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. ...

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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. ...

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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.

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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. ...

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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.

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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. ...

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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. ...

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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. ...

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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/