Japanese fish delivery startup partners with JCB, eases restaurants' credit purchases
Hachimenroppi
Tokyo-based startup Hachimenroppi, which operates a fish delivery service for restaurants, announced yesterday that it has partnered with JCB, one of Japan's leading credit card companies. Through this partnership, JCB will provide restaurants with credit purchase options and ease the process of buying fish from the delivery startup. Moreover, JCB will promote the startup's service to its card member restaurants.
Hachimenroppi buys fish from markets and brokers across the country and delivers it to Japanese restaurants or diners, according to specific needs. Unlike existing wholesalers, they balance supply and demand using digital tools, allowing restaurants to order fish based on their customers' needs rather than submitting to suppliers' convenience. We previously outlined the specific details about how it works, so please check it out if you'd like to read more.
The company raised about $1.5 million back in October in order to hire talented staffers and accelerate system development. They appointed Kenichi Saito as CTO earlier this month, who previously served as CTO at Japanese shoe-focused e-commerce site Locondo. To date the company has been outsourcing their system development, but they plan to set up a system development department (led by Saito) where they can do most of that work in house. In addition to the iOS app, they are planning to launch an Android version, but now they are focusing on hiring Rails engineers. So if you are interested in working with an up-and-coming startup like this one, don't hesitate to contact them.
To step up their sales and engineering efforts, the company plans to grow to a 50-person team by summer. According to founder and CEO Masanari Matsuda, he plans to allocate about 80% of the team to customer relations serving restaurants, and the rest to system development. He elaborated:
CEO Masanari Matsuda
In order to provide consumers with the best quality foods, I think restaurants shouldn't be dominated by big companies. When an independent chef launches his own restaurant, he will be unable to buy ingredients on credit from wholesalers because that restaurant has no financial history. So our new service in partnership with JCB will help them a lot when starting out.
We'll focus on fish delivery for the time being. However, our platform is receiving orders and updates from restaurants, which means we can enhance it to deal with a variety of food in the future, including rice, liquors, meat, vegetables, and fruits. As we know much about restaurants' needs, we may even launch a new service sending cooks to restaurants.
The company has acquired 300 restaurants as of the end of last year. They expect to increase that to 1,000 restaurants by the end of this year, and 10,000 by the end of 2016. By 2020, they hope to generate over $3 billion in revenue, which accounts for almost 10% of the entire national fishery market volume.
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Fujitsu to offer mobile health support services to women in Japan
Karada Life
NTT Docomo recently unveiled its new summer smartphone lineup, and included among its new handsets was the Arrows NX F–05F. Made by Fujitsu, this will be one of many Fujitsu phones that will feature a new Karada Life Pregnancy Support app targeting female users. According to Fujitsu today, the service will be available starting May 30th here in Japan. The application was developed by Fujitsu using APIs from Luna Luna, a service that millions of women in Japan use to be more aware of their menstrual cycles, by recording period timing and body temperature. In short, a range of services will be provided by both Fujitsu and Luna Luna, including estimation of menstruation and ovulation times (based on data from the previous two months) and lifestyle advice. There is also convenient body temperature management that makes use of wireless and automatic transmission of data from a thermometer [1] to smartphones (pictured below). Our readers may recall that we also saw Ateam release an app for women trying to get pregnant late last year. But it's good to see more companies like Fujitsu get involved to provide more options. It's interesting to watch more and more companies in Japan strive to…
NTT Docomo recently unveiled its new summer smartphone lineup, and included among its new handsets was the Arrows NX F–05F. Made by Fujitsu, this will be one of many Fujitsu phones that will feature a new Karada Life Pregnancy Support app targeting female users. According to Fujitsu today, the service will be available starting May 30th here in Japan.
The application was developed by Fujitsu using APIs from Luna Luna, a service that millions of women in Japan use to be more aware of their menstrual cycles, by recording period timing and body temperature.
In short, a range of services will be provided by both Fujitsu and Luna Luna, including estimation of menstruation and ovulation times (based on data from the previous two months) and lifestyle advice. There is also convenient body temperature management that makes use of wireless and automatic transmission of data from a thermometer [1] to smartphones (pictured below).
Our readers may recall that we also saw Ateam release an app for women trying to get pregnant late last year. But it's good to see more companies like Fujitsu get involved to provide more options.
