Japanese convenience store chain Lawson will announce its US$1.1 million series A investment in Tokyo-based startup Beatrobo later today, Tech in Asia has learned.
Beatrobo is a global, social music service that uses customizable robot avatars as a conduit for sharing songs and discovering new artists. The company’s first attempt at hardware, PlugAir, may become the digital mixtape of the future. The tiny device plugs into a mobile device’s earphone jack and acts as a key for instantly downloading music. ..continue reading ...
Tokyo Otaku Mode, the startup behind the Japanese subculture site of the same name, announced today that it has raised series A funding worth 270 million yen. The round was led by Itochu Technogy Ventures, with Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, Sun Eight Investment, GaiaX Global Marketing Ventures (GX), and 500 Startups also participating. Otaku Mode did not disclose the breakdown of the funding.
Since first launching in the form of a Facebook fan page back in 2011, the startup has acquired over 14.7 million likes. They registered a company in Delaware in December of 2012, and subsequently joined Silicon valley accelerator 500 Startups. ...continue reading
Ample, the Tokyo-based startup behind cosplay photo sharing platform of the same name, announced today that it has raised an undisclosed sum of funding from Japan’s online learning company Hitomedia and entrepreneur/investor Takafumi Horie.
Since its launch back in October of 2012, the platform has acquired more than 40,000 photos and over 210,000 likes on Facebook, and has users from about 60 countries worldwide. ...continue reading...
Some of our readers may remember a few months back when we told you about the launch of Tokyo-based Iemo, a new curation media focused on interior decoration and housing. The company announced today it has secured an undisclosed sum of funding from B Dash Ventures. Iemo will use these funds to step up its engineering efforts. Coinciding with this news, Japanese search engine expert Yuji Kumagai has joined their management team as COO.
The company was initially launched by well-known Japanese entrepreneur Mari Murata. In order to ensure quality content on their platform, they have established partnerships with interior manufacturers and architectural offices to collect high quality images, with the goal of helping users post curated articles more easily. ...continue reading ...
Tokyo-based EventRegist provides a mobile app for event organizers. It lets you announce events, handle ticketing, and collect admission fees from guests. The startup announced today that it has raised 165 million yen (about $1.6 million) from Japanese newspaper company Nikkei.
Since its launch back in November of 2011, EventRegist has been available to five markets, offering service in Japanese, English, Indonesian, Thai, and traditional Chinese. They will use these new funds to intensify product development and marketing efforts. ...continue reading ...
Tokyo-based Catarizm, the startup behind online leisure booking site Asoview, announced today that it has raised about 200 million yen (or approximately $1.95 million) from Globis Capital Partners and Jafco. The startup will use the funds to enhance its booking management system and add call center representatives.
Since its official launch back in April, the company has been providing booking services for weekend leisure activities like skydiving, rafting, and many others. The company secured a partnership with Yahoo Japan’s travel portal back in October, and we were told at that time that they had listed 1,500 excursion activities on site from over 460 companies. That figure has since grown to about 2,150 activities available from 775 companies. They also launched a finder app for sightseeing spot called Holipple back in December. ...continue reading ...
Tokyo-based Mercari, the startup behind the mobile flea market app of the same name, announced today it has raised 1.45 billion yen (approximately $14.1 million) from Global Brain, Globis Capital Partners, Itochu Technology Ventures, GMO Venture Partners, and other unnamed investors.
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Since the service’s launch back in July, the Mercari app has surpassed one million listed items, growing at a pace of 10,000 items every day (as of last December). Their daily submissions recently grew to tens of thousand of items, and total transactions on the platform also reached several million of US dollars. The app has seen 1.5 million downloads to date. ...continue reading ...
Tokyo-based Kaizen Platform, the startup behind the user interface A/B testing platform PlanBCD, announced today that it has secured $5 million from Fidelity Growth Partners Japan and Gree Ventures. With the funds, the company expects to add more engineers to help with platform development.
Co-founder and CEO Kenji Sudo will be focused on launching the company’s international business, preparing to launch offices in San Francisco and New York. ...continue reading ...
Wunderlust, the startup behind the travel log platform Compathy, has allocated shares to Incubate Fund and Recruit. The amount of shares was not disclosed, but it expected that Compathy has raised tens of millions of yen (or hundreds of thousands of dollars).
Compathy lets users upload their travel photos to a page (or pages) telling their travel story. They can easily create the online album pages by sorting uploaded photos based location and date information, arranging them in chronological order. The service was released at the end of last year, and within in three months about 1200 users have posted travel records, and 8,000 comments have been posted on the site. ...continue reading ...
Tokyo-based startup Translimit announced today that it has raised 10 million yen (about $100,000) from Genuine Startups and Skyland Ventures. The funds will go towards launching a mobile quiz app with social competition features. The app will be called BrainWars, with an iOS version coming in mid-April, and an Android version to follow in June.
BrainWars pits players against one another, playing three sets of mental exercise games (15 seconds each) to see which player performs better. Since these games require no verbal response, and users around the world can play and compete against each other regardless of language. The match is arranged to let you to play in real time, but if you can’t find anyone available to compete with, you can compete with someone you know according to their past results. ...continue reading ...
Tokyo-based Suvaco, a home design marketplace startup, announced yesterday that it has raised $120 million yen (or about $1.18 million) from Fuji Startup Ventures and Mobile Internet Capital.
Since their launch back in July, Suvaco has been providing a market place focused on home designs, where you can easily find interior or exterior designers by browsing their portfolio photos. Through a partnership with 200 home construction companies, to date the marketplace has acquired more than 8,000 examples of home renovation. ...continue reading ...
Japanese telco KDDI announced today that it has invested in Gunosy, the creator of a popular news curation app of the same name. Details of the investment were not disclosed but it’s likely worth somewhere from $12 million to $14 million according to certain sources. Coinciding with this funding, the startup is set to begin broadcast of a TV commercial in Japan tomorrow.
Gunosy previously raised 31.6 million yen (about $300,000) back in February of 2013, and an undisclosed amount back in July of 2013. We have also confirmed they secured a seed round funding from several investors including B Dash Ventures. ...continue reading ...
