9 rising startups in Japan

Another busy week for Japanese startups. Nine companies received investments to bolster some of the latest technology in marketing, connected homes, VR, and more. To top off a good week, iSpace just added more cash to its mountain of funding.

iSpace

Following December’s US$90 million to help it compete in Google’s Lunar XPrize race to the moon contest, iSpace has raised another US$1.9 million from Tohoku University Venture Partners.

That brings its series A to over US$96 million, and US$98 million in total raised since its founding in 2010. iSpace will used this money to continue working on its moon missions.

Chatbook

Maiko Kojima’s startup, Chatbook, was a 2016 graduate of YJ Capital and East Venture’s accelerator, Code Republic. Maiko Kojima also appeared at TIA Tokyo 2016,  where she participated in a special stage session with DeNA’s Tomoko Namba.

Chatbook creates customizable chatbots for Facebook Messenger. A variety of templates are available that allow chatbots to be customized in a simple, two-step process. The technology also analyzes possible leads and metrics.  

Chatbook has a new round of funding in the hundreds of thousands of dollars from Salesforce Ventures, East Ventures, and YJ Capital. The company also announced a new partnership with Salesforce.

Nature

Haruumi Shiode founded Nature during his time as an MBA student at Harvard. He started fundraising through Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Makuake campaigns. Now, in its most recent round, the company just amassed US$938,000 from Daiwa Kigyo.

Its smart device, Nature Remo, is a remote that connects to home appliances. The device is also able to be integrated with Google Home and Amazon Echo.

Voicy

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Portable

Mosh

Grooves

Linc