It's interesting to watch more and more companies in Japan strive to serve female users. Just last month, for example, Amazon Japan launched a new female-focused store front to specifically target women and mothers.
Specifically, the Terumo Corporation's WOMAN °C W520DZ thermometer, which is ostensibly not included. ↩
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Japan-based Wantedly brings its social job platform to Android
Back in February we told you about the release of a new iOS application from Japan-based Wantedly, allows you to access the startup's online social job platform on mobile. At the time, the team mentioned to us that they'd like to do a version for Android as well. And just after the iOS launch, it I understand they brought in a new engineer to do just that. Skip to today and Wantedly for Android is now available as a free download from Google Play. I encourage you to check it out.
Back in February we told you about the release of a new iOS application from Japan-based Wantedly, allows you to access the startup's online social job platform on mobile.
At the time, the team mentioned to us that they'd like to do a version for Android as well. And just after the iOS launch, it I understand they brought in a new engineer to do just that.
Skip to today and Wantedly for Android is now available as a free download from Google Play. I encourage you to check it out.
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Japanese news curation startup Gunosy earns seven-digit dollar figures every month
Shinji Kimura
See the original story in Japanese, part of our coverage of the Infinity Ventures Summit Sapporo 2014. Our readers may recall that Japanese news curation startup Gunosy raised about $12 million back in March. The company recently started distributing ads on its news app, and we're told they generate several millions of US dollars monthly from the advertising sales. We spoke with the company's co-CEO Shinji Kimura at the Infinity Ventures Summit to find out more. The Bridge: We heard that your business has been rapidly growing after you starting broadcasting a TV commercial. What kind of download numbers are you seeing? Kimura: We had acquired 1.8 downloads as of March 15th, but we're going to hit 4 million downloads pretty soon. The Bridge: So you've been doing very well in the last two months since the commercial started. On the other hand, some people were disappointed with some unexpected changes. Kimura: We are sorry for the users who have been using the app since launch. But some users pointed out that the personalization feature we initially adopted results in many duplicate articles. Furthermore, curated content includes many longer articles, which can be tiring to read especially on weekends. So…
See the original story in Japanese, part of our coverage of the Infinity Ventures Summit Sapporo 2014.
Our readers may recall that Japanese news curation startup Gunosy raised about $12 million back in March. The company recently started distributing ads on its news app, and we're told they generate several millions of US dollars monthly from the advertising sales.
We spoke with the company's co-CEO Shinji Kimura at the Infinity Ventures Summit to find out more.
The Bridge: We heard that your business has been rapidly growing after you starting broadcasting a TV commercial. What kind of download numbers are you seeing?
Kimura: We had acquired 1.8 downloads as of March 15th, but we're going to hit 4 million downloads pretty soon.
The Bridge: So you've been doing very well in the last two months since the commercial started. On the other hand, some people were disappointed with some unexpected changes.
Kimura: We are sorry for the users who have been using the app since launch. But some users pointed out that the personalization feature we initially adopted results in many duplicate articles. Furthermore, curated content includes many longer articles, which can be tiring to read especially on weekends.
So we adjusted the app to provide users with lighter content, and that resulted in a boost in our daily active users.
The Bridge: We also know that the demographic of our readers would be very limited if we focus too much on startups. So when you think of business opportunities, it must be difficult to determine how wide-ranging to set your scope.
Kimura: Yes, advertising opportunities are also limited if you persist in a niche. For instance, female users don't like our app. Even my wife used to use SmartNews. I realized we had to change it. (Laughs) Now she uses Gunosy. So we think our adjustment was successful. […] About 10 million people launch our apps every day, and almost 30% of them do it to check out news articles in morning. So we can publish articles written by professional writers exclusively for our readers.
The Bridge: In Japan, there are quite few platforms, including Yahoo News Bylines, where professional or independent writers can write articles and get paid.
Kimura: I think monetization is important. Driving traffic back to media companies is sort of meaningless without monetization opportunities. But we know there's opportunity out there in smartphone ads.
The Bridge: We're told that your monthly revenue has reached around several million US dollars. It this true?
Kimura: I can't disclose details but it seems like that, yes.
The Bridge: So now you can give some benefit back to media from which you're curating articles?
