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Melanie Perkins. Photo credit: Canva

Australia has yet another startup unicorn today.

Nearly five years after Melanie Perkins, a former graphic design software tutor, first launched Canva as a Photoshop-for-people-terrified-of-Photoshop online tool, the startup is worth US$1 billion dollars following its latest round of funding.

She has just pocketed US$40 million from investors including Sequoia Capital to further grow Canva, which has users designing graphics with its intuitive tools in 190 countries and 100 languages. Its 10 million users make 1 million new designs each day.

“Visual communication is becoming so much more prevalent across every single industry,” CEO and co-founder Perkins tells Tech in Asia. “In years gone by, sales people would create a sales letter, it’d be very text-heavy. But now they’re expected to create a beautiful, visual pitch-deck, perhaps customized for the customers they’re trying to reach.”

Screenshot credit: Canva

The shift to more visuals also applies to teachers, entrepreneurs, marketers, and non-profits, says Perkins. That’s why she wanted to make a tool that’s very different to heavyweight graphic design apps. “Simple, online, and collaborative” – those were three priorities when constructing Canva, she says. It works in your browser, or there are apps for mobile.

The three-year pitch

While some Canva features can be used for free, others – like the ability to collaborate with more than 10 team members – require a monthly subscription. The startup also makes money from a marketplace of add-ons for things like stock images, plus it offers printing services in 31 countries.

Perkins is happy that Canva is turning a profit. “It’s atypical if you compare to most Silicon Valley companies,” she chuckles. “But there’s so much more for us to do. We’re a baby unicorn. It’s early days for us yet.”

The marketing and management grad spent several years prior to Canva’s August 2013 launch chasing funding for her startup concept.

“A lot of trials and tribulations. A lot of time pitching in San Francisco, trying to get investors on board. Trying to get people to join my team. I had a lot of rejection along the way,” she recalls. “I think it was three years between meeting the first investor and actually landing the investment.”

She concedes there was a lot of initial pressure from those US investors to move across the Pacific, but Perkins resisted. Canva now has 250 staffers across its Sydney HQ and branch office in Manila.

“It’s been an incredible benefit being based in Australia. We’ve been able to attract incredible tech talent, from Australia and across the globe. We’ve also been able to get the best of both worlds – we have investors from Silicon Valley, we go there quite regularly, and we’ve been able to tap into their network.”

The recent fundraise marks Sequoia Capital’s first time backing Canva. Australia-based Blackbird Ventures led the round.

Perkins is keeping Canva’s number of active users and subscribers under her hat. But she says that everyone from small businesses to massive companies are designing items with the tool, with 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies having used it at some point. Free access to premium features is given to 17,000 non-profit organizations.

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The Inside series is a column where the Tech in Asia Jobs team gives an insider’s glimpse into interesting companies and professions. Looking for a job? Search thousands of jobs for free on Tech in Asia Jobs.

The mid-morning chatter trailed off as Airfrov CEO and co-founder Cai Li walked into the room and reached for a bell perched on a cabinet. 

The bell rings. 

The 10-odd members of the product and marketing teams rise to their feet for their daily standup meeting. I rise with them. 

A user joins in the daily standup meetings as far as possible. / Photo credit: Sim Yanting

An Airfrov user joins the team’s daily standup meeting whenever schedules align. I was the user in the hot seat that day. After a brief round of introductions, Cai turns to me and asks, “So, what do you not like about Airfrov, and how can it be improved?”

The story of Airfrov

The name Airfrov represents the sharing economy enabled by frequent air travelers. It also plays on Cai’s inexplicable love for the Afro hairstyle. / Photo credit: Sim Yanting

Airfrov is a C2C marketplace that connects travelers with buyers seeking goods from their destinations.

Founded in 2015 by Cai and Robi Ng, the concept was born from an opportunity that Cai spotted while working in a job that required frequent traveling. Every time he traveled, his friends and girlfriend would request for items exclusive to these countries. Through Airfrov, travelers can now get a small monetary incentive for purchasing items requested by buyers. In exchange, buyers get to enjoy imported products without having to pay hefty shipping fees.

The platform is now operational in Singapore and Indonesia, and processes over 800 requests daily.

