Hometown hero Mana.bo takes the glory at Tech in Asia Tokyo 2015 Arena pitch battle

Nine promising startups from Japan and elsewhere in Asia traveled to Tech in Asia Tokyo 2015 to battle it out in the Arena pitch battle, but there could be only one grand-prize winner. After the smoke settled, our Arena judges chose local up-and-comer Mana.bo.

The Tokyo-based edtech startup is hoping to disrupt Japan’s US$10 billion juku, or cram school, industry by bringing classes online. Sound familiar? Mana.bo differentiates itself from other such startups by allowing students to contact tutors whenever they need help, instead of being at the mercy of a set schedule of lessons. A student could send an image of a math equation, for example, and any available tutor on the Mana.bo platform can review it and offer to help in real-time. They can utilize text and video chat, as well as a virtual whiteboard.

Mana.bo impressed a star-studded panel of judges, including Batara Eto, co-founder and managing partner at East Ventures; James Riney, the newly-minted head of 500 Startups Japan; Akio Tanaka, co-founder and managing partner at Infinity Venture Partners; and Shinichi Iwata, Japan partner at Atomico.

The home-town hero was awarded with US$10,000 and its name will be engraved on Tech in Asia’s Arena Champion trophy.

In addition to the main prize, Amazon Web Services awarded Yapply with a Kindle Fire HDX, PR Times gave Yukai Engineering a year of press releases, and Freee will provide JPY 400,000 (US$3,300) worth of accounting services to Mana.bo. Japan Airlines also gave away 50,000 miles to its top-three Arena startups: PopSlide (for one traveler), Shakr (for two travelers), and Mana.bo (for three travelers).

Here are our stories on all nine startups that competed at Arena:

• Edtech startup Mana.bo is trying to disrupt the $10B Japanese online tutor market
• Shakr is helping mom and pop shops compete with Nike for video ad space
• Playbasis wants to help app makers engage the Minecraft generation
• Dot is bringing wearable tech to the visually impaired
• This cute robot from Japan helps families keep in touch, controls your smart home
• This startup is building a Siri for sex
• This engineer wants India’s kids to make the best choice of college
• You’ll never have to top-up your phone again if Yoyo gets its way
• Building a mobile app without writing any code sounds ludicrous. Yappli makes it possible

Tech in Asia’s Startup Arena competition will return to Jakarta this November. Get your tickets now.