Kimura: Typical media give you as little as $US 0.02 per page view. But I think our platform will be able to pay you as much as one US dollar. Considering that we can make our platform open to contributors in the future, if you can write an article earning 300,000 page views, you can earn 3,000 US dollars from us. I think we need to establish a content distribution ecosystem that helps creators or authors make a living.
The Bridge: How can you achieve such high profitability?
Kimura: It's because of smartphone ads. The existing types of ads on desktop websites don't effectively keep the attention of their audience. A smartphone ad is placed in a limited space and has higher visibility. This was proved by Facebook. One of the reasons why TV commercials perform well is because they are inserted right in the middle of a program.
The Bridge: But because ads are inserted between articles, some people feel it's annoying.
Kimura: I know that. So we're thinking more carefully about how to insert ads. We're also planning to provide a full-page ad package. If we start it, I think our users will not hate it. Because we've been conducting A/B tests many times to find out what kind of ads users are comfortable with.
The Bridge: Thank you for your time.
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Japan's English learning platform provider Rarejob files for IPO
Rarejob
Tokyo-based English learning platform Rarejob has been approved for an IPO on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers market today. Since its launch back in October of 2007, the company has hired native speakers (mainly students from high profile universities in the Philippines) as English conversation teachers who instruct Japanese students over Skype. As of last August, the company had provided over 10 million lessons to over 200,000 Japanese users. Some of our readers may recall the company raised 330 million yen (or about $3.3 million) from KDDI Open Innovation Fund, YJ Capital, and CyberAgent last June [1]. Via IT Media KDDI Open Innovation Fund is jointly managed by KDDI and Global Brain. YJ Capital is the investment arm of Yahoo Japan. ↩
Tokyo-based English learning platform Rarejob has been approved for an IPO on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers market today.
Since its launch back in October of 2007, the company has hired native speakers (mainly students from high profile universities in the Philippines) as English conversation teachers who instruct Japanese students over Skype. As of last August, the company had provided over 10 million lessons to over 200,000 Japanese users.
Some of our readers may recall the company raised 330 million yen (or about $3.3 million) from KDDI Open Innovation Fund, YJ Capital, and CyberAgent last June [1].
Via IT Media
KDDI Open Innovation Fund is jointly managed by KDDI and Global Brain. YJ Capital is the investment arm of Yahoo Japan. ↩
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Cerevo to set up $20M fund to accelerate Japan's hardware startup ecosystem
Infinity Ventures Summit
Infinity Ventures Summit Sapporo 2014
See the original story in Japanese, part of our coverage of the Infinity Ventures Summit Sapporo 2014. Tokyo-based Cerevo, the Japanese startup best known for its Cerevo Cam and IoT crowdfunding site Cerevo Dash, announced today that it will invite Osamu Ogasahara to the company's board pending approval at their board meeting on June 2nd. We had a chance to speak with the company's co-founder and CEO Takuma Iwasa, as well as Ogasahara, at the Infinity Ventures Summit 2014 happening right now in Sapporo, Japan. Ogasahara is the co-founder of Japanese internet service provider Sakura Internet as well as owner for the popular entrepreneur hub Awabar and co-working space Nomad New's Base [1]. The Bridge: Since it's a complicated topic, would you like to clarify what's happening with your company right now? Iwasa: Sure. As we published on our blog, Ogasahara will join our board pending approval at our board meeting on June 2nd. Shares of our company held by Inspire Technology Innovation Fund, Neostella Capital, Voyage Ventures, and Inova [2] will be handed over to Ogasahara. We're also planning a big funding round as well. The Bridge: Your company has developed consumer electronics like Cerevo Cam and enterprise hardware…
From the left: Takuma Iwasa, Osamu Ogasahara
Tokyo-based Cerevo, the Japanese startup best known for its Cerevo Cam and IoT crowdfunding site Cerevo Dash, announced today that it will invite Osamu Ogasahara to the company's board pending approval at their board meeting on June 2nd.
We had a chance to speak with the company's co-founder and CEO Takuma Iwasa, as well as Ogasahara, at the Infinity Ventures Summit 2014 happening right now in Sapporo, Japan. Ogasahara is the co-founder of Japanese internet service provider Sakura Internet as well as owner for the popular entrepreneur hub Awabar and co-working space Nomad New's Base [1].