Keeping users at the forefront of decision-making

Cai credits Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ concept of “the empty chair” for Airfrov’s daily user sit-in sessions. Bezos is known to leave an empty seat at meetings to represent the Amazon customer, “the most important person in the room.”

Cai, however, tweaked that idea for Airfrov. “Instead of keeping the seat empty, I thought, why not invite a real customer?” he says.

Users are constantly dropping by the Airfrov office to deposit or collect items, allowing Cai to involve them in the research and development process.

Identifying user problems first-hand

By getting feedback directly from users, the product and marketing teams can gain insights and spot pain points that are easily overlooked by the UX team.

“Instead of looking into completing specific tasks, we get to see how people use Airfrov on a daily basis,” shares Cai.

One of the first things that Cai and the team noticed was the duplication of requests from other buyers.

Image credit: Airfrov

“We noticed users coming in to say that they wished that they could copy and paste what others were requesting, so they don’t have to go through the whole process of creating a new request,” explains Cai. “As such, we came up with the ‘I want this too!’ button, which has become a core feature of our product today.”

Motivation for the team

According to Cai, bringing in users gives the team strong motivation. “It lets them know that whatever they’re doing is going to impact the life of this user,” he adds.

Taking this approach, however, also means that users can see the nitty-gritty of the product development process. Doesn’t this kind of exposure bother Cai?

“Not really,” he laughs. “We want to involve the users as much as possible in this process. We want them to see how difficult decisions are made. And we would rather that they give us feedback early on.”

The next steps

The information gathered from this process either ends with a new feature in Airfrov’s future iteration, or in the idea graveyard. Here’s how the process looks like.

Image credit: Joshua Lim

Improvements to the product development process

Going forward, Cai wants Airfrov’s engineers to be more involved in the user experience side of the business. As he points out, “Part of our onboarding process requires everyone at Airfrov, including engineers, to be in customer service and learn to serve our customers. But after the onboarding process, they are no longer the ones speaking to users.”

Cai tries to get engineers to speak to users at least once a month, but their involvement is limited because of Airfrov’s resources.

“We have to set aside time for them to do that, but right now, we can’t afford to,” he says. “I wish that they would be able to speak more to our users and see the customer’s problems for themselves. This will give them a better idea of the big picture, and the role they’re playing to solve these problems.”

Can Airfrov retain its close relationship with users when the company scales, and one-to-one interactions become less feasible?

“Why not?” asks Cai. “All it takes is for us to continue to show care and concern, and seek honest feedback. If users truly enjoy the product, they will be more than happy to join us on this journey.”

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Photo credit: WeWork

WeWork, the co-working space company from the US, is launching its first of four imminent locations in Japan on February 1, a spokesperson told Tech in Asia.

The US$20 billion startup is making a grand entrance into Japan, with three more Tokyo locations opening soon after Roppongi’s Ark Hills South space. The three others are in Ginza, Shinbashi, and Marunouchi Kitaguchi.

Prices start at US$490 per month for a seat – aka a “hot desk” – to US$1,145 per month for a private office.

The announcement comes five months after WeWork pocketed US$4.4 billion from Japan’s Softbank. WeWork has already indicated it eventually wants to open 10 to 20 locations in central Tokyo.

Photo credit: WeWork

One of many such startups running casual office facilities around the world, WeWork first hit Asia in mid-2016 when it appeared in Shanghai.

If WeWork’s Tokyo locations are anything like the one opened last month in Singapore, they’ll soon be filled by a mix of budding entrepreneurs, fast-growing startups, medium-sized business, and even major corporations.

Converted from Japanese yen. Rate: US$1 = JPY 112.55.

Watch: WeWork’s Southeast Asia ambitions

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Mega-rounds of funding were back in India this year, after a lull in 2016. But this time they came from the east.

SoftBank honcho Masayoshi Son remains hugely bullish on India despite setbacks in a couple of big bets made on entering the market in late 2014. The Japanese giant announced a US$2.5 billion investment in Flipkart for the local ecommerce player to fight Amazon. Out of that, US$1.5 billion has already been invested. This came on top of US$1.4 billion Flipkart raised from Tencent, Microsoft, and eBay earlier in the year.

