Japanese FinTechs from A to Z
We have curated this list of Japanese FinTech companies with a relative broad definition of “FinTech” in mind, also with the objective to introduce you to a number of companies that you might not have come across so far (so we have intentionally not included famous ones like bitflyer or Moneytree in this list). If you happen to know a company that starts with “Y”, please do let us know!
Alpaca Japan
Alpaca is providing machine learning algorithms for trading platforms and also empowers professionals with latest AI Technology. Alpaca is the successor to Ikkyo Technology, which had developed image filtering and matching service Categorific, a startup born out of Movida Japan’s 5th batch incubation program in 2014. They subsequently incorporated Alpaca in the US to better serve the global market. Prior to founding Ikkyo Technology, Alpaca co-founder and CEO Tsuyoshi Yokokawa worked for Lehman Brothers where he was in charge of marketing and structuring financial products in the capital markets team.
BrainCat
BrainCat are the creators of Gojo, a community service where people with common objectives and problems can gather and help each other. Everyone, regardless of individuals, companies, government, or government, can start a mutual aid organization, anyone can communicate with their colleagues and collect funds. By doing so, Gojo will be able to support social causes that were not previously covered by countries, companies, etc.
Credit Engine
Credit Engine are the creators of LENDY, an online lending platform for SMBs in Japan. Business owners can keep a credit line at LENDY by simply signing in and connecting their business accounts. LENDY has its own proprietary algorithm which can measure the credit risk of SMBs.
d.a.t.
d.a.t, is an information service company promoting utilization and optimization of data assets through AI technology including machine learning and deep learning with “go ahead of data” as the concept. By utilizing AI technology as a strength, d.a.t. aims to contribute to the realization of a high value-added services to society by making predictive models such as credit / fraud detection, etc. and supporting business innovation through support / compatibility of information processing accompanied by human recognition .
8 Securities
8 Securities are the creators of Chloe, one of Japan’s first Robo Advisors. Chloe supports the whole investment process from target setting to execution. The portfolio is made up of ETFs (listed investment trusts) listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and is diversified internationally in various assets, regions and sectors. Chloe will constantly monitor and optimize the performance of the portfolio so that investment objectives can be achieved.
Fundinno
FUNDINNO, run by Japan Cloud Capital,is the first crowdfunding platform service in Japan that made it possible for investors to support unlisted, small- and medium-sized companies. Much like investing, people who give money to a company through the site receive equity in the company. Small companies that normally would struggle to receive investment can find funding by posting on the site.
Good Moneyger
Good Moneyger is a business focused on financial literacy. Finance is indispensable to people’s lives, but there is no place to learn about finance properly, so it seems that negative images such as difficulty and fear are mistakenly spreading. Good Moneyger makes use of AI and gamification to educate people about finance, and create a rich life. With Good Moneyger, users can easily follow the investment recommendations from professionals, at zero fee, and with a low running cost.
hokan
hokan, Inc. is developing a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) InsurTech offering focused on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Sales Force Automation (SFA) for insurance agents and a policy management application for policyholders.
infcurion
infcurion is a professional services firm working on projects in various areas of financial services, but with a focus on providing state-of-the-art expertise in the settlement and finance field. Their consultants have abundant practical experience.
justInCase
justInCase is Japan’s first InsurTech startup with a small and short-term (SSI) license. We have covered the company comprehensively in a previous article.
Keychain
Keychain provides a secure wallet/gateway software development kit (SDK) for companies that enables data authentication and fortifies integrity of the data on the blockchain. Keychain provides a Decentralized Data Provenance platform that allows clients to control data security without trusted third parties (such as certificate authorities and hardware SIM vendors) while integrating cleanly into existing systems and processes. Seamless integration, instead of replacement, is a key advantage to achieving wide adoption of this powerful innovation.
