Solar Power Portal, Green Energy Navi Operator, I And C Cruise Fundraises From Silicon Valley-based Fenox Venture Capital / I&C Cruise press release

I and C Cruise runs solar power system construction service as well as Green Energy Navi, a matching site of solar power system. The company announced raising capital from Fenox Venture Capital to expand the business in overseas.

As the first global expansion, it plans to establish US office in June 2013 to enter the US market where solar power generation continues growing. ...

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I & C Cruise press release 3/28/2013 [jp]

memo

• Green Energy Navi allows users to find solar panel retailers and get a quotation. It seems that the service has been growing after the East Japan earthquake. Since it looks a simple B and C matching service where its key advantage would be strong connections with large number of local solar panel retailers, it may be very challenging to get into foreign markets. It is interesting to see how the company and investor will make it happen in the US.
• http://www.iacc.co.jp/

[Sd] DeNA launches ‘Groovy’ music distribution platform, adding social to the listening experience

DeNA (TYO:2432), the Japanese internet giant behind the Mobage social gaming platform and the Comm messaging app, has unveiled its Groovy music player app for the Android platform. An iOS version will follow soon. 

It was developed using an app framework from Discodear, the music player app developed by Tokyo-based web conglomerate United. It allows users to play their favorites from a selection of more than 1 million songs, in partnership with 39 music labels including Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music, and Victor Entertainment. ...

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Sd 3/29/2013 [en]

memo

• Different from current main stream of music delivery services such as Spotify, the DeNA's service sell a music by a title. Its advantage is to provide music discovery for users with its social functions.

Geniee Fundraises From Opt Aiming To Strengthen Geniee SSP / Geniee press release

Geniee announced allocation of new shares to Opt. Geniee is an ad tech company to provide Internet ad revenue maximization platform, Geniee SSP.

Since is launch in April 2010, the company has been rapidly growing by partnering with DSP, ad exchange, and ad network in 10 countries including Japan. ...

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Geniee press release 3/29/2013 [jp]

memo

• The amount is not disclosed. Geniee raised capital from Gree in 2012 and Yahoo Japan recently. It raises from investors who could bring concrete strategic value. Opt subsidized Singapore-based ad network, CDA a week ago. Geniee opened a Singapore office in 2012, so both could cooperate in South East Asia as well.
• http://geniee.co.jp/

Safe and Secure Ticket Marketplace, TicketStreet Raises 60M Yen / Cnet Japan

TicketStreet conducted allocation of new shares to Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and Mizuho Capital to raise 60 million yen.

TicketStreet is a marketplace for tickets of such as concerts and sports to aim "make live entertainment closer". Its members surpass 100 thousands and the transaction amount is over 70 million yen per month. ...

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Cnet Japan 3/29/2013 [jp]

memo

• TicketStreet was founded in 2011 and raised 15 million yen from Incubate Fund in 2012.The transaction amount is still not so big, but the market itself is large enough to grow more. Mobile would be a key to accelerate its growth since its main target users would be relatively young people, many of whom do not have PC recently.
• http://ticket.st/

Cloud EC Solution, Interfactory Raises 80M Yen / Cnet Japan

Interfactory announces an allocation of new shares to SMBC Venture Capital to raise 80 million yen. ...

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Cnet Japan 3/27/2013 [jp]

memo

• Interfactory develops and sells Ebisu Mart, which is a SaaS based EC site developing tool. The company was founded in 2003, so it is not a fresh startup. EC seems gaining attention recently probably due to penetration of smartphone and tablet. There would be more opportunity than ever this year for companies operating EC as well as providing solutions and services to EC sites. 
• http://www.interfactory.co.jp/

[Sd] Japan’s Softbank Mobile to acquire majority shares of game developer Gungho Online Entertainment

Japanese mobile carrier Softbank Mobile announced today it would tender an offer of social gaming giant Gungho Online Entertainment. Softbank (TSE:9984) was founded by Masayoshi Son, and Gungho was founded by Masayoshi’s young brother Taizo Son who is also a serial entrepreneur and now running a tech startup incubator called Movida Japan. 

