ($5 million) from Japanese investment company Jafco. 

Money Forward provides online personal accounting for individuals, allowing them to easily manage their daily expenses by integrating with their bank passbooks and credit purchase history with information scraped from their web bank and credit accounts. The service is also available for desktop, as well as iOS and Android platforms. The company also announced that it will launch a cloud-based accounting service for individual and corporate users, and it will also start publishing an online newsletter. ...

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The Bridge 10/28/2013 [en]

memo

• Online services for personal finance are getting hot recently. Money Forward's direct competitor is Moneytree which announced finance of 150 million yen from DG Incubation and others just a few weeks ago. Another crowded field in personal finance is household account keeping apps like Zaim, Recireco, and Dr Wallet. These areas are not new as Internet service, but along with penetration of smart devices, new services are trying to replace existing services.
• https://moneyforward.com/

[The Bridge] Japanese business reporting tool Gamba raises $200,000 from Skyland Ventures

Yokohama-based Gamba, the startup behind the business reporting tool of the same name, announced today that it has raised $20 million yen (approximately $200,00) from Skyland Ventures, a Japanese investment company focused on seed-stage startups. Some of our readers may recall when we reported back in July that their tool would be integrated with a number of code- and task-tracking tools: GitHub, BitBucket, Pivotal Tracker and Google Tasks. 

The company was launched last December by Masahiro Morita who previously worked with e-commerce giant Rakuten as a business development producer. As of July, it has acquired more than 1,000 corporate accounts in Japan across a wide range of companies. ...

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The Bridge 10/24/2013 [en]

memo

• Communication tools targeting for business customers utilizing social networking features are becoming hot category for startups recently such as Talknote and Chatwork. Generally speaking, it takes much longer time to grow compared to consumer social services, but it is also true that B2B is more robust to maintain user base. It is just a beginning of the competition for these business social networking services.
• http://www.getgamba.com/

ZIGExN To Be Listed On Mothers At November 22 / Cnet Japan

ZIGExN was founded as a joint venture between Drecom and Recruit Group under the name of Drecom Generated Media.  From 2008, it has operated vertical search service enabling to search across multi net media such as Tenshoku EX, job search, and Jidousha EX, car search. In February 2009, it sold out Drecom Blog business to Drecom and changed the name to ZIGExN in September of the same year. ...

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Cnet Japan 10/22/2013 [jp]

memo

• Other vertical categories include housing, moving, ISP, solar panel, insurance, wedding, live tickets, and travel. Some categories have even sub categories such as job search focused on nurse. It is quite interesting business and still has room to grow because there may be more vertical portal services.
• http://zigexn.co.jp/

Social Media Marketing, Allied Architects Goes IPO On Mothers / Venture Now

Allied Architects was founded on August 2005. It runs social media marketing services centered around Monipla Fun Blog which is a community platform allowing business customer to do marketing and sales promotion on it.

The latest business results are 1.07 billion yen of revenue and 134 million yen of net income ending December 2012.

Venture Now 10/23/2013 [jp]

CyberAgent Invest In Smartphone Ads Startup In Silicon Valley / MarkeZine

CyberAgent invests in URX Inc., retargeting advertising focused on mobile apps. It is the first investing deal for CyberAgent in Silicon Valley. Its advertising technology division partners with URX for its Japan and Asia entry.

URX was founded in February 2013 launched from Y Combinator. Different from other retargeting technology which can lead to top page of apps, URX enables to lead directly to a certain page in apps.

MarkeZine 10/24/2013 [jp]

memo

• CyberAgent has been actively investing in startups in Asia aiming to transfer skills and knowledge of CyberAgent to them and get into the market. In case of Silicon Valley, the company may more focus on helping the startups to get into Japan market. It is interesting to see how the aim works.
• http://urx.com/

[The Bridge] Japanese e-commerce platform provider Base raises $2M from CyberAgent

Japanese e-commerce platform provider Base announced today that it will raise 200 million (approximately $2 million) from Japanese internet giant CyberAgent. This will be the first investment from the latter’s new fund targeting middle- and late-stage startups, also known as Fujita Fund after the company’s CEO Susumu Fujita. 

According to Base’s CEO Yuta Tsuruoka, his company also raised 50 million yen ($500,000) from Sun Eight Investment back in July. The total amount of funds raised is about 273 million yen ($2.73 million), including investments from East Ventures, Party Factory, and angel investors. ...

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The Bridge 10/23/2013

memo

• BASE's direct competitor, Stores.jp was acquired by Starttoday, the largest fashion commerce service, ZOZOTOWN operator back in July. Yahoo Japan removed listing fee for merchants on its marketplace and auction site. EC market has been considered to be mostly competition between Rakuten and Amazon for several years, but it is actually changing and getting fierce.
• https://thebase.in/ 

C2C English Conversation Lesson, Cafetalk Operator Raises 38M Yen / Cnet Japan

Smallbridge, operating C2C online learning platform "Cafetalk" revealed finance of 38 million yen from Mizuho Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and United.

Cafetalk is a C2C platform allowing users to have online lessons using Skype including English conversation lessons and others from teachers around the world. Teachers including language experts, entrepreneurs, painters, actors, and Japanese who live in foreign countries many years give lessons such as learning science or math in English, learning English with dramas, how to write letters in Korean, and manner lessons in French. There are about 1800 lessons from 20 countries. ...

continue reading in Japanese...
Cnet 10/23/2013 [jp]

memo

• There are many Skype English lesson services in Japan. Cafetalk tries to differentiate from the competitors by integrating learning of cultures rather than focusing on language itself. It might be a smaller market, but seems to have more stickiness in users.
• http://cafetalk.com/ 

Cloudian Raised From Intel Capital / Mynavi

Cloudian announced fundraising from Intel Capital on 23rd October. The amount is not disclosed.

Cloudian is a software developer with expertise in cloud storage software products having offices in US, Japan, and China. The company provides a packaged software, Cloudian and others. ...

continue reading in Japanese ...
Mynavi 10/24/2013 [jp]

memo

• Cloudian software allows enterprise customers to build Amazon S3 compatible cloud storage system. 
• http://www.cloudian.com

[The Bridge] Japanese corporate communication platform Talknote raises $2 million

Tokyo-based Talknote, the startup behind the corporate communication platform of the same name, announced today it has raised 200 million yen (approximately $2 million) from Japanese investment company Lead Capital Management. Prior to this funding, it had raised an undisclosed sum of investment from CyberAgent Ventures back in March of 2012. 

