[Penn Olson] Wishscope: A Social Wishlist from Japan

Tokyo-based tech start-up Zawatt just announced it has received funding from Japan’s Cyber Agent Ventures and now is worth 20 million yen. The start-up is currently working on developing an iPhone app called Wishscope, which allows you to ask someone to help you make your wishes true and solve problems that you’re facing. ...

Penn Olson 9/12/2011 

memo

• A total amount of the fundraising is 15 million yen. In addition to CyberAgent Ventures, Hong Kong-based Net Capital Partners and two individual investors participated.

Read More

PIXTA Raises 70M Yen From Globis and PE&HR /Venture Now

PIXTA runs a marketplace for photos, illustrations, and library shots. It was founded on August of 2005 and launched the service at the next May.

PIXTA has 1.84 million items, 88,000 creators, and 55,000 registered users as of September. PIXTA gives back 34 to 60 % of revenue to creators and takes the rest for fee.

PIXTA plans to release English version in this October and Chinese version in the next year using the capital.

Venture Now 9/9/2011

memo

• It is relatively small amount for Globis Capital Partners which usually invests more than 100M yen.

Read More

Azoo Raises Seed Money From peperboy&co Founder, Mr. Ieiri /Venture Now

Azoo raises 5 million yen by allocation of new shares to Kazuma Ieiri, the founder of paperboy&co.

Azoo was founded at July 1st. The startup plans to release its first service, paid email newsletter, Lilac in October. Paid email newsletters mainly target male readers, but the company prepares titles targeting for females. ...

Venture Now 9/8/2011

memo

• Paid email newsletter is getting popular recently such as Horiemon, Livedoor founder, who continues publishing email newsletter from a prison.

Read More

[Penn Olson] Rakuten Invests in Russian e-Retailer Ozon.ru

Japan’s online retail giant Rakuten just announced that it has invested in Ozon.ru, a Russian e-commerce service. According to Rakuten’s statement, Ozon has 5.2 million registered members.

This is not the first time Rakuten has explored the European landscape. readers may recall back in July when we reported about the company’s acquisition of Tradoria, an online shopping site in Germany. Back in 2010, it acquired Price Minister out of France. ...

Penn Olson 9/9/2011 

memo

• It is a rare case for Rakuten. Not only in France or Germany, but in US, Asia, and Brazil, Rakuten usually acquires or takes major share of local EC sites. 

Read More

Online Gaming Startup, Aiming Raises 1.2B Yen /TechCrunch Japan

Aiming was founded in this June when the startup raised 300M yen from Incubate Fund. In this round, JAFCO joins and seems to invest most of the amount of 1.2 billion yen, in addition to Incubate Fund. The valuation is not disclosed.

Aiming is a spin-out from a online game studio, ONE-UP. The team developed a blockbuster browser game, Browser Sangokushi. The founder and CEO, Tadashi Shiiba was also a CEO of ONE-UP and executive director of GameOn before that. ...

TechCrunch Japan 9/9/2011

memo

• Aiming mainly develops full-scale games such as MMORPG for PC or web browser. It may be going to put more energy for smartphone games with the capital.

Read More

GREE Establishes Subsidiaries In 5 Countries /ITmedia

GREE announced that it will open local subsidiaries in Korea, Singapore, UK, The Netherlands, and Brazil by the next February. ...

ITmedia 9/1/2011

memo

• GREE's rival, DeNA announced setting up subsidiaries in Singapore and Sweden last month. Their competition is expanding truly global.

Read More

Samurai International Raises Capital From CyberAgent Ventures /Cnet Japan

Samurai International develops and operates applications such as iPhone app, Ranking Tube, and Android app, Minna no Keitai Browser, which ranked top on application markets. Its total downloads exceed 1 million.

Cnet Japan 9/1/2011

memo

• Samurai International was founded as LLC in 2009 and then become a corporation in August of 2011. It was selected for one of startups to get support at Startups2011 Spring, an incubation program organized by CyberAgent Ventures.

Read More