[The Bridge] Japanese family photo service Kiddy raises $500,000, poised for global expansion

Tokyo-based Compath.me, the startup behind family photo sharing platform Kiddy, announced today that it has raised 50 million yen (about $492,000) from Japanese internet company United. 

The company was originally launched back in 2011, graduating from Tokyo-based startup incubator Open Network Lab. This latest news follows its previous seed funding from DG Incubation, Architype, and Netprice.com. ...

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The Bridge 5/29/2014 [en]

memo

• Considering the recent growing size of fundraising, 50 million yen would not be a large amount, but it is a great step for a closed social network service in which there are no successful services yet. It is interesting to see whether Kiddy can become the first one to succeed in the field.
• https://kiddy-photo.com/

[The Bridge] Japanese mobile app developer raises $14M, sets up shop in Taiwan

Tokyo-based mobile app developer Akatsuki announced today that it has raised 1.4 billion yen (or about $14 million) from Globis and Link and Motivation. The company plans to accelerate its international business expansion using these new funds. 

Since its launch back in June of 2010, the company has been responsible for games like Thousand Memories and Tails of Links, both of which have shown rapid growth. ...

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The Bridge 5/21/2014 [en]

memo

• Finance news of mobile game developers are decreasing recently compared to a few years ago, but the amount is increasing. Fundraising of over 10 million dollars are also increasing this year, but interestingly many of them raised $14 million such as Raksul, Mercari, and Sansan. It should be just a coincidence?
• http://aktsk.jp/

[The Bridge] Japanese adtech startup FreakOut has filed for an IPO

Japanese ad platform operator FreakOut applied and was approved for an IPO on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers Market today. The company is expected to be listed on June 24th, with plans to offer 530,000 shares for public subscription and to sell 112,500 shares in over-allotment options for a total of 332,500 shares. 

The company was launched back in October of 2010, and subsequently introduced demand-side platform FreakOut in January of 2012 and data management platform Mother in March of 2013. ...

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The Bridge 5/19/2014 [en]

memo

• The economic situation in venture industry of Japan has been getting better recently, but it is also difficult to estimate until when the trend lasts. It may be a good timing to go IPO now. With the capital raised by IPO, FreakOut may accelerate the global strategy.
• https://www.fout.co.jp/

[TechCrunch] Japanese Contact-Management Service Sansan Raises $14M To Tackle The U.S.

Sansan Inc., a cloud contact-management service, has raised $14 million in funding led by DCM. The Tokyo-based startup plans to use the capital to break into the U.S. market this month, as expand in other international markets. Other participating investors include the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, Nikkei Digital Media, Energy and Environment Investment, Inc, and GMO Venture Partners. Sansan has also received previous investment from Salesforce.com. 

In the U.S., Sansan will compete against products such as Cisco Unified Intelligent Contact Management Enterprise, OnContact, and Act!. But the company, which says it currently has over 2,000 corporate customers in Japan, hopes to differentiate its service, which automatically tracks information like who met the contact, where, when, and for what reason. Sansan’s software also transcribes business cards and uploads data into its cloud-based platform. ...

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TechCrunch 5/19/2014 [en]

memo

• The lineup of investors is very various from Japanese government backed INCJ to green tech focused fund, Energy and Environment Investment to US based DCM. It will be a great challenge to go into US market with a B2B solution.
• https://en.sansan.com/

[The Bridge] GREE Ventures closes $50M fund to target Asian startups

GREE Ventures has just announced the initial closing of its second fund. Dubbed the AT-I Investment Limited Partnership, this is a 5 billion yen fund (or about $50 million) which it will use to target tech startups in Japan and South East Asia, mostly series A stage companies at about 100 million yen to 300 million yen per company ($1 million to $3 million). 

Investors in the fund include GREE Inc, SME Support Japan, Credit Saison, Ateam Inc, and Mizuho Capital. The announcement notes that a second closing will likely come later this summer. 

The Bridge 5/16/2014 [en]

[Tech In Asia] Japan’s BASE raises $3 million from Global Brain, eyes overseas expansion

Tokyo-based startup BASE, a company that aims to help users to create an ecommerce website within 30 seconds has raised $3 million from Global Brain. Founded in December 2012 by Yuta Tsuruoka and Kazuma Ieiri, BASE is similar to Shopify except that it is free. It is currently powering over 80,000 online shops in Japan. 