The platform was initially launched as an instant messaging tool for restaurants back in February of 2010, but switched to become a corporate communication platform for businesses in general back in June of 2011. It had over 5,000 corporate users as of last March, but since then its growth has accelerated surpassing 10,000 accounts this month. ...

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The Bridge 10/21/2013 [en]

memo

• A social networking service for corporations has been considered to have a big potential for many years, but there seems no very successful services so far in Japan. Talknote accelerates the growth from this year, which means the service category finally starts to become popular. 
• http://talknote.com/

Innovation Network Corporation Of Japan Established Joint Fund With University Of Tokyo Edge Capital / Nikkei

A government-owned fund, Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) announced a set up of a new fund jointly with University of Tokyo Edge Capital (UTEC). INCJ invests up to 10 billion yen in the fund in which they plan to raise additional 5 to 10 billion yen from financial institutes. It aims to create new business by excavating and investing in buried research at universities.

Majority of capital is funded by INCJ, but UTEC is in charge of selection of investments. ...

Nikkei 10/16/2013 [jp]

memo

• An establishment of new funds is expected to increase in the next several months. A valuation of seed startups seems already rising and these new funds could accelerate the trend.

[The Bridge] Japanese premium outlet site Luxa raises $3.3 million from KDDI

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

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

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

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The Bridge 10/17/2013 [en]

memo

• Luxa was one of many Groupon clone services when it was launched. Most of the clones have disappeared except a few top services including Groupon itself, but Luxa seems doing quite well even now targeting discount of luxury goods rather than coupons of restaurants or beauty clinics. The company raised 500 million yen from Jafco back in March this year. 
• https://luxa.jp/

[Tech In Asia] Kii, a backend-as-a-service firm that funds startups, confirms expansion to Southeast Asia

Backend-as-a-service (BaaS) companies have risen in prominence this year after the acquisition of Parse by Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) for a reported $85 million. 

A growing segment of cloud computing, BaaS platforms essentially gives customers a ready-to-use backend infrastructure which doesn't require writing a line of code. Ideally, it brings cost savings by reducing the need for users to hire a backend developer. 

While there are dozens of BaaS providers in a field with no clear leader in sight, one particular company stands out: Kii has received an investment from Silicon Valley based Fenox Venture Capital to expand to Southeast Asia. ...

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Tech In Asia 10/15/2013

memo

• The amount of the finance is not disclosed but the total amount raised so far is $7.3 million. Unique point of the company is that it invests in app developers including Enish which went IPO in 2012. It seems the company does not need to raise money, but it may expect Fenox for helping its business expansion rather than money itself.
• http://www.kii.com/en/

[The Bridge] Ietty fundraises $500,000, aiming to disrupt Japanese home rental industry

Ietty is a Japanese startup that provides an alternative to conventional househunting. The startup announced yesterday it has raised 50 million yen (approximately $500,000) from I Mercury Capital, the investment arm of Japanese social network Mixi. Since its launch back in February of 2012, the company has been developing its service in stealth mode. But it seems that, coinciding with these new funds raised, they are turning up at many showcasing opportunities like Graph Hack Award 2013. 

Ietty, the platform that the startup provides under its company name, aims to solve problems for both homeseekers and property agents. When you use conventional home finder sites, you need to enter lots of criteria to find something to fit your preference. But Ietty uses your Facebook user profile, and agents propose some available options via the platform based on criteria you have entered in advance. ...

The Bridge 10/16/2013 [en]

memo

• There are a few dominant house portal sites including Recruit's Suumo and HOME'S. It seems hard market for a startup like Ietty, but it is also true that these existing sites have not been so changed for many years. It is interesting to see how Ietty will change the rule of the quite matured business.
• https://ietty.me/

[The Bridge] Japanese personal finance app Moneytree raises $1.5 million

Tokyo-based Moneytree, a startup that provides a personal finance app, announced yesterday it that has raised 150 million yen ($1.5 million) from DG Incubation and other investors. 

Users can register bank accounts and credit accounts, and the app lets you aggregate up-to-date balances and expenses, browsing them in a single view. The app was launched back in April and quickly reached 130,000 downloads by August. Coinciding with the funding, the company also announced that it has surpassed 200,000 downloads. Looking at similar apps such as ReceReco and Zaim which both recently passes 1 million downloads, the Moneytree app still has much room to grow. ...

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The Bridge 10/16/2013 [en]

memo

• Diffrent from Zaim or ReceReco, account aggregation services like Moneytree have higher barrier for users to start using. It may be not easy to have 1 million users but on the other hand, after registering accounts, users do not need to do anything but watch the app. So, maintaining users is much easier. Anyway, the key for success is how these apps can make money with users and their financial information. We may be able to see how Moneytree will monetize in the future.
• https://moneytree.jp/

Following Square, Coiney, Others, Royal Gate Officially Enters Mobile Payment Service / TechCrunch Japan

The competition in mobile payment service is getting fierce with Square which entered in Japan in May, Japanese startup Coiney, PayPal Here which SoftBank distributes, and Rakuten Smart Pay. Most of these service mainly targets small and medium businesses, while Royal Gate aims enterprise customers, which closed 1 billion yen of fundraising from Innovation Network Corporation of Japan.

Royalgate runs payment platform, PAYGATE which is currently adopted mainly by middle class sized corporations. Larger companies including logistics, insurance, and telecom are considering to deploy it. ...

continue reading in Japanese ...
TechCrunch Japan 10/14/2013 [jp]

memo

• It may take much longer time to sell the service to enterprise than to small shops, but it would be robust because quite large size of market already exist.
• http://www.royalgate.co.jp/

[The Bridge] Shopping points service Smapo joins forces with Rakuten

Back in Feburary, we wrote about Smapo, the Japanese equivalent of Shopkick. Today, the company announced that it has joined Rakuten group, giving it access to Rakuten’s 80 million+ members.  

