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This week’s roundup has something for everyone. Fintech, medtech, edtech, natural language processing, and pet-tech startups all scored funding.

Full details below.

Coiney

Coiney should be a familiar name to long-time readers of Tech in Asia. Founded in 2012, the service has been best known as a homegrown credit card payment device that rivals Square and Rakuten SmartPay. Its latest funding round totals US$7 million. The Innovation Network Corporation of Japan returned as an investor. Joining the round were SBI Investment, Dentsu Digital Holdings, and Seibu Shinkin Bank.

Coiney now sports a suite of services – Coiney Terminal, Coiney Page, and Coiney Engine. Terminal is the card reader and Engine is an analytics program. Page allows users to create a temporary online payment request page that can be sent to clients.

MJI

MJI manufactures a lifestyle support robot and closed a US$5 million round. Sparx Group, which manages the Future Creation Fund, was the primary investor. That fund is best known for having Toyota and Mizuho Sumitomo Bank at the top of its LP list.

The robot – known as Tapia – is another option in an increasingly crowded vertical. Like its Japanese competitors, Tapia is a more personable Alexa or Cortana. Tapia differs from other recently funded robots in that it ostensibly has professional and international use cases as well. MJI says the robot can also work in restaurants and hotels, and that international businesses have made inquiries into using it. With develop centers in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Korea, the startup is definitely looking at the global market.

Hachitama

Photo credit: damedeeso / 123RF.

Hachitama is an IoT solution for your pets. Users can feed and watch their pets through a smart feeder equipped with a camera and an app. People who really want to show love to their furry friends can take advantage of the startup’s distribution deal with an Australian producer of organic pet food.

The startup closed a seed round led by Morinaga, a leading food and beverage firm in Japan. Also joining the round were Kanshin Future Fund (an investment vehicle from financial services firm Dai-ichi Kanshin), real estate firm Act Call, and corporate accelerator 01Booster. Hachitama also took an investment loan from the Japan Finance Corporation. The total amount comes to approximately US$360,000 according to TechCrunch Japan.

Studio Ousia

Photo credit: wamsler / 123RF.

Studio Ousia, a startup known for its natural language processing products, has secured US$1.3 million in funding from Samsung Ventures. This follows a US$1 million round in 2014.

An alumnus of Tech in Asia’s first-ever Arena pitch battle, the company helps companies improve customer targeting and recommendation. It can also power automated help desks. Its natural language processing abilities are highly rated. The firm’s entity linking engine – the program that can determine the difference between “Xerox / company” and “xerox / verb” in a block of text – won the top prize two consecutive years from the international Association of Computational Linguistics.

Requpo

Requpo wants to help users find where and when hair salons have open appointments. According to The Bridge, Colopl, Vector, and Daiwa Corporate Investment agree to the tune of US$710,000.

A nice tweak to the standard model is that users specify what kind of haircut they want in advance. The hairstylists then take the appointments on the basis of their schedule and also ability (and likely interest) in fulfilling the wishes of potential clients. In conjunction with the funding announcement, Requpo announced it had secured a patent for the business model. The service is currently available in Tokyo’s fashion district – Shibuya, Harajuku, and Omotesando. It will expand to more trendy spots like Ebisu, Daikanyama, and Nakameguro in February.

Susmed

Susmed – short for “Sustainable Medicine” – is on a quest to solve insomnia. Beyond Next Ventures is doing its part by fronting a US$880,000 funding round. Like most medical apps, Susmed’s takes user data, puts it through an algorithm, and then provides advice for fixing their insomnia. The stylishly-titled Yawn app is available for iPhone users.

Susmed’s founder, Taro Ueno, is a doctor and researcher at Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science. Though the app stops short of replacing medical professionals, it is looking to increase adoption by doctors. Susmed is currently in clinical trials and angling for widespread acceptance by the medical community.

Aromabit