India is a land of vast opportunity. We want to support innovative companies that are clear winners.

“India is a land of vast opportunity. We want to support innovative companies that are clear winners in India because they are best positioned to leverage technology and help people lead better lives,” said Son.

SoftBank’s initial bet was on Snapdeal but it had to write down the investment as that ecommerce marketplace rapidly lost market share with the rise of Amazon India in 2016. The Snapdeal founders walked out of a merger with Flipkart after months of negotiation. Its Japanese backer then washed its hands of the deal and invested directly in Flipkart.

See: Ex-VP of Alibaba Porter Erisman on clash of ecommerce models, costly mistakes

SoftBank also made a solo investment of US$1.4 billion in leading payments app Paytm, and doubled down on Uber’s arch rival in India, Ola. The Japanese investor also picked up a large stake in Uber this year, which almost guarantees it will hold sway over ride-hailing in India.

SoftBank’s fourth big bet was to lead a US$250 million round in Oyo Rooms in a bid to win the budget accommodation space, after selling off real estate portal Housing to PropTiger.

The other big players in India this year were Chinese tech giants Tencent and Alibaba. While the maker of WeChat is now a major stakeholder in Flipkart, Alibaba is helping to build out Paytm Mall on the lines of Tmall and Alipay supports Paytm’s payments app.

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China saw a bit of a slowdown in startup funding in 2017, with the US$51.6 billion ploughed into tech companies lower than 2016’s US$53.9 billion, according to the Tech in Asia database.

Despite the drop, the average deal size grew, reaching a record US$31.9 million a pop.

Here are the 10 biggest tech investments of the year, starting at the lower end of the scale.

10th: Cainiao

• US$799 million
• Ecommerce logistics

Created by Alibaba in 2013 in partnership with 15 Chinese delivery companies, the spinoff firm was designed to speed up online shopping.

Photo credit: Alibaba

Alibaba initially had a small stake in Cainiao, but this latest investment bumps that up to 51 percent, giving it the majority interest.

9th: Mobike

• US$815 million
• Transportation

Mobike might’ve raised less than Ofo in 2017, but it still had a good year, matching its archrival’s tire print in reaching 200 cities around the globe.

Photo credit: luoxi / 123RF

Both Mobike and Ofo managed to squeeze out a few smaller Chinese rivals, with three competing startups collapsing in November.

Tencent and Foxconn are among Mobike’s investors.

8th: Ele.me

• US$1 billion
• Local services

Ele.me does food delivery using a fleet of electric scooters. At the latest count, the service claims to have 260 million users across 2,000 Chinese cities, ordering meals from 1.3 million restaurants.

Alibaba and its payment wing Ant Financial are rumored to have led this latest round, repeating the US$1.3 billion the online shopping giant threw at Ele.me in April 2016.

7th: Bytedance

• US$1 billion
• Media

You’ve probably never heard of Bytedance, which is fine because neither have most people in China. They do, however, know Toutiao, the startup’s smash-hit news app.

Pulling together news from around China’s “innernette”, Toutiao has 120 million readers each day who spend an average 74 minutes flicking through the app – double the time spent on Snapchat.

The startup last month acquired Musical.ly, adding the social network to its growing global media empire that includes Flipagram, Topbuzz, and Tik Tok.

A Musical.ly user performs. GIF by Tech in Asia, from video by The Best Musical.ly.

Bytedance is said to be worth around US$20 billion.

See: China’s most addictive news app eyes world domination with AI

6th: Koubei

• US$1.1 billion
• Local services

Koubei is yet another Alibaba spinoff. Jack Ma started it to ensure that his company doesn’t miss out on retail and restaurant spending.

Baked into its Alipay wallet app, the service combines local listings with deals. Although food is a big part of it, Koubei doesn’t do deliveries (in contrast to Ele.me and Meituan-Dianping, which are also on this list).

5th: Ofo

• US$1.2 billion
• Transportation

Just like Mobike, Ofo had a busy year with global expansion.

Alibaba, Ant Financial, and Didi Chuxing are among its investors.