Smapo was initially launched back in September of 2011. By checking into physical stores, users receive points (one point is worth one yen), which can be exchanged to rewards such as gift certificates and dinner tickets. Smapo can be used at over 700 participating stores and over 90 brands. Stores are required to pay comission on a pay-per-performance basis. ...

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The Bridge 10/15/2013 [en]

memo

• The price is not disclosed. Rakuten has a huge user base with Rakuten point which is available to use for shopping at Rakuten's EC sites. Rakuten aims to expand the point service to offline business, for which Smapo would have a synergy.  
• http://www.smapo.jp/ 

[TechCrunch] Supercell Dominates The Realm: Game Maker Sells A 51%, $1.53B Stake To SoftBank and GungHo Online

Another big move for Softbank into the gaming world, and a massive investment for Finnish gaming juggernaut Supercell: the company is selling a 51% stake for $1.53 billion to Japan’s SoftBank and games developer GungHo OnLine Entertainment. This strategic investment, which makes Supercell a subsidiary of Softbank, will be used to fuel Supercell’s global expansion. It effectively represents a quadrupled valuation for 100-employee Supercell to over $3 billion in the last seven months — bigger than that of publicly-traded social gaming giant Zynga at $2.86 billion. ...

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TechCrunch 10/15/2013 [en]

memo

• SoftBank acquired GungHo back in May. With the acquisition, SoftBank subsidizes two of the most successful mobile game companies in the world. Telecommunication business is in fierce competition particularly in matured market. Integrating upper layers like mobile contents would become more important for telcos.  

AgenTec Raises 50M Yen From Nippon Venture Capital / Venture Now

AgenTech revealed fundraising of 50 million yen from Nippon Venture Capital. ...

AgenTech was founded in January, 2004 providing web browser based contents management system, ABook and others. ABook consists of an app, a management server, and an authoring tool. Anyone can easily create and distribute rich contents with images, music, and videos to smart devices.

Venture Now 10/4/2013 [jp]

memo

• AgenTech also provides consulting and outsourcing service and other products targeting business customers. 
• http://www.agentec.jp/ 

[The Bridge] Japanese translation startup Conyac raises $600,000

Tokyo-based Anydoor, the startup behind crowdsourced translation service Conyac, announced today that it has raised funding worth 60 million yen (approximately $600,000) from three Japanese VC firms: United, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and SMBC Capital. Coinciding with this announcement, Conyac also unveiled that its total number of corporate users exceeds 1,000. ...

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The Bridge 10/7/2013 [en]

memo

• The translation market is expected to grow rapidly along with the trend of globalization, particularly exponentially increasing online contents. There will be large room to grow for Conyac.
• https://conyac.cc/

[The Bridge] Japanese fish delivery startup making waves, raises $1.5 million

Tokyo-based Hachimenroppi (named after the eight faces and six arms seen on many Buddhist statues) is a startup that does something rather unusual. It delivers fish, handling distribution services for restaurants. And apparently that business has some serious potential, as the company announced recently that it has raised 150 million yen (approximately $1.5 million) from VC firm Value Create, PR agency Vector, and logistics company Winroader. ...

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The Bridge 10/9/2013 [en]

memo

• Fish distribution is an unusual category for such fundraising news. Investors are also different from other typical deals. It is great to see venture news in wider area.
• http://hachimenroppi.com/

[The Bridge] Korean car-navigation startup raises $2.7M from CyberAgent Ventures, other investors

Korea’s beSUCCESS reported on Monday that Seoul-based LOC&ALL, the startup behind car navigation app Kimgisa, has raised $3 billion Korean won (approximately $2.7 million) from Japan’s CyberAgent Ventures and two Korean investment firms, Neoplux and Partners Venture Capital. Prior to this funding, the company raised seed funding of 1 billion won ($930,000) from Partners Venture Capital in January. With these new funds, they plan to intensify their engineering and marketing efforts with the initial goal of expanding to Japan, with Mainland China and Indonesia to follow later. ...

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The Bridge 10/2/2013 [en]

memo

• There are no major car navigation apps in Japan so far, so CyberAgent Ventures may aim to bring the app to Japan in the future.
• http://locnall.com/

Ruby Groupe Raises 100M Yen / Cnet Japan

Ruby Groupe announced raising 102 million yen from Mobile Internet Capital. The company was founded by former Guilt Group members to provide luxury brands with support for marketing and operation of e-commerce sites utilizing Internet, mobile and social media. ...

continue reading in Japanese...
Cnet Japan 10/2/2013

memo

• Ruby Groupe provides outsourcing service to integrate most of EC related activities including access log analysis, CRM, system management, logistics, customer support, and so on. It seems human resource intensive service. It is interesting how the company will scale the business using the capital raised.
• http://rubygroupe.jp/ 

O2O Service, Ipoca Raises 140M Yen / MarkeZine

Ipoca fundraised 140 million yen from Nippon Venture Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, KSP, and Mizuho Capital.

The company runs O2O service, Tacchan, to realize effective sales promotion of shops with mobile.

MarkeZine 10/1/2013 [jp]

memo

• Tacchan sells an IC tag reader to shops. Customers of the shop can receive coupons or other beneficial information by email if they just touch their mobile on the reader. 
• http://www.ipoca.jp/

Invoice Management, misoca Raises 30M Yen From Incubate Fund / Venture Now

Cloud invoice management service, misoca operator, Stand Firm revealed raising 30 million yen from Incubate Fund.

misoca was launched back in November 2011. The founder developed the service from his experience of freelance. In addition to managing and editing invoice, quotation, and delivery slip, the company developed a mailing process including printing and inclusion at partnered document centers. It has over 8,000 customers signed up on the service. ...

continue reading in Japanese...
Venture Now 9/30/2013 [jp]

memo

• In the invoice management service area, MakeLeaps would be another famous startup which surpassed 10,000 customers in this June. Also, large corporations like Raccoon joined the competition with a service called Paid which even acts for collection of bill in addition to sending invoice. This means there is definitely a need for the solution. 
• http://standfirm.jp/

[Tech In Asia] Kyoto University launches new $60 million fund to invest in Asian startups

Kyoto University, a Japanese research university, is launching its second venture fund worth $60 million to invest in startups in Japan and the region. 