Gungho has been getting lots of attention from investors because of its hugely popular titles Puzzle & Dragons and Ragnarok Online, making the company’s stock price five times what it was at the beginning of this year. By partnering with the gaming company, Softbank Mobile expects to expand the sales of online and smartphone game titles using the company’s global business. ...

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Sd 3/25/2013 [en]

memo

• It is assumed that a monthly sales of Puzzle & Dragons in February would be 9 billion yen ($95M). The revenue from only one mobile game is incredibly huge. The market cap of Gungho surpassed Gree and DeNA. 
• http://www.gungho.co.jp/english/

[Sd] Animation effects startup Cybernoids raises $557K for global expansion

Cybernoids, a Tokyo-based startup developing two-dimensional animation technology, announced on Monday it has raised 52.4 million yen (approximately $557,000) from Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, Seibu Shinkin Capital, and visual-effects developer Qtec. The funds are to be used to intensifying the company’s business expansion overseas. 

The startup has developed a new image rendering technology called Live 2D, which makes it easier to add motions or expression changes to characters animated in 2D. ...

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Sd 3/26/2013 [en]

memo

• There may be many 3D technology, but Cybernoids focuses on 2D. The graphic technology makes it possible to move a 2D modeled character as you like. It is currently used by over 40 smartphone games. So, it can be said that Cybernoids takes advantage of high growth of Japanese mobile social gaming.
• http://cybernoids.co.jp/

[Sd] Japanese auction price comparison site Aucfan approved for IPO in April

Aucfan, a Tokyo-based startup featuring price comparisons and quotes for items from several auction sites, was approved to IPO on Friday and is expected to be listed on the TSE Mothers stock exchange, a market for emerging companies.

...

Aucfan curates price quotes from major auction sites including Yahoo Auction, Moba Oku (Mobile Auction by DeNA), Rakuten Auction, and even some international sites such as eBay and Taobao. The service suggests the best bidding price for the item that you want, which is a handy feature for shoppers on the lookout for the best deals. ...

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Sd 3/25/2013 [en]

memo

• EC is still growing steadily and especially social and mobile are keywords driving the growth recently. Aucfan is not a service to provide such trendy features, but it would have more robust business model. It accumulates data of items sold on these auction sites such as bid price, which is provided to business users to determine selling and purchasing price. With the accumulated data, Aucfan is able to differentiate and sustain the service. If we use another trendy keyword to explain its business, big data would be relevant. 
• http://aucfan.com/

Social Game Developer Poppin Games Japan Fundraises 100M Yen / Venture Now

Popping Games Japan announced allocation of new shares to raise 100 million yen. The capital will be used for hiring in its headquarter, Tsukuba as well as branch office in Kyoto. ...

Poppin Games Japan was founded in July 2012 to provide smartphone gaming contents with its own brand and for partners. It runs four games for iPhone and plans to release several new titles for iPhone as well as Android. ...

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Venture Now 3/21/2013 [jp]

memo

• We are hearing more exit news than fundraising news of social game developers recently. Since top ranked apps are getting occupied by large developers such as GungHo or Colopl in Japan, it seems becoming difficult for startups to fight against them in the filed. However, there may be still quite large room for new entrants for smartphone games, particularly in emerging markets like South East Asia.
• http://poppin-games-japan.com/

LUXA, Commerce Site Targeting High-Income Class Raises 500M Yen From JAFCO

LUXA is an e-commerce site to sell coupons up to 90% discount within 72 hours to only members. On August, 2010, the service was launched as a new service of BizReach, which operates membership based recruiting service targeting for people with over 10 million yen income. It became incorporated in October of the year and raised 500 million yen from JAFCO in November. From its launch, it focuses on high class products and differentiate itself from competitors by targeting high income class. As of March 2013, it has 350,000 members. ...

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Venture Now 3/21/2013 [jp]

memo

• Most of Groupon clones seem to have disappeared and Groupon itself also looks not so active as before. LUXA maybe one of the few successful services considering JAFCO has invested 1 billion yen in total so far. Another difference with Groupon in addition to its target customers is that it sells goods like cosmetics and home appliances. So, it is actually not appropriate to say it is a Groupon clone now.
• https://luxa.jp/

Fashion EC, LASO Raises 200M Yen From DCM / Venture Now

LASO, EC site for fashion from overseas, conducted allocation of new shares of 200 million yen to US based venture capital DCM. ...