The Bridge: Since it's a complicated topic, would you like to clarify what's happening with your company right now?
Iwasa: Sure. As we published on our blog, Ogasahara will join our board pending approval at our board meeting on June 2nd. Shares of our company held by Inspire Technology Innovation Fund, Neostella Capital, Voyage Ventures, and Inova [2] will be handed over to Ogasahara. We're also planning a big funding round as well.
The Bridge: Your company has developed consumer electronics like Cerevo Cam and enterprise hardware like LiveShell. How does the funding and the change of the board member influence your plans?
Iwasa: First, we'll step up marketing of our brand and accelerate global expansion. Second, we'll have an incubation project focused on hardware startups.
The Bridge: Your business heavily depends on international sales, right?
Iwasa: Yes, some of our products receive over 40% of all orders from overseas. We will try to raise this to 80%. We also plan to expand our range of products, especially in the IoT and 'high amateur' spaces.
The Bridge: What do you mean when you say 'high amateur' space?
Iwasa: It's difficult to explain since it's a relatively new concept. It means a series of products ranging in a space where professional and hobbyist use overlap. Our video and still camera products are categorized there.
I know the market can grow explosively where low-end products for professional use and high-end products for hobbyist use intersect. That's what I mean by 'high amateur' space. It's not a huge market because it targets a niche. Successful examples in this area include DJI's Phantom 2 and GoPro.
The Bridge: Your company is a 10-person team but we heard you're planning to enlarge it to about four times that.
Iwasa: We're planning to increase our head count up to 50. Our strategy is to target niche markets and produce a variety of products. […] We think our business is scalable as long as we have a sufficient number of talented people. We are hiring engineers in many fields like electrical engineering, design, mechatronics, app development, and infrastructure.
The Bridge: Let's talk about the incubation project. Regarding the IoT fund you are planning, who will be in charge of forming this? We heard that Cerevo got money from an investment fund. Is that correct?
Ogasahara: I am the general partner of the fund. We'll be forming a fund worth $20 million this coming summer, and will invest in Cerevo from that. It's sort of like a growth fund that I was eager to raise money from when I founded my internet service provider company many years ago.
The Bridge: So you will invest not only in Cerevo but also in other hardware startups. You also have another investment initiative at ABBALab, where you have specifically invested in startups which have succeeded in raising money on crowdfunding sites. How are the funds different?
Ogasahara: For that initiative, we'll keep seeking young entrepreneurs and help them create prototypes and launch their businesses in a hands-on manner. People are unlikely to create hardware products as easily as they would create smartphone apps. ABBALabs aims to remove the financial or environmental obstacles for ambitious entrepreneurs.
The Bridige: So what does Cerevo expect by launching this incubation business?
Iwasa: Our main focus is to help crowdfunding efforts in Japan and the rest of the world, and to help crowdfunding project owners manufacture their products. We'll set up a garage and shared office in Akihabara, and we are also planning to organize hardware-focused workshops and hackathon events too.
Ogasahara: By giving knowledge of mass production to entrepreneurs who already succeeded in creating their products, we really want to eliminate barriers for them. I believe it can really help a lot of people.
Iwasa: Looking at posts on bulletin boards, you can see that many entrepreneurs succeed in raising money on Kickstarter, but many of them run into difficulties in mass production. But the biggest obstacle for them will come after production. We help them sell, we support them, and we encourage them to develop the next model of their product. This is where our experience can help.
Ogasahara: We're running a site called DMM.make in partnership with The Bridge, as you know. This is also part of our effort to encourage businesses to create hardware products. We want to provide opportunities where people can learn, make, share, sell, and buy what they create.
Iwasa: So if you're interested in this space but don't know what to do, don't hesitate to come and join us.
The Bridge: Thanks for your time.
Disclosure: The Bridge has a business partnership with Nomad, the company that Ogasahara has managed. We are providing selected articles to DMM.make, a news curation site by Japanese internet company DMM. ↩
Inova is a fund focused on investing in electronics manufacturing startups and was formed by three Japanese companies: Thine Electronics (TSE:6169), Chip One Stop (TSE:3343), and Ant Capital Partners. ↩
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