The Kyoto University Venture Fund (KUVF), managed by Miyako Capital, aims to support and fund the development of business ideas by faculty, students, and alumni of the university, as well as anyone who wants to work closely with the education institution to launch a startup. ...

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Tech In Asia 9/30/2013 [en]

memo

• It is interesting that the fund seeks investment in South East Asia as well as in Japan. I have not heard of cases that Japanese Universities' fund invest in foreign startups.

Next Invests 40M Yen In Interior EC, FLYMEe / Venture Now

Real estate and house information service, HOME'S operator, Next announced a capital and business alliance with FLYMEe, an interior EC site operator. It acquires 20% of stocks of FLYMEe with 40 million yen.  ...

FLYMEe was established on August 1st, 2011. In addition to the EC site, it plans, manfactures, and sells original and custom-made furniture.

Venture Now 9/27/2013 [jp]

memo

• HOME'S boasts the largest number of properties posted in Japan with over 4 million real estates. It is a natural match with EC of furniture. 
• http://www.flymee.co.jp/

[Sd] Japanese social media promotion startup raises $1.5M

Interest marketing is a Tokyo-based startup focused on social media marketing for brands. The startup announced today that it has raised 150 million yen (approximately $1.5 million) from Japanese investment firm Nissay Capital. The total amount of funds in this round is assumed to exceed 200 million yen ($2 million), as it expects to receive additional funding from other VC firms next month. 

The startup introduced a social media promotion tool called Kolor back in March. Based on requests from advertisers, this service shows you ads in the form of missions to be completed. When you finish a mission, you will be able to receive a reward that can be later be redeemed for discounts or products at partnering merchants. In the six months since its launch in March, the startup has acquired 40 advertisers and the service’s iOS app has seen 40,000 downloads. According to the company, its main userbase is males in their 30s who are relatively familiar with digital services. ...

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Sd 9/30/2013 [en]

memo

• Missions of Kolor are mostly very easy and simple one like answering a survey or quiz, but users have to post comments on Facebook to finish missions. As companies are increasingly using social networking services for advertising or sales promotion recently, it is interesting how the service will grow.
• http://interest-marketing.net/

Startup Community Operator, Creww Raises 120M Yen From Nippon Television / Cnet Japan

Creww is a community site to provide services which startups need or match supporters with startups. It has currently over 700 startups registered and offers several features including Request allowing to search human resource, Collabo holding events to partner with large corporations, and Market Place providing startups with products and services such as cloud services or press release distribution adding benefit for startups. ...

continue reading in Japanese...
Cnet Japan 9/30/2013 [jp]

memo

• Venture investment of television companies are kind of trend this year. Fuji TV is the most active station investing several startups already. TBS announced to establish a venture fund recently. Internet has been considered to be enemy for TV station for a long time, but it seems gradually changing.
• http://creww.me/

OKWave Invests In WESYM, Crowd Funding, To Take 14.8% / Venture Now

Q&A site operator, OKWave closed a capital and business alliance with Dream 4, a crowd funding site, WESYM operator. OKWave gains 14.8% of its stocks by allocation of new shares.

With the alliance, both plan to collaboration including service linkage, mutual sales support and sharing information and cooperation in global expansion.

Dream 4 was founded on May 10th, 2011. WESYM allows contributors to support fund-raisers challenging their dreams such as music, movies, and sports with mileage points like T Point or Rakuten Super Point. In addition to Japanese, it is available in English, Chinese (simplified and traditional), and Korean to aim to develop crowd funding service connecting Japan and overseas.

Venture Now 9/24/2013 [jp]

memo

• Crowd funding is gradually becoming popular, but it seems the service providers are increasing on even higher rate than actual users. OKWave has a large user base, which will be a big support for WESYM to acquire new users. For OKWave, the partnership seems to be a smart way to judge if it should launch or how it should be involved with a crowd funding service utilizing existing user base.
• http://wesym.com/

Minna no Kabushiki Steps Up Expansion In Europe By Acquiring SNS For Investors In Germany / Venture Now

Minkabu, an operator of social networking site of financial information, Minna no Kabushiki, acquires a whole stocks of sharewise GmbH which runs SNS for investors in Europe.

sharewise was launched in 2007 which has been expanding its community service for investors in Europe. Currently it provides the service in German, Italian, Spanish, French, and English based in Germany. ...

continue reading in Japanese...
Venture Now 9/27/2013 [jp]

memo

• Large Internet companies in Japan like Rakuten or DeNA have been acquiring many companies outside of Japan in the last several years, but it is not common for smaller companies like Minkabu acquire startups in Europe. It will become a good reference for Japanese startups and relatively small comapnies considering global expansion. Minna no Kabushiki was also launched in 2007. 
• http://www.minkabu.co.jp/

Advanced Media Acquires Internet Consumer Appliance Venture, Glamo / VentureNow

A voice recognition technology company, Advanced Media acquires 228,000 stocks of Glamo with 150 million yen to subsidizes a startup, which develops iRemocon enabling to control home appliances such as air conditioner or lighting with a smartphone. By adding its original voice recognition technology on iRemocon, users can control appliances by voice. ...

Glamo was founded on February 2nd, 2011. At Innovation Weekend Grand Finale 2011, a startup pitch contest held on December of the same year, the company got the grand champion award. The recent operating result ending January 2013 was 98 million yen of revenue with 11 million yen of net income.

continue reading in Japanese...
VentureNow 9/25/2013 [jp]

memo

• Advanced Media was founded in 1997 and went IPO in 2005. It looks a good acquisition for Advanced Media to add another application on top of its technology.
• http://glamo.co.jp/
• http://www.advanced-media.co.jp/

CyberAgent Launches "Fujita Fund" To Invest 10B Yen / Cnet Japan

CyberAgent establishes a new division to accelerate its venture investment. It plans to collaborate with its venture investing arm, CyberAgent Ventures. The CEO, Mr. Fujita said that the concept is Fujita Fund. He, himself as an entrepreneur and manager, invests in startups. ...

