Innovators in Japan: Weekly Digest 6/25/2018
Hey everyone, thanks for tuning into our first ever Innovators in Japan Weekly Digest, a weekly roundup of notable news from last week. If you have any comments, feedback, or tips, contact me on on Twitter (follow me!) or at contact@innovatorsinjapan.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
It was a fantastic week for Japanese unicorn Mercari, who popped, and stayed popped after a successful IPO on Tuesday. A not-so-good week for 6 crypto exchanges that got slapped with business improvement orders (業務改善命令: Gyo-mu Kai-zen Mei-rei for those interested in learning some Japanese legalese along the way) by the Japanese Financial Services Agency. Also, unintended consequences for the Japanese home sharing space — there’s now a sign of a booming industry in the shadows of the massive regulatory red tape that hit AirBnB earlier in the month.
It’s a beautiful Sunday evening where I’m currently located in the SF Bay Area, so I’ll raise a glass for those in Japan hustling first thing Monday morning!
Mercari in the News
Mercari, a Tokyo-based global flea market app, jumped 77% after a successful IPO
Some concerned quotes amidst the excitement from Bloomberg on the newly-crowned Japanese unicorn and startup scene:
“I hate to spoil the party…it should keep going well for another couple of months at least…but you’ve got OfferUp, letgo, Poshmark…there’s nothing really that differentiates Mercari from the pack.”
— Andrew Jackson, Head of Japanese Equities, Soochow CSSD Capital Markets
“You quickly realize [Japan’s] a very tech-savvy culture, but why is it though, that the tech startup scene is almost Jurassic?”
New Rounds:
World Innovation Lab, a Palo Alto-based venture capital firm with a focus on Japanese startups, closed a $521mm round for its second fund. Here’s the SEC filing.
INM Holdings, with frequent flyer points and electronic payment service NetMile and crypto currency service BitMile under its wings, has raised ¥220,000,000 (~$2mm) mainly to connect airline points and other perks with BitMile crypto tokens.
X-Locations, Geolocation 3.0 leader and operator of the Location AI Platform, raised an undisclosed amount (rumored to be around the hundreds of millions of yen, or a few million dollars) from NTT Docomo Ventures, iRidge, and AdInte.
Tokyo FinTech Meetup, leading non-profit organization hosting FinTech events in Tokyo, has announced an official sponsorship by Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting
Kibela, note-taking and information sharing application, raised ¥55,000,000 (~$500,000) to expand its sales and marketing efforts, as well as improving on enterprise features.
Geologic, geolocation-based lifestyle analytics ad network, raised ¥100,000,000 (~$900,000) from Genesia Ventures, Tokyu Agency, and Line Ventures
Quick Updates:
Seven Woods Investment, venture capital arm of e-commerce company Crooz, appoints 25-year old rising star Reo Kasai as its representative.
Mixi, a long-standing Japanese social media site, names Koki Kimura new CEO after ex-CEO Morita Hiroki steps down for trademark law dispute.
Tripleize, a Japanese AI, IoT, and overall tech infrastructure company, has entered Tencent-sponsored World Go tournament using their distributed Go AI system Raynz.
Photoruction, photo-sharing app for construction sites, has announced a partnership with Dropbox Japan.
AI Messenger, a join venture between Line and CyberAgent’s AdTech division, has announced a new AI-based chatbot project for customer support.