Leeways
Leeways are the creators of Gate, a simulation system that estimates the future profit value of real estate using big data of 58 million independently-collected real estate transactions. It provides a highly transparent trading platform for the real estate trading environment by providing a highly accurate real estate analysis tool with artificial intelligence.
momo
momo are the creators of Palette IoT, a platform service that allows anyone to use IoT without large development costs, time, or expert knowledge. All users have to do is place Palette sensors in the necessary places and download the application on a smartphone or tablet. Development of hardware is unnecessary since all tools needed for development are included in one kit. System structure can also be developed intuitively using a smartphone or tablet.
NestEgg
NestEgg are the creators of finbee, an app that encourages automatic savings. The concept of this service is “saving based on your daily activities.” Users, who have not been able to save sufficiently, can save money more easily in daily life, based on pre-set saving rules. In addition, finbee could contribute to usage promotion of any financial products and services such as loan and investment, by displaying some recommendations and coupons according to each situation of savings and lifestyle, in collaboration with financial and any other industrial company.
Origami
Origami provides a smartphone payments app for iOS and Android. The difficulty of getting the Japanese to embrace non-cash payments we have covered recently in our article “The Curious Case of Cash in Japan”.
Playbasis
Playbasis develops and operates the leading enterprise-grade cloud platform for embedding social game mechanics, freemium economics, and Augmented Reality experiences into telecom & financial services industries.
Queen Bee Capital
Queen Bee Capital provides three solutions: (I) PayForex is a cross border payment network, bringing fast, cost efficient, and transparent payment solutions with 20 currencies in over 200 countries to market, for both the individual and corporate customers. (II) PayeeLink is an affordable, secure, and reliable collection services. (III) E-police is a software solution that manages all aspects of anti-money laundering (AML) detection and investigation.
Robot Fund
Robot Fund aims to transform the operations and user interface/user experience (UI/UX) in the asset management industry through the optimization of communication. To that extent, the company offers Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology and chat bot services, mutual fund and macro economic data analysis, as well as robo advisor engines.
Sasuke Financial Lab
Sasuke Financial Lab are the creators of Donuts, a smartphone app-based insurance agency platform instantly providing recommendations for life/health insurance policies that are ready to be obtained.
Tranzax
Tranzax provides innovative solutions regarding supply chain finance, fully utilizing ERMS (Electronically Recorded Monetary Claims established by the Japanese government). Dealing with Tranzax SPC for ERMS, the obligee of ERMS enjoys a lower discount rate , and the obligor enjoys additional financial profits.
Unitedly
Unitedly aims to establish a financial platform for regional revitalization which facilitates local financial institutions to enhance their communications with clients and to meet their diversifying needs.
Valu
Valu, a cross between a trading platform and crowdfunding site, lets anyone hold a personal IPO. Anyone — from fishermen and YouTube celebrities to pastry chefs and social-media mavens — can sell shares in themselves to raise funds in a manner similar to an initial public offering. They attract buyers by offering gifts and services; for example, a blogger may offer exclusive posts that can only be viewed by shareholders, or a cosplayer may share signed photos.
Warrantee
Warrantee simplifies the merchandise warranty management process with a one stop dashboard, simple registration, and request for estimates on second hand products through your app.
xenodata lab
xenodata lab is developing AI-powered finance data analytics leveraging Natural Language Processing (NLP). Xeno Flash, developed by Xenodata Lab., specializes in listed stocks in Japan and uses XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) analysis, PDF table analysis, and PDF graph analysis to convert information attached to various financial-related materials into tabular data, which they then apply their own algorithm to in order to extract the most important financial points, and furthermore, through natural language processing, they are able to pull up a background of specific numerical values from an enormous amount of sentence data in the material.
zaisan.net
zaisan.net provide a smartphone app that provides weekly stock price forecast based on big data and artificial intelligence.
An updated, more comprehensive version of this article has been made available in our “Japanese FinTechs from A to Z” compendium published on SlideShare.
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