The new division targets middle and later stage companies. The amount is case by case. It does not plan to establish a fund, but secures 10 billion yen budget in the division aiming to invest in one startup a month. ...

continue reading in Japanese...
Cnet Japan 9/25/2013 [jp]

memo

• It sounds like overlapping with CyberAgent Ventures, but the subsidiary focuses on seed or early stage startups. Also, CyberAgent Ventures does not necessarily stick to synergy with the parent company when selecting startups to invest. It is very interesting to see what kind of companies Mr. Fujita choose to invest.  

[Sd] Forget food photos. Japan’s ‘Instapaper for Interiors’ raises $1M

Tokyo-based Tunnel is the startup behind RoomClip, a photo sharing service that lets you show off your room. The company announced today that it has raised 100 million yen ($1 million) from Femto Growth Capital. Coinciding with this funding, the investment firm’s general partner Tetsuya Isozaki will join the board of the startup. 

Tunnel was founded back in November of 2011. Previously it received seed investment of 10 million yen ($100,0000) from Samurai Incubate and Cyber Agent Ventures back in 2011. ...

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Sd  9/20/2013 [en]

memo

• A lot of photo sharing apps have appeared and many of them seem to find difficult to monetize even if they have a large active users. Photo sharing of rooms sounds too niche, but the app may show enough traction to raise the fund. In fact, photos of interior goods may be compatible with EC.
• http://roomclip.jp/

[Sd] Cinemacraft raises $1.5M in funding, expands team in Tokyo and LA

Tokyo-based media startup Cinemacraft has announced today that it has closed a $1.5 million round of funding from NTT Docomo Ventures, Turner Broadcasting’s Media Camp, and 500 Startups. 

We have previously featured Cinemacraft’s primary offering Videogram, a clever thumbnailed display that gives users visual previews of the various parts of a video. ...

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Sd 9/17/2013 [en]

memo

• Videogram works for any type of videos, but it may be most suitable for movies. As video contents will increase more, the solution will be interesting to the video contents publishers. 
• http://www.videogram.com/

[Sd] Japan e-commerce startup Monoco partners with major broadcaster Fuji TV

Monoco is a flash sales e-commerce site specializing in limited quantity fashions selected by curators and buyers worldwide. The company announced today that it has received an undisclosed amount of funding from Fuji Startup Ventures, the investment arm of Japanese TV network Fuji TV. 

Coinciding with this funding, the two companies are expecting to work on collaborative product development and explore possible sales opportunities on Fuji TV’s own programs. Furthermore Monoco plans to launch a physical store in Shibuya, Tokyo on September 27th, to be called Monoco Showroom. ...

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Sd 9/13/2013 [en]

memo

• Fuji Startup Ventures has been actively investing in startups. It is the fourth company among disclosed deals. There would be a big advantage for Monoco from the collaboration if Fuji TV supports increasing the brand awareness of Monoco on TV.
• http://monoco.jp/ 

[Sd] Japanese startup Fello raises $1M to help game developers improve user retention

Singapore-based Unicon, the Japanese startup behind user retention improvement platform Fello, announced today that it has raised 100 million yen (approximately $1 million) from Jafco and other Japanese investors. With these funds, the startup will intensify engineering and marketing efforts and is planning to set up an office in Japan. 

The platform provides testing and analysis features for typical mobile gaming app functions such as push notification or messaging via an SDK. According to the startup’s CEO Ryuichi Tanaka, more than 100 app developers have signed up for the service since its launch back in August. ...

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Sd 9/12/2013 [en]

memo

• Providing app developers with solutions to acquire, retain, or analyze users is becoming one of the hottest category for venture investment recently. Particularly, mobile game developers are their main target since they are increasing a budget for development. 
• https://fello.net/

[Sd] Japanese startup raises $600K, gets you into hard-to-book restaurants

Pocket Concierge is a website that allows you to book popular restaurants, even if they are fully booked for several months. Tokyo-based startup Pocket Menu, the startup behind the service, announced today it has raised 60 million yen (approximately $600,000) from Fuji Startup Ventures, Nippon Venture Capital, and individual investors.

continue reading ...
Sd 9/11/2013 [en]

memo

• Restaurant booking is not very new category for Internet service, but Pocket Concierge tries to differentiate from others by focusing on very popular restaurants. 
• https://pocket-concierge.jp/ 

[Sd] Translation startup Conyac partners with World Jumper, introduces new API

Tokyo-based Anydoor, the startup behind crowdsourced translation service Conyac, announced today that it has partnered with Yaraku, the provider of website translation tool World Jumper. 

Since its launch back in 2009, Anydoor has been providing translation services between multiple languages using crowdsourced workers. ... 

World Jumper was launched last year, and has been a translation service mainly for website owners. The company outsources orders to third-party agencies (such as Conyac or Gengo), but it also accumulates frequently-used translation requests and results in its database for future reference. ...

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Sd 9/10/2013 [en]

memo

• As in the article, both companies have already worked together, so the partnership may intend to integrate their services more deeply. 
• https://conyac.cc/
• http://www.worldjumper.com/

[Sd] Japanese recipe sharing site Cookpad acquires private lesson marketplace Cyta.jp for $10 million

Tokyo-based Coach United, the startup behind private lesson marketplace Cyta.jp, announced today that it has been acquired by Japanese recipe sharing site Cookpad. 

Update: Several news sources say the acquisition price is 1 billion yen ($10 million). 

Since its launch back in June of 2011, it has grown to provide users with about 140 different private lessons (in fields such as language learning, music study, or qualification acquisition), available at 3,000 locations around the country. Unlike other marketplace services which typically connect potential students to teachers, the startup assures the quality of the lessons they introduce on the website by checking into will teach them or where it will take place.

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Sd 9/3/2013 [en]

memo

• It has been said that there are not many exits by acquisition in Japan, but it seems increasing recently. It may be the first acquisition with the scale for Cookpad. Cyta.jp can expect to accelerate customer acquisition speed by linking with CookPad.
• http://cyta.jp/ 

[Sd] Japanese skills marketplace Coconala fundraises $1.5 million

Coconala is a website where you can buy and sell knowledge, skills and, experience from users who are willing to teach. Tokyo-based Welself, the startup behind the service, announced today that it has fundraised 150 million yen ($1.5 million) from Nissay Capital, Opt, Adways, and Tetsuro Yoshimatsu, the CEO of Japanese cosmetic site iStyle. 