4th: NIO

• US$1.7 billion
• Cars

After starting out as NextEV racing in the Formula E championship for electric single-seaters, NIO’s rebranding heralded the startup’s switch to being a proper automaker.

NIO this month unveiled its first production car, the ES8.

Photo credit: NIO

Starting at US$68,000, the electric SUV is a bold challenge to the luxo-barges so popular with China’s middle-class, such as the Audi Q7 and Mercedes-Benz GLC. It’ll also go up against the Model X, although Tesla’s hyperspeed minivan costs twice as much. Now up for pre-order, the ES8 arrives sometime in the first half of 2018.

Chinese tech giants Tencent and Baidu are among NIO’s backers.

3rd: Daikuan

• US$2 billion
• Finance

Here’s another unfamiliar name. Daikuan is part of China’s huge boom in online financial services – aka “fintech” – that includes an array of loans startups where ordinary people can earn interest from offering up their cash to borrowers.

Daikuan is different from most fintech startups in that it focuses only on loans for buyers of secondhand cars.

2nd: Meituan-Dianping

• US$4 billion
• Local services

This giant startup combines two sites – Meituan and Dianping – and does listings, deals, and deliveries, putting it on a collision course with Alibaba’s Koubei and Alibaba-backed Ele.me.

To make that rivalry even edgier, Tencent – Alibaba’s nemesis – is a major backer.

1st: Didi Chuxing

• US$5.5 billion
• Transportation

Even after getting money from Apple and forcing Uber to wave the white flag in 2016, Didi still managed to raise eyebrows this year with its US$5.5 billion in April – which at the time was the second biggest investment into a tech firm.

Apple’s Tim Cook with Didi’s Jean Liu. Photo credit: Tim Cook’s Twitter

Didi repeatedly promised global expansion throughout the year, but that didn’t happen. Nonetheless, with the ride-hailing app said to be prepping a move into Brazil, 2018 could be the year that Didi steps onto the world stage to challenge Uber once again.

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The year 2017 saw Southeast Asian startups strike a record US$7.8 billion in funding deals, according to the Tech in Asia Database. That’s a 212 percent jump from 2016’s US$2.5 billion.

This begs the question: who are the biggest all-time winners when it comes to raising money in the region? We’ve got you covered – in the glorious infographic below.

This article and graphic was updated December 28, 2017.

Design by Andre Gunawan

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A startup from China is all set to reveal its augmented reality glasses – and take a shot at the big break that’ll help it expand to the US.

Rokid Glass, to be shown at CES 2018 next month in Las Vegas, is the team’s first wearable gadget after years of making gizmos for the home. Here’s a prototype:

Photo montage by Tech in Asia, using image from Rokid

Reynold Wu, product director at Rokid and the man charged with bringing the AR glasses to market, was an early adopter and big fan of Google Glass, the much-mocked headset that never really caught on. He feels that both technology and consumers have moved on a lot since Google’s effort was first made public in mid-2012.

“The battery… The components… The camera is much smaller,” says Wu, and these fast-moving changes should help the startup’s product be sleeker and funkier. “I can’t say it’s perfect timing, but it’s better timing now,” he tells Tech in Asia.

Also on Wu’s side is the fact that people are showing a decent amount of enthusiasm for AR right now, which can do a lot of useful and fun things. The success of Pokemon Go proves that beyond doubt.

However, that’s all happening on the phones that people already own, like this IKEA app for seeing how new furniture will look in your home.

GIF credit: Adweek

Getting people to fork out for a new gadget devoted entirely to AR will still be a big ask.

Rokid Glass takes voice inputs as well as heeds commands users make with their hands. It also has a touchpad, in case people feel more comfortable using that.

Between the eyes you’ll notice there’s a camera. The lenses are also OLED screens

Photo credit: Rokid

The wearable gadget will run a version of Android, making it open to apps. Wu sees Glass being suited to navigation and product recognition apps in particular.

“A lot of apps are too distracting,” he observes, thinking of how they’ll appear before your eyes in AR. He also wants to ensure its users stay safe as they walk along the street. And so Rokid will initially focus on getting useful apps onto Glass, though they’ll show off the gadget to CES 2018 visitors with a game controllable with gestures.

