8 rising startups in Japan

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

Full details below.

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

Photo credit: Adrianna Calvo

Susmed

Aromabit

Progate

One Tap Buy