Coconala was originally launched back in July of 2012. Users don’t need to pay any sign-up or monthly fee, but they do need to pay a 500 yen ($5) commission for a purchase. To date the startup has acquired 63,000 users, 10,400 knowledge ‘items’ for sale (i.e. their expertise or skills), and it has transacted more than 43,000 deals using the marketplace. ...

continue reading ...
Sd 9/4/2013 [en]

memo

• There are various categories in Coconala from consulting for personal matters to business such as web marketing and logo design. Among them, it seems drawing a portrait or fortune telling are popular categories. Coconala takes 30% from the 500 yen for system usage and billing commission. It is interesting to see how Coconala will increase the transaction with the capital. 
• http://coconala.com/

[TechCrunch] Japanese E-Commerce Giant Rakuten Confirms Acquisition Of Video Site Viki

Rakuten has confirmed that it will acquire Viki, a global video streaming platform that crowdsources translated subtitles. The Japanese e-commerce giant, which is expected to sign an agreement to buy Viki tomorrow, did not disclose financial terms, but is reportedly paying $200 million. ... 

Based in Singapore, Viki operates similarly to Hulu.com by offering premium content such as primetime TV shows and movies. Its advantage over other on-demand video services is crowdsourced subtitles from 22 million users in more than 160 languages, which allows Viki’s content providers to quickly enter new markets. ...

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TechCrunch 9/1/2013 [en]

memo

• Rakuten has been aggressively acquiring companies in foreign countries. They were mostly EC sites in 2010 and 2011, but it acquires more digital contents related companies in the past two years including e-book reader, Kobo, and Spanish video-on-demand, Wuaki.tv. It is interesting to see how the acquired services will make synergy with each other.

TBS Enters Venture Investment By Establishing A Subsidiary / Cnet Japan

Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings (TBS HD) announced an establishment of TBS Innovation Partners. The subsidiary aims to develop a new business of TBS Group by investing in and partnering with startups. By enhancing contacts with venture companies and entrepreneurs, it will accelerate the growth of new businesses.

A venture fund of 1.8 billion yen will be launched in early September by TBS HD and TBS Innovation Partners. The fund plans to invest in startups around media, contents, entertainment, and IT. ...

continue reading in Japanese...
Cnet Japan 9/2/2013 [jp]

memo

• Another TV and media company, Fuji Media Holdings started investment in startups this year. There would be more media companies to join the trend. 

[Sd] Anime illustration crowdsourcing platform raises $1.3M

Crowdsoucing platforms can be divided into two categories: 1) general purpose and 2) industry-focused. The latter is very much focused on specific business fields such as translation or design, and such crowdsourcing platforms are on the rise. 

MugenUp is a Tokyo-based startup that provides a crowdsourcing platform for animated content and illustrations. The company just announced that it has raised series B funding worth 130 million yen (or approximately $1.3 million) from Industrial Growth Platform and SMBC Venture Capital. ...

continue reading ...
Sd 8/30/2013 [en]

memo

• Other industry-focused crowdsourcing startups include Gengo and Conyac (Translation), and Designclue (Design). While, leading crowdsourcing services for general purpose by startups would be Lancers and Crowdworks. 
• http://mugenup.com/

[Sd] Japanese VC invests $2.3M in Korean business intelligence startup

5Rocks is a Korean startup focused on providing business intelligence (BI) tools for mobile gaming developers. The startup announced today that it has raised 2.55 billion Korean won (approximately $2.3 million) from Japanese venture capital Global Brain. ... 

5Rocks was launched back in September of 2010 and raised 2 billion won ($1.8 million) from Seoul-based Stone Bridge Capital. The startup was previously known as Ablar Company, providing a mobile-based restaurant finder and booking services for Korean consumers. Back in June, the company rebranded itself as 5Rocks and started developing the mobile BI tools, capitalizing on its previous experience in the mobile app business. ...

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Sd 8/29/2013 [en]

memo

• Since a mobile game industry is becoming more cost intensive than before, it becomes difficult space for startups. Instead, startups who provides solutions to game developers such as advertising, analyzing, and testing seem to be increasing recently. 
• http://www.5rocks.io/

[Sd] Japanese startup raises $3M to bring laundry services online

Lenet is a web service that allows users to order a pick up of your laundry and have it delivered to your home when it is done. White Plus, the startup behind the service, announced today it has raised 300 million yen (approximately $3 million) from Japanese investment company Jafco. 

When users order online, the startup’s courier will come and pick up the laundry within a couple of hours. Subsequently the laundry will be washed at partnering cleaners and then returned to your door.

continue reading ...
Sd 8/29/2013 [en]

memo

• There are several cleaning delivery services in Japan mostly provided by traditional cleaning shop chain companies. It would be advantage for Lenet to focus on delivery because other competitors may not be able to push their delivery services so hard by cannibalization issues with real shops. 
• http://www.lenet.jp/

[Sd] Japanese mobile payments processor Coiney raises $5M

Tokyo-based Coiney, a startup focused on providing mobile payments solutions in Japan, announced today that it has raised 500 million yen (over $5 million) from Credit Saison, one of Japanese top credit card companies. 

Coiney was launched back in March of 2012 and has been providing mobile payments solutions using swipe card readers for smartphones. This, of course, puts them in the same space as Square, Paypal Here, and Rakuten Smartpay. ...

continue reading ...
Sd 8/28/2013 [en]

memo

• Square entered into Japan market late May this year with lower commission rate, 3.25% while others took 4 - 5%. Just after the entry, other three changed the rate to 3.24%. It seems difficult to differentiate each other for the service except the commission rate. It is interesting to see how the market will be like.
• http://coiney.com/

Fuji Startup Ventures Invests In Classified Service, Jimoty / ITpro

A subsidiary of Fuji Media Holdings (FMH), Fuji Startup Ventures announced investments in Jimoty, a classified site operator.

