[The Bridge] Japan’s food delivery startup Dely secures second round funding...
Tokyo-based startup Dely, a food delivery service operating in Tokyo, announced today that it has fundraised an undisclosed sum from Japanese seed investor Anri. This follows their seed funding in July...
View Article[The Bridge] Japan’s Relux raises $3.1 million, enhances hotel booking site...
Tokyo-based Loco partners, the startup that operates Japanese luxury inn and hotel booking site Relux, announced today that it has fundraised 330 million yen (about $3.1 million) from Recruit Holdings...
View Article[The Bridge] Japan’s weight-loss startup FiNC fundraises, appoints former...
FiNC is a Tokyo startup that provides online weight loss and dietary advice based on a scientific approach such as genetic testing. The company announced today that it has raised a series A round of an...
View ArticleRewards Point Service, Moppy Operator Ceres Goes IPO On Mothers / Venture Now
Ceres was founded on January of 2005 and launched rewards point site for mobile, Moppy on May of the year. It started the service to PC in 2010 as well. The service has over 3.5 million users now. The...
View Article[The Bridge] Japan’s Crowd Cast fundraises from IMJ, looking to conquer...
Tokyo-based Crowd Cast, a startup developing cloud services and apps for expense management, launched a new iOS app called Staple today. Coinciding with this, the company also announced today that it...
View Article[Tech in Asia] Education startup company Mana.bo nets $3.07M to enter B2C sales
Mana.bo, the company providing real-time tutoring help via a virtual whiteboard, today informed Tech in Asia that it has raised JPY 330 million (US$3.07 million) in series A funding from Benesse...
View Article[The Bridge] Japan’s Orkney secures funding, strengthens tools development...
Yokohama-based Orkney, the company that provides fieldwork-focused customer relationship management tools called Orkney Upward, announced Tuesday that it has fundraised 90 million yen ($839,000) from...
View Article[Tech in Asia] Accounting startup Freee adds $6 million in funding
Freee proved again today that accounting software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies can be a hot commodity by revealing a US$6 million series B2 round of funding. This round was led by Pavilion Capital and...
View Article[The Bridge] Japanese flea market app Fril secures $10 million funding round
Nikkei’s Sept. 25 morning edition reported earlier today that Tokyo-based Fablic, the startup behind Japanese flea market app Fril, has fundraised about 1 billion yen (or $9.2 million) from Japanese...
View Article[The Bridge] Tokyo Otaku Mode secures up to $14M from Japan’s state-backed fund
Tokyo Otaku Mode, the startup behind the Japanese subculture site of the same name, announced today that it has fundraised from Cool Japan Fund, Japan’s state-backed fund for the promotion of the...
View Article[Tech In Asia] Japan’s DeNA makes rare double acquisition for $50M in an...
DeNA added new punch to its business today, announcing acquisitions of Iemo and Peroli. Total cost was not disclosed but a DeNA representative confirmed to Tech in Asia that the two deals are worth...
View Article[Tech In Asia] Shufti lands $5.75M to help Japanese housewives work from home
A website that helps Japanese housewives make money by working from home has just raised US$5.75 million from Minna no Wedding and Nissay Capital, reports The Bridge. Shufti, in operation since 2007,...
View Article[Tech In Asia] How big is a zettabyte? This startup got funding from Japan’s...
A petabyte isn’t cool. An exabyte isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? A zettabyte. Big data startup Preferred Networks wants to develop a technology that can do real-time analysis of the zettabytes of...
View Article[Tech In Asia] With investment from Fuji TV and Sega Networks, Goopa shifts...
Earlier this week, Tokyo-based startup Goopa announced that it received an undisclosed amount of funding from Japanese television network Fuji TV and Sega’s mobile gaming-focused division Sega...
View Article[The Bridge] Japan’s e-commerce company Locondo raises $4.6 million in series...
Japanese footwear e-commerce company Locondo announced last week that it had raised 500 million yen (or $4.6 million) in a series C round from Japanese investment firm Jafco. The company uses the funds...
View Article[Tech In Asia] Line dives head first into payments, taxi hailing, and...
Takeshi Idezawa, COO of Line, kicked off his presentation at Line Conference Tokyo 2014 today with a simple message. “The keyword of our future is ‘life’. Line is the smartphone gateway for your life.”...
View Article[Tech In Asia] Mercari nets an unexpected $21M windfall. Will its new fortune...
There should be no more doubt that investors are convinced that Mercari is the next big thing for ecommerce in Japan. Following a US$14 million round in March, Mercari confirmed today that it had...
View Article[The Bridge] Japanese quiz app BrainWars snags $2.8 million in funding from...
Tokyo-based TransLimit, the startup that develops social quiz app BrainWars, announced on Thursday that it has fundraised 300 million yen (approximately $2.8 million) form Line Ventures, United, East...
View Article[The Bridge] Japan’s Somewrite raises $1.1M from Gree and others, scaling up...
Japanese “owned media” marketing company Somewrite fundraised 120 million yen (about $1.1 million) from Gree Ventures and other undisclosed investors. In May of 2013, Somewrite won the fifth batch of...
View Article[The Bridge] Japanese photo collage app Papelook raises $1.1 million from Jafco
Tokyo-based Papelook, the company behind a photo collage app under the same name, announced today that it has raised 120 million yen (or $1.12 million) from Japanese investment firm Jafco. Since its...
View Article[Tech In Asia] SpaceMarket gets $930,000 to let you rent any space, on sea or...
SpaceMarket, a Japanese startup which connects users and open spaces, has just confirmed to Tech in Asia that it has raised JPY 100 million (US$930,000) in its first funding round. The new cash comes...
View Article[The Bridge] Japan’s home recommendation platform Ietty raises $1.9 million
Ietty is a Japanese startup that provides an alternative to conventional house hunting. The startup announced today that it has fundraised about 200 million yen ($1.86 million) from YJ Capital and...
View Article[Tech In Asia] Japanese messaging app developer Quan closes series A funding...
Quan, a Tokyo-based messaging app developer that makes games and stickers for a variety of popular chat apps, announced the closure of its series A round earlier today. The funding – rumored to be in...
View Article[Tech In Asia] Softbank announces partnership with ad tech startup Geniee
Softbank, Japan’s robot-loving telco, today announced a business tie-up with Tokyo-based ad tech startup Geniee. Starting next month, Softbank will launch a supply-side advertising platform (SSP), in...
View Article[The Bridge] KDDI invests $113M, partners with 11 internet companies to...
Japan’s Nikkei reported earlier this morning that Japanese telco KDDI will partner with 11 internet companies to provide the former company’s subscribers with an integrated portal menu. By integrating...
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