[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.