The company will uses the proceed for web site design, system development, and recruiting in marketing.

LASO was founded at August 22, 2006 operating LASO, a fashion commerce site selling fashion items around the world gathered by its dedicated buyers. ...

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Venture Now 3/19/2013 [jp]

memo

• BUYMA and waja provide similar service that sells fashion goods which buyers in foreign countries purchase. BUYMA operator, Enigmo went public last year and fashion commerce is gaining attention recently, so these two services may be considering IPO in the near future. But one of the current major concerns for these services would be yen which is getting weaker rapidly now.
• http://b.laso.jp/

[e27] Japan’s e-marketing company Opt acquires Catcha Digital Asia

Japanese e-marketing company Opt Inc., one of the largest in Asia, today announced that it has acquired digital media network Catcha Digital Asia Pte Ltd (CDA) from Catcha Group Pte Ltd (“Catcha Group”). The acquisition will also see former Apple Asia Pacific Head of Online Marketing, Mitsuru Kikunaga, currently Opt’s Asia Pacific Business General Manager, stepping into the role of CDA CEO. 

Established in December 2009, CDA has offices around in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, and the company is currently helmed by Mitsuru Kikunaga as CEO. Catcha Digital Asia (CDA) is a premier online advertising network that connect brands in the online world through their own suite of online media products. ...

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e27 3/19/2013 [en]

memo

• South East Asia is considered to be one the most attractive markets by many Japanese Internet companies, which have opened offices or invested/acquired local companies. CyberAgent and GREE aggressively invest in startups in the region. Septeni, another large e-marketing company and KDDI's subsidiary for advertising, Mediba set an office in Singapore in 2012 and 2011 respectively. It is expected that the move will even accelerate for a while along with the high growth in this area.
• http://www.opt.ne.jp/

[Sd] Language Cloud gets investment boost from CyberAgent Ventures

CyberAgent Ventures, the venture capital arm of CyberAgent (TSE:4751), has announced its investment in language education platform Language Cloud. The startup is a graduate of Tokyo-based incubator Open Network Lab, and its previous investors include Digital Garage, 500 Startups, Sunbridge Global Ventures, and Etsuji Otsuka. ...

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Sd 3/19/2013 [en]

memo

• Language Cloud develops learning management system focusing on language education for schools. The system is used by universities for their English class. A few days ago, online language learning service, Best Teacher announced a fundraising. Education sector seems to be becoming hot for early stage investors.
• https://www.languagecloud.co/

Asset Management Tool Provider, Money Forward Raises Around 100M Yen / Cnet Japan

Money Forward announced an allocation of new shares to individual investors, WIT Corporation, and founders to raise 102.6 million yen.

With the capital, the company plans to hire engineers aiming to strengthen corporate structure as well as to develop asset and household budget management tool, Money Forward, and to build a platform related to money for individuals.

Money Forward allows users to manage multi accounts at once to automatically keep household accounts. It has a web site and iPhone app. ...

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Cnet Japan 3/14/2013 [jp]

memo

• WIT Corporation is an research institute founded by Waseda University to deploy advanced information science and technology in industries. It seems not its core service to invest in a B2C service such as Money Forward. Money Forward may plan to utilize technology developed in WIT Corporation for its money platform for individuals.
• http://corp.moneyforward.com/

[Sd] Japan’s language learning site Best Teacher raises $530,000 from GMO-VP and SMBC-VC

Best Teacher, a Tokyo-based startup providing online language learning solutions, announced today it has raised 51.1 million yen (approximately $530,000) from GMO Venture Partners and SMBC Venture Capital. The startup began with seed investment from CyberAgent Ventures in January of 2012, and launched a C2C-based English-conversation learning service over Skype in May. As of last September, it has acquired 2,000 Japanese users who want to learn English, and 400 English teachers from 40 countries worldwide. 

The Japanese online language learning market is extremely competitive, including service providers like Rarejob and Englishtown. Best Teacher was a late-comer, and in order to overcome this disadvantage and differentiate from others, it has deployed a new feature which allows you to ask your teacher what kind of expressions you want to practice. The teacher will correct your phrases, arrange them in a more natural way, and coach your pronunciation over Skype. This method lets you concentrate on learning only the expressions you need. ...