Kosuke Okubo, a representative of BASE confirms that the startup does not plan to charge users this year. “In 2015, we may start charging users for our extension apps and more,” says Okubo.  ...

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Tech In Asia 5/15/2014 [en]

memo

• Ecommerce site developing services became very hot last year with BASE and another fast-growing startup, Stores.jp, which was acquired by Zozotown, Japan's largest fashion commerce site back in July last year. BASE seems to look to different type of exit than Stores.jp.
• https://thebase.in/ 

[The Bridge] Japanese mobile game giant Donuts invests in app developer Nagisa

Tokyo-based Donuts, a mobile game developer and the creator of the video app MixChannel, announced today that it has invested an undisclosed sum in Nagisa. Details of this investment were not disclosed but it appears to be worth about $1 million according to Nagisa’s corporate profile and past funding history. 

Launched back in 2010, Nagisa operates a messaging app called Balloon, and previously raised 100 million (or about $1 million) from Nissay Capital. Subsequently, they also produced the photo effects app Kame Camera, the diary app Livre, and a virtual idol app The 49th Girl — all of which have surpassed five million downloads cumulatively. 

The company also tells us that their movie app Slide Movies has acquired over 700,000 downloads in the two months since its launch back in December, and its monthly downloads surpassed 1 million in April alone. ...

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The Bridge  5/15/2014 [en]

memo

• Both company develop mobile apps targeting a consumer market, so there will be synergy. Nagisa could make use of the capital to develop more mobile apps taking advantage of the existing user base.
• http://nagisa-inc.jp/ 

[Tech In Asia] Korean file-sharing app Send Anywhere nabs $1M in funding from Rakuten

ESTmob, the Seoul-based team behind file-sharing app Send Anywhere revealed today it has completed a US$1 million seed round led by Rakuten Ventures. ESTmob cofounder Suhyuk Kang tells Tech in Asia that it will use the funding to expand its userbase around the globe and ramp up the app’s feature set. 

Send Anywhere delivers a basic, somewhat mundane utility to device owners. After one downloads the app, a user selects a file he or she would like to send, and is then given a six-digit code (or a QR code). That code is then shared with the intended recipient, who then inputs it into the app on his own device. ...

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Tech In Asia 5/12/2014 [en]

memo

• The investment may be one of a few cases for Rakuten to invest in early stage starup without obvious synergy with Rakuten's main businesses. File sharing with mobile is not a big market at this moment, but it may have a potential to become a huge market as more people tend to use smart devices than PC.
• https://send-anywhere.com/

[The Bridge] Japan’s flea market app 10sec raises $1.6 million from CyberAgent

Japanese startup 10sec operates a mobile flea market for the US market. Today the company announced that it has raised 160 million yen (about $1.6 million) from Japanese internet company CyberAgent (TSE:4751). According to the startup’s CEO Hideyuki Shoda, this follows their previous funding from Tokyo-based Incubated Fund. 

The app, which will be available on the US App Store from mid-May, lets you to sell items using your Instagram photos. ...

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The Bridge 5/8/2014 [en]

memo

• 10sec launches the service in US because there are much more Instagram users in the US than Japan. It may be very hard for Japanese startups to compete in the US market, but it is also interesting to see how it will challenge backed by CyberAgent.
• http://inc.10s.ec/ 

[The Bridge] Japanese startup raises funding for a new kind of interactive news site

Japanese startup Byus today launched the beta version of its interactive news service. The company also announced that it has secured an undisclosed sum of funding from Venture United, Incubate Fund, and Voyage Ventures. 

The news site was initially launched in alpha version back in July. Unlike other news sites, it lets you to ask other users about a specific news topic, with an article page for every topic generated through this Q&A back-and-forth. Each article page has links to other articles for related keywords, so you can easily explore topics you like. Overall, the service helps you understand a topic in depth, not only by exploring various factual information but also by hearing the voices of others. ...

