Business analytics startup Repro literally tracks your eyeballs; scores $836k

Business analytics is a field full of startups, but Japan’s Repro is looking to rise above the fray following a JPY 100 million (US$836,000) seed investment. DG Incubation, BrainPad, and Shift provided the funds.

Repro, which Tech in Asia first spotted at KDDI’s sixth demo day last July, is trying to help clients retain app users. According to Repro, 46 percent of users stop using a newly downloaded app within one month. The startup believes it can make a difference by providing user video as well as standard analytics.

For apps not yet approved for sale, Repro can analyze user facial expressions to determine where users are looking in the app and how they are enjoying the experience. For apps that are already live, it can deliver videos of app crashes so you can see what leads up to the failure.

Though app analytics is nothing new, and local competitors like Metaps are well funded and still growing, Repro has shown some growth since last year. It has gained about 400 new clients. Five percent are non-Japanese, a number the team is hoping to increase. Ecommerce, flea market, and curation media are the main users. Major clients include Rakuten, Mixi, and KDDI.

Another ostensible rival would be A/B testing service Kaizen. According to founder and CEO Yusuke Hirata, the two companies are actually a bit different. “Repro is a tool that explains what actions a user takes to generate revenue and why so it supplies the information that can be used for a A/B test,” he tells Tech in Asia.

Today, the ten-person Repro team released its official version and will begin monetizing the product. Startups can use the service for as little as US$100 a month for 500,000 data points and 50 movies but corporates can dive in for US$3,000 a month for 30 million data points and 50,000 movies. Repro defines data points as actions like “add to cart” or “follow” or opening the app.

Going forward, more than revenue or profit targets, Hirata’s main goal is to make inroads to America. “We are setting our target to gain users in the American market and gain their trust,” he says.