“We want to give you glasses that improve your life, not make you think you’re in a virtual world,” says the mechanical and electrical engineer.

Adding lightness

A big objective is to ensure that Rokid Glass is “light and fashionable,” adds Wu.

He points to Snapchat’s Spectacles – which were basically just a glorified webcam – as proof that crucial components have now shrunk down enough to allow firms to make more stylish wearables.

GIF credit: Snapchat

And so Rokid Glass will be as slim as possible, avoiding the awkwardness of Magic Leap’s AR headset, which was shown off just before Christmas.

Photo credit: Magic Leap

There’s also the 900-pound gorilla in the room: Apple. The iPhone maker is rumored to be looking into AR glasses as its next wearable niche after pushing AR hard with its latest iPhones. However, Apple CEO Tim Cook in October said that at present, “the technology itself doesn’t exist to do that in a quality way.” He added: “We don’t give a rats about being first, we want to be best in creating people’s experiences. Something that you would see out in the market any time soon would not be something that any of us would be satisfied with.”

Established in 2014, Rokid makes the AI that goes with its gadgets, such as its Pebble smart speakers, which come with a voice assistant. That AI assistant is now busy learning English, as the startup aims first at the US with its AR glasses. There’s no set price or launch date yet, but it’s looking towards sales later in 2018.

During its CES debut, the startup intends to meet with potential customers as well as get feedback on Glass.

CES 2018 opens January 9.

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Photo credit: Andrew Gook / Unsplash

Look out, Mobike and Ofo (or “Mofo,” as I like to call China’s top two bike-share apps). A new contender has just emerged, thanks to US$500 million in funding.

The huge injection into Hello Bike shows investors are not spooked by the collapse of three smaller dockless bike services in the past few months.

Hello Bike today announced US$153 million on top of the US$350 million it revealed December 12, making for a blockbuster half-billion bucks combined series D fundraising. Its aim is to stop being the third wheel in China’s growing bike-share market and thereby challenge the mighty Mofo.

While Mobike is known for its orange steeds and Ofo for its yellow, HelloBike sticks to its fresh white-and-blue colorway:

Photo credit: Hello Bike

With 10 million daily rides across 150 Chinese cities, Hello Bike has a lot of catching up to do, reported New Seed today. Ofo has 5.1 million app users each day versus Mobike’s 4.9 million – but Hello Bike is way behind with just 750,000, according to a research group’s data.

Unlike Mobike and Ofo, Hello Bike has yet to expand beyond its home nation.

Converted from Chinese yuan. Rate: US$1 = 6.55 RMB.

See more:

• Line funds Mobike to put bike-sharing in messaging app
• I used a bike-share app all day and my conclusion is people are assholes
• 12 tech stories that rocked China this year

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Photo credit : jetcityimage / 123RF

Amazon rolled out its Prime subscription service in Singapore just in time for the Christmas holiday, following the launch of the Prime Now fast delivery app in July. But these moves might not have been enough to tempt shoppers away from local ecommerce options.

While neither Amazon nor its competitors like to get too descriptive with their numbers, the latest data shows that Amazon is ranking below local rivals like Lazada in the shopping category of both the Android and iOS app stores.

However, app rankings do not tell the whole story. Amazon is currently not firing on all cylinders in Southeast Asia. It still has a chance to catch up, if it decides to add heat to the simmer.

Just a scratch

According to data gathered by App Annie, Amazon Prime’s rank rose sharply on December 7, just after the service launched, before slipping back down to double digits a couple of days later.

Meanwhile, Lazada – Amazon’s Alibaba-backed competitor – has enjoyed a consistently high ranking throughout the month, peaking at #1 in the shopping category between December 12 and 15. This is likely due to the 12.12 promotion, a sales event similar to Singles Day and Black Friday, in which several other websites participated but Amazon skipped.

The app also wasn’t able to surpass the rankings of other competitors like Qoo10, Shopee, and Redmart.

It’s a very different picture compared to July and August, when the Prime Now app enjoyed top-5 positions (although it was freely available to all users at the time).

The situation is similar in the entertainment category rankings, where Prime Video doesn’t quite reach the heights of global competitor Netflix and local streaming services Toggle and Viu. None of those apps show any dips in the rankings as a result of Amazon’s product availability.

