Umitron, a fishy startup, wins big at Arena

Ken Fujiwara (right) picks up the prize from a sponsor. Photo credit: Michael Holmes Photo / Tech in Asia.

Fish farming data analytics startup Umitron this afternoon came out on top in our pitch contest at Tech in Asia Tokyo 2017. The young company beat five other candidates to clinch the Arena win, with boss Ken Fujiwara pocketing US$4,500 in the process.

These were the brave combatants that took part in this year’s competition, in alphabetical order:

Authlete

Co-founder Takahiko Kawasaki started the pitch in an unconventional fashion – with a brief breakdance.

Photo credit: Michael Holmes Photo / Tech in Asia.

After that he explained that Authlete builds security software for APIs. It uses tools that help users grant websites or applications access to their information without the need to reveal passwords.

The startup raised a seed round worth US$1.2 million in May, coming from 500 Startups and other investors.

Cinnamon

The team behind Cinnamon believe people spend too much time flicking through documents to find specific info. So its service, which is aimed at large corporations, taps into AI to scan text and then extract the required details into a database.

Our esteemed judges watch the six pitches. Photo credit: Michael Holmes Photo / Tech in Asia.

Cinnamon joined Arena by beating out 135 other startups at Bootstrap Alley on the pitch stage.

Cloudike

Cloudike does cloud – the storage kind. Its Dropbox-like personal cloud product is offered through telcos to their customers, enabling them to share and store data through their phones. It has offices in South Korea, Russia, and the US.

Gruff

MyDearest

Umitron