
The final stop of SunBridge Global Venture’s Innovation Weekend pitch contest series took place in Osaka this evening. After four prior events – held in Singapore (May 9), London (July 4), Tokyo (June 20), and Boston (September 24) – the fifth startup was chosen to compete at the grand finale in Tokyo this December.
SunBridge Global Ventures co-founder and CEO Ikuo Hiraishi said that more than 100 startups have joined Innovation Weekend events since its inception in 2011 – with 25 percent of them receiving funding since presenting.
Without further ado, here were the night’s top pitches:
3rd: Kekkan Bijin

Kekkan Bijin (the Japanese word for “a person with beautiful blood cells”) is a medtech startup that produces video microscopes that can determine if a patient has normal or abnormal blood circulation – all without having to draw blood. It’s a safe, non-invasive way of determining health at a glance.
2nd: Up Performa

Up Performa is a team sports performance monitoring wearable that CEO Shuhei Yamada hopes will replace the need for physical note-taking and cameras at both practices and games. The device is worn on the user’s upper arm, similar to the armbands for holding smartphones while working out. It uses sensors to show individual player’s positions and heatmaps of where they spend the most time on the field. Yamada says that his prototype has shrunk significantly since the first iteration, to about half the size of a deck of cards. The consumer version – which he hopes to launch via a Kickstarter campaign next year – will be two to three times smaller.
1st: Gyazo

Sometimes simple is best, as evidenced by Gyazo’s win in Osaka. The screenshot app instantly uploads an image to Gyazo’s cloud servers, copying the image URL to the clipboard automatically. A new GIF feature allows users to capture up to seven seconds of video. Syncing with the Gyazo Shuriken app sends captured images to a user’s iOS device.
See: Japan is finally opening up to the rest of the tech world
Stay updated on the go with our mobile app.
Get latest insights with smoother, more personalized experience through TIA mobile app.
Recommended reads
OpenAI says Singapore in its top 5 markets for Codex adoption
These are Asia’s most active investors in AI
Ask us anything at Founders Meetup Vietnam!
Singapore AI startup obtains $5m in Square Peg-led seed round
SG biotech startup snags $4m seed funding from Elev8, Seeds Capital
Uncover tomorrow’s tech titans at the Saigon Summit Startup Showcase
Ex-AWS exec launches startup to power enterprise systems with AI
OpenAI to announce Google-rivaling AI search tool on May 13: report
Founder, meet investor
VCs, now you can have your say on Glasswall
Editing by Steven Millward
(And yes, we’re serious about ethics and transparency. More information here.)