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Sd 3/15/2013 [en]

memo

• The asynchronous feature which allows teachers and students work on different time makes the service unique from many Skype English lesson services. However, it may not be easy to convince the advantage and acquiring new users would be key. It would be interesting to partner with real English lesson services as their complementary. 
• http://www.best-teacher-inc.com/

[TechCrunch] AnyPerk Raises $1.4M From Digital Garage And Others To Help Startups Offer Perks To Employees

AnyPerk, which aims to provide companies and startups with discounts on web services and employee perks, is announcing $1.4 million in new funding from Digital Garage, Ben Lewis (a founder of Tapjoy and Karma), Michael Liou, CyberAgentVenture and Shogo Kawada (founder of DeNA).   

AnyPerk is an easy way for any company to provide perks for employees. By signing up for $5 an employee, companies can offer discounts on AMC and Regal movie tickets, money off on cable services like Dish Network, deals on Dell computers, 1800 Flowers and free coupons for Costco. ...

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TechCrunch 3/11/2013 [en]

memo

• AnyPerk is the first team from Japan to get in Y Combinator in early 2012. The founders also enrolled in Open Network Lab, a Y Combinator-like acceleration program in Japan organized by Digital Garage in 2011, but the service was totally different at that time. It is still too early to say they must succeed, however, the news of the finance will surely encourage entrepreneurs in Japan who want to be successful in US market. 
• https://anyperk.com/

US Subsidiary Of Digital Garage Establishes Venture Fund With Eric Ries As Adviser / Venture Now

Neo Innovation, a 100 % subsidiary of Digital Garage based in US, sets up Neo Lean Fund, a venture fund investing in startups. Partnering with Digital Garage Group, it aims to develop business of startups executing Lean Startup. ...

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Venture Now 3/12/2013 [jp]

memo

• Neo Innovation was founded in March 2012 to provide software development and design consulting for enterprise and governments. It has acquired four companies located in Ohio in US, Singapore, Uruguay and New York. Digital Garage has invested in many startups in US including Twitter and Path. It will accelerate the investing and incubation activities with the new fund.
• http://www.neo.com/

Bengoshi.com Operator, Authense Raises 20M Yen From Kakaku.com

Bengoshi.com is a portal site for legal issues. An operator of the site, Authense Group allocated new shares to Kakaku.com to raise 20 million yen. It plans to use the money for hiring engineers and designers. ...

In addition, it announced a partnership with Yahoo which displays legal Q&A contents from Bengoshi.com for search result with legal related keywords. ...

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Venture Now 3/11/2013 [jp]

memo

• Kakaku.com operates various vertical UGC services including Kakaku.com, price comparison and review for goods, Tabelog, restaurant review, and 4Travel, travel review. The company's largest share holder, Digital Garage also invested in Authense through its VC arm.

[Sd] On-demand theater service Dreampass acquired by Yahoo Japan

Japanese startup Bluem, which operates the on-demand cinema service Dreampass, announced today that it has been acquired by Yahoo Japan (TYO:4689) for an undisclosed sum. Dreampass will be working with Yahoo Eiga (or “Yahoo Movies”) and video streaming service Gyao, which is also run by Yahoo Japan. 

For those of you who might not be familiar with the service, Dreampass first launched all the way back in August of 2010. It sort of works like Groupon but is dedicated to the screening of older movies in theaters. Users are able to request a screening of their favorite movies, and by popular vote, Dreampass will negotiate with content holders to allow such a screening. If the screening is permitted, tickets will be made available on the Dreampass website for users to purchase. ...

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Sd 3/11/2013 [en]

memo

• After the management team renewed in the last year, news related to startups of Yahoo Japan has been increasing dramatically. The company has invested in and acquired quite a few startups and partnered with small and large companies. O2O is one of their target segment where it acquired Katy, mobile CRM service of Mynet in this January and partnered with CCC for integrating both loyalty point and Tabelog for restaurants review in 2012. 
• https://www.dreampass.jp/

Nissay Capital Invests 300M Yen In Online Game Developer, Aiming / Cnet Japan

Aiming plans, produces, develops and runs online games for PC and smartphone. In addition to engineers who have abundant experience of developing online games, experts for research of games play games around the world to analyze elements of fun of the games and restructure them to develop games for home.