As the first collaboration, FMH's subsidiary, Sankei Living places the classified service in its web site, Living Web which targets housewives and a part of Living.jp web services operated by the publisher. With the partnership, both aim to link each content and to send audiences mutually. ...

continue reading in Japanese...
ITpro 8/26/2013 [jp]

memo

• Jimoty was founded in 2011 by a venture capital, Infinity Venture Partners. Fuji Startup Ventures invested in Smart Education, which is also a portfolio of Infinity Venture Partners.
• http://jmty.co.jp/

[Cnet] Telepathy raises $5 million to develop Google Glass rival

Telepathy, a Silicon Valley startup, has raised $5 million in a first round of funding to develop wearable computing technology that rivals Google Glass. 

"Wearable technology will enable the next wave in social networking," Telepathy CEO Takahito Iguchi said in a statement. "The $5 million funding will enable us to enrich the user experience of Telepathy One, which we expect to bring to market in 2014."... 

The Telepathy One headset prototype, demonstrated earlier this year, is a hands-free communications device that wraps around the back of a wearer's head. It has a small screen, earplugs for playing sound, and this fall will get a software developer kit so programmers can write apps for it. ...

continue reading ...
Cnet 8/21/2013 [en]

memo

• The CEO of Telepathy founded Tonchidot which develops AR mobile app, Sekai Camera. The AR app made a sensation at TechCrunch50 in 2008. He left Tonchidot late 2012 to start the new challenge. It is very exciting to see how Telepathy will be received in consumers next year.
• http://tele-pathy.org/

[Sd] Japanese UI improvement platform planBCD raises $800,000

PlanBCD is a platform that helps developers to improve the user interface on their web services. Kaizen Platform Inc., the Tokyo-based startup behind the service, announced today that it has raised seed funding worth $800,000 from Gree Ventures, GMO Venture Partners, and CyberAgent Ventures. With these funds, the company plans to intensify its system development and marketing efforts. 

The service provides developers with an A/B testing environment, especially useful for improving web content and interfaces, comparing the performance of multiple available options. It helps you test and optimize processes like sign-ups, purchases, or landing pages. Unlike other conventional services, planBCD allows you to conduct this time-consuming, trial-and-error process by only embedding a single-line of JavaScript on your website. ... 

The most remarkable part of the service is that PlanBCD gives you ways to crowdsource the UI and UX improvement process, something which is often difficult to assign someone in your company. ...

continue reading ...
Sd 8/20/2013 [en]

memo

• The service is quite interesting to combine A/B testing tool and crowdsourcing allowing customers to outsource analyzing by technology and improving by human power at once. Crowdsourcing is becoming a big trend recently, but the combination would be indicating the next step for the crowdsourcing business.
• https://planb.cd/ 

Volare Raises 175M Yen To Strengthen Appliv, Apps Review Site / Cnet Japan

Volare revealed that it raised 175 million yen from Nippon Venture Capital (170 million) and an individual investor.

Volare was founded in 2007 to start education business. And then it changed its business domain to SEO and web consulting. Currently, it operates Appliv, an iOS apps review site from August 2012 based on knowledge acquired through the SEO consulting service. ...

The company runs advertising service, Appliv AD, which shows app review as a performance-based advertising charging a fee when the ad is clicked. Advertisers can automatically tender a bid in real-time by just setting a budget and CPC. ...

continue reading in Japanese...
Cnet Japan 8/20/2013 [jp]

memo

• There are many app review sites. It seems not easy to differentiate from others. The advantage of Appliv is that it has directory categorized even smaller than AppStore, which works well for SEO. As apps search still has a large room to be improved on AppStore or Google Play, Appliv may have opportunity to grow much more.
• http://app-liv.jp/

Gocro Raises 420M Yen From Globis / PR Wire

Gocro, a developer of SmartNews, news app for smartphone, announced fundraising from Globis Capital Partners to finance 420 million yen.

Gocro plans to accelerate hiring engineers and data scientists with the capital aiming to provide optimized news reading experience to users around the world. It targets to increase employees from current six to 40 within a year. ...

continue reading in Japanese...
PR Wire 8/14/2013 [jp]

memo

• SmartNews provides news based on analyzing web sites tweeted on Twitter. The company has partnered with 43 media of 25 publishing companies. News curation service is becoming a hot field for startups recently. Other major players include Gunosy and Vingow. And not only startups, but also big players like LINE and Gree entered the competition recently. 
• https://www.smartnews.be/

[Sd] Japanese flea market app secures investment of $3M just 6 weeks after launch

Tokyo-based United, the company behind homescreen decoration app CocoPPa, announced today that it has partnered with Kouzoh. You may recall that Kouzoh is the mobile commerce company which recently developed a flea market app called Mercari. 

As part of this partnership, United will invest 300 million yen (approximately $3 million) in the flea market company, thus taking a 14.5% stake in the company. ...

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Sd 8/13/2013 [en]

memo

• CocoPPa is growing rapidly to reach 12 million users, among whom 83% are located outside of Japan. Kouzoh can expect CocoPPa's user base to expand to global market. 
• http://united.jp/
• http://mercari.jp/

JTOWER, Indoor Communication Equipment Vendor, Raises 1B Yen / TechCrunch Japan

JTOWER provides infrastructure equipment such as antenna or cable for base stations to telecom operators. In concrete terms, it will launch a business to allow multi cellular operators to share infrastructure of JTOWER equipped at commercial facilities, office buildings, and apartment houses. In the US, there are the same business like American Tower which went IPO and has became a large company. JTOWER fundraised 1 billion yen from INCJ, JA Mitsui Leasing, and IT Farm. ...

continue reading in Japanese...
TechCrunch Japan 8/12/2013 [jp]

memo

• As smartphones are more and more used, investment in network infrastructure is becoming a big issue for any mobile operators. It is also benefit for owners of buildings. The business seem to have a huge potential.
• http://www.jtower.co.jp/

Glider Associates Raises 2B Yen To Grow Curation Magazine, Antenna / PR TIMES

Glider Associates agreed on allocation of new shares of 2 billion yen to Macromill and Singpore-based Scentan Ventures. ...

In addition, it is decided that Takahumi Horie will become a service adviser for the company. ...

