Tech in Asia Tour Tokyo pitch winner to represent Japan in Jakarta

After a whirlwind tour of eight cities in just one month, Tech in Asia Tour recently landed in the Japanese capital. Five local startups pitched on stage for a chance to win flights, accommodation, and a startup booth for Tech in Asia Jakarta 2015, an event that’s shaping up to be our biggest yet.

Here are each of the five Japanese competitors, in no particular order, with the winner at the bottom:

Liquid

Liquid is a biometric security and payments startup that wants you to leave your credit cards, loyalty cards, and perhaps even your insurance card at home. Using next-generation biometric authentication, the startup promises a faster and safer way to prove that you’re you. Liquid is still small, but it could someday license its tech to large companies hoping to compete with the likes of Apple Pay. It already counts the Japanese government as a client.

Mitsucari

Mitsucari combines personality quizzes and artificial intelligence to help users find an ideal company to work for based on similarities with existing “superstar” employees. While existing job-matching services can find candidates with a skill fit, Mitsucari claims to match users by both skill and culture fit – the latter being especially important in the world of startups.

AnchorUp

AnchorUp is a social travel game that helps you find restaurants, activities, and new friends when you’re abroad. Players select a time range and a budget, and the app generates a “challenge” activity based on their current location. Location data can also be used to find both locals and nearby travelers. Points are awarded based on completed challenges, which the startup says will eventually be used for real-life rewards.

Chalk Digital

Chalk Digital wants to make mobile ad creation easy and fast: under-five-minutes fast. Its smartphone app targets small- and medium-sized business owners and sole proprietors – think real estate agents, hair salons, and family-run restaurants. Users simply open the app, snap a photo, write a line of text, and select a target area and timeframe for distribution. Chalk then pushes it to ad affiliate networks.

Winner: SpaceMarket

Airbnb might connect you to someone’s unused or partially-used apartment, but where do you turn when you want to rent a baseball stadium or a Buddhist temple for your next event? The answer, if you’re in the greater Tokyo area (or a few select locations overseas), is SpaceMarket. Users can search for venues based on date, budget, and location – even technically mobile venues like yachts and trains are available.

Special thanks to our Tokyo judges: Yasukane Matsumoto, founder and CEO of Raksul; Shinji Asada, Japan head at Salesforce Ventures; and Takahiro Shoji, managing director at DG Incubation).

The event wouldn’t have been possible without the following sponsors and partners:

Get your Tech in Asia Jakarta 2015 tickets here, coming to Balai Kartini on November 11-12.

Which of the five startups would you have chosen? Let us know in the comments below.