With the fundraising, it aims to enhance line-up of games including family games for smartphone as well as to expand globally especially in Asia.

Cnet Japan 3/8/2013 [jp]

memo

• Aiming raised 1.5 billion yen in 2011, a year the company was founded, and 600 million yen in 2012. So the total amount is 2.4 billion yen with the current round, which is very large scale for a Japanese startup. Several large scale of exits by game developers have taken place recently. Aiming may aim to follow in the not so far future.
• http://aiming-inc.com/

[Tech In Asia] Rakuten Sets Up $10 Million Startup Strategic Fund in Southeast Asia

Following Rakuten’s new Asia headquarters in Singapore, the Japanese e-commerce giant has launched a US$10 million fund in Southeast Asia to strategically invest in companies that will help them in its e-commerce ventures. Mr. Toru Shimada of Rakuten (4755:JASDAQ), who leads the fund, told me:

Within Asia, we already have e-commerce businesses in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Taiwan and plan to expand further in Southeast Asia. We not only invest in startups in Asia but also make business synergies [with startups for Rakuten’s] business.

...

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Tech In Asia 3/8/2013 [en]

memo

• Since the size, $10 million, is not so large, Rakuten probably invests mainly in seed or early stage startups in South East Asia. Among Japanese internet companies, CyberAgent has been aggressively investing in startups in the region with offices in Vietnam, Indonesia, and Taiwan. Gree is also accelerating its corporate venture activity there. There will be more Japanese companies entering the market with big potential in the near future.

Ad Tech FreakOut Raises 500M Yen From YJ Capital For Series B / TechCrunch Japan

FreakOut is a startups to provide DSP with RTB to allow to purchase ads inventory by auction in real time. The startup which was founded in 2010 announced fundraising of 500 million yen for series B round from YJ Capital, Yahoo's VC arm. The valuation post money is 10.3 billion yen. ...

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TechCrunch Japan 3/7/2013 [jp]

memo

• YJ Capital has been very actively investing in various startups recently including Geniee (SSP), Tokyo Otaku Mode (otaku contents media), Minna no Wedding (portal for wedding), and Raksul (EC for printing). Considering its fund size, 1 billion yen, which was established in last September, the deal for FreakOut is very huge. YJ Capital may set up another fund soon.
• http://fout.jp/

[Sd] Monetizing Android ads for Asia (and soon the world) Metaps raises $11M in series B

Japanese app monetization platform Metaps has announced today that it has raised 1 billion yen (or about $11 million) in series B funding from Fidelity Growth Partners. 

The company plans to use these funds to continue its expansion in Asia, and then beyond later this year. Metaps claims to be the largest such mobile ad network in Asia, and has the lofty goal of becoming the largest Android monetization platform in the world by the end of this year. 

Metaps originally launched in 2011, and since then Android apps using its platform have achieved a total of 62 million downloads by focusing on mature Asian markets like Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore. ...

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Sd 3/6/2013 [en]

memo

• Metaps had 440M yen of series A round about a year ago. The company has been taking advantage of super rapid growth of Android apps in Japan, which surpassed even US in terms of revenue in last October according to a research firm, App Annie.
• http://www.metaps.com/

Incubate Fund Establishes 2B Yen Fund To Invest In 100 Startups In 3 Years / Venture Now

Incubate Fund announced its second fund targeting for seed stage startups. The total amount is 2 billion yen.

Investors for the fund include Infocom, Sega, Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation, JAPAN, D2C, Nissay Capital, Mixi, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and others. It aims to invest 100 startups within the next three years.

Incubate Fund runs Incubate Camp, seed acceleration program since 2010 to aim at fostering young entrepreneurs and has invested over 100 startups in the last five years.

Venture Now 3/1/2013 [jp]

memo

• The first fund of Incubate Fund launched in 2010 was mainly invested by DeNA, but it seems the company does not invest in the second fund. In the early times of the first fund, Incubate Fund invested in gaming startups such as successfully exited Pokelabo or Istopika. However, the VC has gradually expanded the categories of investment area such as crowd sourcing or social media. 
• http://incubatefund.com/