PR TIMES 8/8/2013 [jp]

memo

• Macromill is a listed Internet research company, which invests 1.5 billion yen to take 25.6% of voting rights of Glider Associates. The company was established in February 2012. The CEO of Macromill concurrently served as a CEO of the company when launched, but now it is changed. Antenna is a Flipboard-like app with over 500,000 downloads. It is surprisingly huge amount of investment for the status.
• http://antenna.jp/web/

[Sd] User-generated travel plan startup Trippiece raises $2M

Tokyo-based travel startup Trippiece announced today that it has raised 200 million yen (approximately $2 million) from Draper Nexus Venture Partners and other investors. With the funds, the startup plans to start developing smartphone apps. 

The company also invited Fumiaki Koizumi to the board of directors. He previously worked with Mixi and DeNA where he helped them IPO. At Trippiece, his main role will be to strengthen the management. ...

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Sd 8/6/2013 [en]

memo

• Trippiece allows users to create a travel plan which will be actually arranged by a travel agency if the plan has more than five users applying it. It is a kind of a crowd sourcing of travel plan. Currently it has 50,000 users who may be mainly heavy travelers. It would be a key to acquire average users to accelerate the growth.
• http://trippiece.com/

[Sd] Star Festival raises $10M to expand innovative bento box business

Star Festival, the Japanese startup behind Bento box delivery and catering service, Gochikuru.com, announced today it has raised 1 billion yen (or about $10 million) from Jafco, one of Japan’s leading VC firms. With these funds, the company will expand its service to areas all around the country. Currently their service is available only in the five urban areas of Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Sendai, and Fukuoka. 

Since its launch back in 2009, Gochikuru has been providing a variety of meals from its partner lunch vendors. To date they have partnered with more than 210 lunch-box brands and served more than 3.2 million users. ...

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Sd 8/5/2013 [en]

memo

• Star Festival raised 250 million yen in August 2012 from Globis and Gree Ventures. Different from other catering portal sites like Rakuten Delivery or Gurunavi Delivery, Gochikuru has its own deliver network which allows them to have restaurants or food manufactures without delivery functions as a partner. It seems the differentiation works well.
• http://gochikuru.com/

[Sd] Yahoo Japan acquires e-commerce portal provider Venture Republic

Yahoo Japan (TYO:4689) announced recently that it has taken over leading Japanese e-commerce portal provider Venture Republic. Financial details were not disclosed. 

Since its launch back in 2001, the latter has been a provider of price comparison sites and commerce-focused vertical media such as Travel.jp, Hotel.jp, and Coneco.net to Japanese online consumers. The company is also known to have invested in Indonesian price comparison site Telunjuk and Singapore’s travel metasearch service Flocations. 

Upon the acquisition, the company was split into two companies corresponding to different business fields. One company rebranded as Osenikku and will continue operating Coneco.net. And the CEO formed a new company called Venture Republic, which take care of the travel-related media. As a result, the comparison site business has been entirely handed over to Yahoo Japan. ...

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Sd 8/3/2013 [en]

memo

• Coneco.net provides price comparison of goods in various categories searching many e-commerce sites including Yahoo's rivlas, Rakuten and Amazon. It is interesting to see if Yahoo integrates the service in Yahoo Shopping or leaves it as separate service.
• http://www.coneco.net/company/
• http://www.vrg.jp/en/

KDDI'ｓ Subsidiary, mediba Acquires ScaleOut / Cnet Japan

According to an industry insider, the price of the acquisition is over 1 billion yen. ScaleOut provides an integrated advertising distribution platform, ScaleOut Ad Platform which includes DSP, DMP, tag management, ad server, third party ad serving and others. mediba acquired Nobot, ad network for smartphone in 2011.

Cnet Japan 8/5/2013 [jp]

memo

• A competition of ad tech centered around RTB is getting fierce among ad companies and startups. We will probably see more acquisitions or IPOs in the next few years in this field.
• http://www.scaleout.jp/

Klab Ventures Invests In Realglove, PaaS Technology Startup / SankeiBiz

With the capital, Realglobe develops CDaaS (Continuour Dedlivery as a Service) aiming to launch within this year.

CDaaS is a development platform to add functions to automate various tasks such as building source, system test, backup, and delivery on top of PaaS which automates sever settings and building execution environment. ...

SankeiBiz 7/29/2013 [jp]

memo

• Klab is recently famous as a mobile social game developer, but was originally a very technology oriented company providing security solutions or load distribution systems. It could utilize its knowledge and skills to enhance the platform service of Realglobe.
• http://www.realglobe.jp/

Viewable Time-based Advertising Platform, Dennoo Raises $1.1M From Nissay Capital / TechCrunch Japan

Dennoo sells advertising based on time that users actually view rather than just displayed on a browser. The company announced fundraising of $1.1 million from Nissay Capital. The total amount raised so far is $3.1 million. ...

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TechCrunch Japan 7/26/2013 [jp]

memo

• Dennoo's cost per view model is best suited for video ads, which is finally becoming popular in Japan recently. It would be the best timing for the company to accelerate its sales and marketing activity with the capital.
• http://www.dennoo.com/

ignote Raises Fund From Samurai Incubate / Dream News

ignote provides melocy enabling to share musical performance overdubbed with smartphones. With just a smartphone device, users can record, upload and share music, which makes easier for anyone to publish music sessions. ...

continue reading in Japanese ...
Dream News 7/25/2013 [jp]

memo

• melocy targets amateur bands to allow them to have a music session on different place and time. There is a similar service, nana, which focuses on sharing singing. 
• http://melocy.com/

Mobile App Eyeland Operator, Oceans Announced Partnership With Adways In O2O And Fundraising From Mitsubishi UFJ Capital / Yomiuri Online

Oceans started collaboration with Adways in O2O. As the first effort, Oceans' location-based communication service, Eyeland places coupons of Asuiku, a last minute discount coupon service by Samurai Adways, Adways' subsidiary to send customers from the application.

Oceans also fundraised from Adways and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital. ...

Yomiuri Online 7/25/2013 [jp]

memo

• Eyeland allows users to share posts with their location as well as chat with other users around. It has been a few years since location-based apps appeared, but it seems they are still struggling to monetize from the services. It is expected that Eyeland can build up its business model with the partnership.
• http://eyeland.in/en/