Android is the mobile platform of choice in Singapore. In 2017, it had a market share of 60 percent, while iOS captured 27.4 percent of the market, according to Statcounter.

Prime Video is part of Amazon Prime’s subscription, which costs S$8.99 per month (currently offered at S$2.99 per month). Amazon also offers a 30-day free trial period, which is probably ongoing for most users, considering the service launched in early December. For what’s effectively a free service, the low app ranking raises an eyebrow.

One possible reason for this is its readiness for the market. Much like Netflix when it launched in Singapore in early 2016, Amazon’s catalog is still not large or localized enough.

Netflix worked hard to rectify that in the past couple of years – it follows that Amazon will be doing the same in the future. The US giant needs to move fast; its rivals are not minnows.

Lazada CEO Max Bittner has previously said his company can fight off competitors, thanks to Alibaba’s deep pockets and its own emphasis on logistics and fulfillment. “Alibaba [is] here to stay. We’re here to stay. [We’ll focus] on what distinguishes us, and we’ll match whatever we can match,” he told the audience at Tech in Asia Jakarta 2017 in November.

Amazon should focus on its ecosystem to provide a meaningful alternative to its competitors in Singapore.

As part of NYSE-listed Sea, Shopee is also in a strong position to defend its turf, with its parent company raising US$894 million through its IPO, on top of more than US$1.5 billion across a number of private rounds.

In terms of sheer numbers, competitors like Lazada and Shopee have more to offer shoppers at the moment. “These two local marketplaces are well established with a lot more product options,” explains Xiaofeng Wang, senior analyst at Forrester. “Consumers don’t find strong motivations to switch, unless they have the urgency to go with Amazon Prime Now’s two-hour delivery.”

All’s not lost for the US giant

The fact that Amazon is lagging behind its rival at the moment is not surprising. “Amazon only has its mobile app, Prime Now, available in Singapore – not the marketplace,” says Wang.

Indeed, most Singaporean shoppers buying stuff on Amazon are used to the US site, which until recently would offer free shipping to the city-state for orders above a certain value. With the Prime subscription launch in Singapore, that’s now over.

Because Amazon’s offering in Singapore is at the moment confined in the Prime mobile and video apps, shoppers seem dissatisfied with the limited product range on offer.

That said, it seems that the sheer brand power of Jeff Bezos’ joint was enough to rank Prime among the country’s most popular ecommerce and entertainment apps.

Also, Amazon has not really engaged in sales and promotions so far. “Amazon hasn’t done much marketing and promotion campaigns in the local market since [launch], while Lazada and Shopee both participated in 12.12,” notes Wang.

Despite this, an Amazon spokesperson tells Tech in Asia the company is “thrilled with customer reaction to Amazon’s arrival in Singapore, including the launch of Prime.”

The US firm says it doesn’t focus on competitors – it obsesses over customers instead. “In every country where Amazon operates, there is a lot of competition. But we believe competition is good for customers. At the same time, we feel good about our ability to offer this unique and valuable program to our customers in Singapore,” adds the spokesperson.

Before Amazon landed in the Lion City, Lazada got busy launching a quasi-competitor to Prime. Called LiveUp, it’s a subscription service that combines Lazada and its online grocery Redmart, as well as Taobao, Netflix, and Uber. Subscribers get benefits like free shipping, discounts, rebates, and other freebies.

While Lazada doesn’t share figures on LiveUp subscriptions, the S$49.90 annual fee is an attractive proposition for users of the aforementioned services. The Prime subscription could be appealing as well, but not with several elements still missing, like Prime Music and Prime Reading.

Amazon’s Singapore fulfillment center, which opened in July with the launch of Prime Now. Photo credit: Tech in Asia

Storming the castle

Wang believes Amazon should focus on its ecosystem to provide a meaningful alternative to its competitors in Singapore. “Consumers would be interested in Amazon’s unique products such as Echo, Kindle, digital books. Amazon should play by its strengths and provide the marketplace with more product options to local consumers,” she stresses.

Some industry watchers think Amazon could accelerate its presence in Singapore and Southeast Asia by acquiring local companies.

