Nov 30, 2023

Image credit: Thirdverse Tokyo-based game developer Thirdverse announced on Thursday that it has secured approximately 1.2 billion yen (about $8.1 million US) in its latest round. B Dash Ventures, Shinsei Corporate Investment, Now, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and Thirdverse CEO Hironao Kunimitsu participated in this round. For the company, this follows a 2 billion yen ($13.5 million) funding back in November of 2022, and brought their funding sum to date to 5.7 billion yen ($38.5 million). Thirverse uses the funds to more focus on developing and global marketing of its latest VR titles X8 and Soul Covenant. X8 has achieved 180,000 downloads since its official launch on the Meta Quest and Steam stores, and has hosted three VR e-sports events; Its PlayStation VR2 and PICO versions will be announced soon. Recently announced at the Tokyo Game Show 2023, Soul Covenant is also scheduled to release in early 2024. The company plans to continue developing new VR game projects and hiring development teams. SHARE: Singapore-based AnotherBall announced that it has secured 1.9 billion yen (about $13 million US) in a seed round to promote its VTuber project targeting the English-speaking market called Izumo. The latest round was led by ANRI with participation from Hashed, Global Brain, Globis Capital Partners (GCP), Sfermion, HashKey Capital, Everyrealm, Ethereal Ventures, Emoote, Crunchyroll founder Kun Gao, and other angel investors. This follows an angel round in May of 2023 and brought their funding sum up to 2.2 billion yen (about $15 million US). The company was founded in May of 2022 by CEO Shunsuke Oyu and CTO Tatsuro Shimada, both of whom are known for having founded businesses like VTuber agency Prism Project as well as mom-focused Q&A app Mamari (acquired by KDDI’s Syn. Holdings back in 2016). Izumo is said to aim to create a sustainable platform that enables everyone to live their lives in their own way. The platform has been working on initiatives that incorporate cutting-edge technologies and is using these experiences to allow individual creators to gain fans and monetize their work. It is scheduled to be launched in 2024. Oyu proposes a future in which people are becoming avatars, which in turn expands human… Read More Singapore-based AnotherBall announced that it has secured 1.9 billion yen (about $13 million US) in a seed round to promote its VTuber project targeting the English-speaking market called Izumo . The latest round was led by ANRI with participation from Hashed, Global Brain, Globis Capital Partners (GCP), Sfermion, HashKey Capital, Everyrealm, Ethereal Ventures, Emoote, Crunchyroll founder Kun Gao, and other angel investors. This follows an angel round in May of 2023 and brought their funding sum up to 2.2 billion yen (about $15 million US). The company was founded in May of 2022 by CEO Shunsuke Oyu and CTO Tatsuro Shimada, both of whom are known for having founded businesses like VTuber agency Prism Project as well as mom-focused Q&A app Mamari (acquired by KDDI’s Syn. Holdings back in 2016). Izumo is said to aim to create a sustainable platform that enables everyone to live their lives in their own way. The platform has been working on initiatives that incorporate cutting-edge technologies and is using these experiences to allow individual creators to gain fans and monetize their work. It is scheduled to be launched in 2024. Oyu proposes a future in which people are becoming avatars, which in turn expands human potential where VTubers are the future of this. SHARE: Nikkei reported on Monday that EQT has agreed to acquire Japanese startup HRBrain for an undisclosed sum. Japanese startup database Initial reported the company was valued around 21.5 billion yen (about $145 million US) when it secured 1.8 billion yen (about $12 million yen in equity and loans in the previous round back in February of 2022. After the aquisition, founder and CEO Hiroki Hori will remain on board and as a shareholder while EQT will dispatch an outside director. Prior to HRBrain, Mori managed a media business unit at CyberAgent (TSE:4751). After recognizing the complexity and inefficiency of the personnel evaluation and goal management of many enrolled members using Excel and other tools, he launched the company in March of 2016 under its previous name of Moskytone. The company’s cloud-based platform under the same name has served over 2,500 companies since its launch back in January of 2017. HRBrain streamlines the workload of HR professionals in the evaluation process by putting everything from the filling out of goal sheets to the management of evaluations by HR professionals into the cloud system, which allows them to create effective data-driven strategies on human resource management. It consists of seven services: Talent… Read More SHARE: On Monday, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government held a kick-off event to celebrate the opening of Tokyo Innovation Base or TiB for short, a center of exchange between entrepreneurs and other stakeholders in the startup landscape. Based on its startup strategy titled Global Innovation with Startups, the government uses the venue for activities in aim to help increase 10 folds in the number of unicorns, that of founding new businesses, and that of collaborative projects between the government and startups. It will serve as a base for activities to realize all these goals. The venue will host a variety of activities based on four keywords: Global, Growth, Collaboration, and Connect. In Global, the government will collaborate with Plug and Play, Startup Island Taiwan and other foreign initatives while in Growth, it will collaborate with the UTokyo Innovation Platform (UTokyo IPC) which has vast network with universities across the country through its 1st Round program. In Collaboration, the government works with Sony Innovation Fund and other corporate venture capital units to support open innovation while in Connect, it teams up with startup support organizations to hold one to three events a week at the venue. Most recently, Startup Genome and Dealroom are… Read More Image credit: Masaru Ikeda On Monday, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government