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The Bridge 4/30/2014 [en]

memo

• We still see new news curation services. In other words, even though several apps like Gunosy or SmartNews seem to become popular, many developers still believe that there are enough room to enter. Different from mobile games, users may not use many news apps simultaneously nor switch to other news app. So, winners would be limited to a few. It is interesting to see who will win the competition.
• http://byus.me/

Aiming To Become Google For Outdoor, Search Places In 5 Min Walk, Pathee Fundraises 130M Yen / TechCrunch Japan

tritrue, which runs Pathee allowing users to search places within a five minutes walk fundraises 130 million yen from Opt and Daiwa PI Partners. Pathee focuses on search with a smartphone outdoor. Currently it is available with a browser, but it plans to release iPhone app in May. ...

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TechCrunch Japan 4/30/2014 [jp]

memo

• Pathee is looking to very challenging market with Google and many other search services or location based services. Accuracy of search result and easy-to-use UI would be key to grab a part of the huge market. 
• http://www.pathee.com/

[The Bridge] Japan’s news curation app Gunosy launches English version for the UK

Tokyo-based Gunosy, the startup behind the news curation app of the same name, launched an iOS app for the UK market this week. This version lets you to curate updates and articles from about 500 publications including UK-based news resources, such as The Register, BBC, The Guardian, The Independent, and The Telegraph. 

The company plans to launch an Android app for the UK market next month, and an app for the US market will follow soon. They aim to reach 80 million downloads in the global market three years from now.

The Bridge 4/24/2014 [en]

memo

• It is interesting that Gunosy choose UK as its first foreign market to go into. It must be a big challenge for Gunosy since there are tons of competitors in English markets.
• http://gunosy.com/  

[The Bridge] Japanese cloud-based accounting startup Freee raises $8M

Tokyo-based Freee, the operator of a cloud-based accounting solution of the same name, has raised $8 million from two venture capital firms, including DCM and Infinity Venture Partners. This is according to a Nikkei reported earlier this morning. 

Prior to this funding, the company secured a $500,000 in seed round funding from DCM back in March of last year, and a $2.7 million series A round of funding from DCM and Infinity Venture Partners back in July. The total amount of funding to date has reached $11.2 million since the company’s launch back in July of 2012.  ...

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The Bridge 4/23/2014 [en]

memo

• SaaS based accounting service does not look very new or trendy, but actually the category is one of the hottest area in financing news. Other companies like Money Forward or A-SaaS have also raised quite a large amount of money.
• http://www.freee.co.jp/ 

[The Bridge] Japanese apartment search portal raises $1M

Tokyo-based Chintai Joho Co., the startup behind apartment search portal Cashback Chintai, announced today that it has fundraised 100 million yen (about $975,300) from Japanese investment firm Global Brain. 

Their portal allows property agents to list apartments on a pay-per-performance basis, which doesn’t require them to pay any adverting fee until a contract is made with a tenant. If you agree on a contract for an apartment via the website, some ‘housewarming’ reward money will be given to you. At this time, the property company can be notified that a deal was been made via the website, because they are billed at this time. ...

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The Bridge 4/22/2014 [en]

memo

• A house search service is one of the most matured market in Internet services. There are several big players including Recruit, which has been the biggest one from paper magazine era. It is interesting to see if the performance-based service can compete with the existing services.
• http://cbchintai.com/

[The Bridge] Japanese travel startup Trippiece launches English version and a Singapore subsidiary

Tokyo-based travel startup Trippiece announced today that it has launched an English version to assist international travelers visiting Japan. Since its launch back in 2011, it has been serving Japanese users. Now with the launch of this English version the company hopes to establish a global user base. 

Prior to launch, they established a subsidiary in Singapore, hiring Shuying Yao as overseas marketing manager. She will be committed to user engagement and marketing in Asian regions. They currently have no plan to serve languages other than English. 

Trippiece allows you to create a travel plan and gather others who are keen to join. ...

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The Bridge 4/22/2014 [en]

memo

• Tourists coming to Japan are increasing recently, and the trend may continue until Olympics in Tokyo in 2020. Among them, Asian countries share a large part. It must be the great opportunity for Trippiece to establish a subsidiary in Singapore at the moment.
• http://en.trippiece.com/