“With time running out for a full-fledged, organic entry into the high-growth markets of Southeast Asia, its stock trading at all-time high, and not too distant memories of failure in China, we expect Amazon to attempt at least one major acquisition in 2018 to accelerate its regional expansion,” writes Sheji Ho, group chief marketing officer at ecommerce enabler aCommerce.

Amazon does not discuss its plans for the region but there’s probably more services and products on the way. As the company spokesperson says, “While we can’t provide details yet about future Prime benefit additions, we can safely say that we aren’t done. We will keep making Prime better and better in Singapore, adding more selection, finding ways to make it faster, and adding more benefits including great quality entertainment.”

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This week’s roundup features horse-racing analytics, a platform that enables travel-related side gigs, and a fledgling enterprise focused on end-of-life preps for Japan’s aging population.

Gauss

AI-focused Gauss is collaborating with fashion brand ANAP  to create a site where users can upload images of clothes, allowing it to search the web for similar items.

Now in beta version, the startup is also working on another joint project: SIVA, a horse-racing predictive tool. Siva gathers information from tens of thousands of races every day to bring big data to the world of horse racing.

In addition, Gauss is developing other AI data analytic tools as well as natural language processing features.

Gauss recently received US$1.5 million from three companies, including ANAP and job portal DIP Corp.  

Sagojo

Sagojo enables travelers to turn their experiences into a side gig. The company lists jobs that people can apply for, such as uploading photo diaries, writing articles about unique travel experiences, ,, and so on. Since its release a year and a half ago, the startup has acquired 7,500 registered users, of which 200 plus are using it for work purposes.

While Sagojo did not disclose details, it recently accumulated hundreds of thousands of dollars from Anex Ventures, Apptli, and multiple angel investors.

Crowd Cast

Created by Crowd Cast, Staple is an app that simplifies expense reporting for small to medium-sized businesses. More than 10,000 companies are using the service, and the startup is acquiring new customers at a rate of about 300 per month. The service is partnered with more than 10 accounting softwares and other programs like Office 365 for seamless integration.

Crowd Cast just received US$880,000 from business partner MTI.  

New Revo 

Developed by New Revo, Logikura is looking to digitize Japan’s antiquated logistics industry by moving  it past analog forms of management like fax, paper, and email. Its cloud-based AI platform can do everything from creating barcodes and shipping labels to managing invoices.

The company estimates that in Japan alone, there is about US$480 billion of excess inventory sitting in warehouses. Logikura’s goal is to reduce time spent on logistics by 80 percent and cut excess inventory by 30 percent. To achieve the latter goal, it’s working on an AI analytics demand prediction tool.

Logikura is not yet available to the public, but about 50 companies have pre-registered since it started the process in mid-November.

The company recently secured US$440,000 from Genesia Ventures from its third round of fundraising.  

Baseconnect

After graduating from accelerator Code Republic’s second batch of startups in April, Baseconnect is ending 2017 by raising a seed round of over US$880,000 from several investors, including Genesia Capital, Mizuho Capital, Kyoto Startup Support Fund, User Local, YJ Capital, and East Ventures.

Baseconnect is developing BaseconnectList, a database of business contacts that can be used for sales. Thousands of businesses contact lists can be accessed in about 30 seconds.

A beta version of BaseconnectList is up and running, but it’s  not open to the public for now.

Shuukatsu Netto

The brainchild of by 22-year-old University of Tokyo student Shota Iwasaki, Shuukatsu Netto is a website that zeroes in on end-of-life preparations for Japan’s ageing populace.

While lots of Japanese startups are addressing the inevitable problems that come post-population decline such as workforce deterioration, Shuukatsu Netto deals with more pressing issues in the now, such as elderly care. The site features articles about funeral ceremonies, grave sites, and other related concerns, written by a team of 20 people. Most of its readers are 40- to 50-year olds who are preparing for their parents.

Shuukatsu Netto just raised a round of US$730,000 from a round led by angel investor Yuto Kono of Genesia Ventures,This follows its seed round and brings its total funding to over US$880,000.

This post 6 rising startups in Japan appeared first on Tech in Asia.

from Startups – Tech in Asia http://ift.tt/2BQWqE3