held a kick-off event to celebrate the opening of Tokyo Innovation Base or TiB for short, a center of exchange between entrepreneurs and other stakeholders in the startup landscape. Based on its startup strategy titled Global Innovation with Startups , the government uses the venue for activities in aim to help increase 10 folds in the number of unicorns, that of founding new businesses, and that of collaborative projects between the government and startups. It will serve as a base for activities to realize all these goals. Image credit: Masaru Ikeda The venue will host a variety of activities based on four keywords: Global, Growth, Collaboration, and Connect. In Global, the government will collaborate with Plug and Play, Startup Island Taiwan and other foreign initatives while in Growth, it will collaborate with the UTokyo Innovation Platform (UTokyo IPC) which has vast network with universities across the country through its 1st Round program. In Collaboration, the government works with Sony Innovation Fund and other corporate venture capital units to support open innovation while in Connect, it teams up with startup support organizations to hold one to three events a week at the venue. Most recently, Startup Genome and Dealroom are scheduled to hold an event this coming Thursday. Image credit: Masaru Ikeda The government has conducted various initiatives to encourage entrepreneurship including a startup cafe for potential entrepreneurs near Tokyo Station , the Tokyo Startup Gateway program, and the Aoyama Startup Acceleration Center (ASAC), APT for Women, the initiative to especially encourage female entrepreneurs as well as the global conference . Compared to these past initiatives encouraging entrepreneurs in their early phase, the new venue seems to be intended to further support those who have already started their own businesses and to further promote startup activities. Other examples of venues for entrepreneurs run by local governments include Fukuoka City’s Fukuoka Growth Next (FGN) and Aichi Prefecture’s STATION Ai (scheduled to open next year). Image credit: Masaru Ikeda SHARE: Tokyo Otaku Mode announced on Tuesday that it has been acquired by Japanese major publishing company Shogakukan. The terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed. We haven’t confirmed that the company secured funding from VC firms and other sources after January of 2018. To date, the total amount of funds secured through the Series A and Series B rounds apparently surpasses 1.8 billion yen. Buffett Code estimated the company’s was valued at 3 billion yen as of August of 2022. The company was founded in March of 2011 by Naomitsu Kodaka, a former Merrill Lynch employee and former CFO of Gaiax, and then established a U.S. subsidiary in April of 2012 with global expansion in mind. Serving its global audience with updates on Japanese anime and manga in English, it has earned over 20 million followers on its Facebook fan page. After the acquisition, CEO Odaka and Vice Hajime Ataka will continue playing their role respectively. Shogakukan’s President Nobuhiro Oga and other directors join the board of Tokyo Otaku Mode as Chairman and directors respectively. Tokyo Otaku Mode kicked off its business with a media outlet offering Japanese anime and manga updates to the world, and now offers… Read More Image credit: Tokyo Otaku Mode Tokyo Otaku Mode announced on Tuesday that it has been acquired by Japanese major publishing company Shogakukan . The terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed. We haven’t confirmed that the company secured funding from VC firms and other sources after January of 2018. To date, the total amount of funds secured through the Series A and Series B rounds apparently surpasses 1.8 billion yen. Buffett Code estimated the company’s was valued at 3 billion yen as of August of 2022. The company was founded in March of 2011 by Naomitsu Kodaka, a former Merrill Lynch employee and former CFO of Gaiax, and then established a U.S. subsidiary in April of 2012 with global expansion in mind. Serving its global audience with updates on Japanese anime and manga in English, it has earned over 20 million followers on its Facebook fan page. After the acquisition, CEO Odaka and Vice Hajime Ataka will continue playing their role respectively. Shogakukan’s President Nobuhiro Oga and other directors join the board of Tokyo Otaku Mode as Chairman and directors respectively. Tokyo Otaku Mode kicked off its business with a media outlet offering Japanese anime and manga updates to the world, and now offers character goods, e-commerce, and a logistics outsourcing service that can deliver products from e-commerce and crowdfunding sites to all over the world. In September of 2014, the company became the first investee from Japan’s state-backed Cool Japan Fund . Through the acquisition, Shogakukan is expected to strengthen the overseas expansion of its intellectual property businesses. See also: SHARE: Los Angeles-based Cashi Cake, the Japanese startup behind the Misaky Tokyo seaweed confectionery brand and the OoMee seaweed beverage brand, announced on Tuesday that it has secured $3.7 million US in the 1st close of its Series A round. Participating investors include Mitsubishi Foods (TSE: 7451), Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, and undisclosed venture capital firm(s) as well as angel investors including Masaki Yamamoto (CEO, Chatwork), Shinichi Takama, Kazutaka Mori (international attorney, One Aisa Lawyers), Yu Kaneko (qualified institutional investor), and Hiroyuki Miyake (CEO, Synergy Plus). For the company, this follows their two angel rounds (securing approximately 60 million yen in total) and the 1st close of its seed round back in 2022 (since the seed round’s 2nd close has not been announced, so in effect this appears to be the final close of the seed round). The latest round brought the startup funding sum up to date to $5.6 million US. Our readers may recall the company secured a seed round from Chiba Dojo Fund, Coconala Skill Partners (CSP), and Headline Asia as well as two angel investors: Hiromi Okuda, and Shin Murakami. The company revealed at this time that Japanese microalgae developer Euglena (TSE: 2931) also… Read More