Is there a startup bubble brewing in Japan? (#StartupAsia preview)

Considering Japan’s startup ecosystem was on life-support as recently as 2009, it is hard to believe that it has recovered, and grown to the point of being considered a bubble. That skepticism is shared by many. Tech friends outside of Japan often ask me if there is more to Japan than visible firms like DeNA, Gree, or Rakuten.

Local venture capitalists, on the other hand, sometimes hint at a bubble while still expressing frustration at the lack of good startups. Granted, considering that an app which tracks your poop recently bagged US$500,000 by joining Docomo Ventures’ third incubation batch, both sides of the argument might have a point.

There is a crucial piece of data missing from most funding news briefs though – the overall valuation of the company. Japanese startups rarely raise more than US$15-20 million in a single round. Frequent news of startups raising US$5-10 million in funding can create an impression of a limited startup market but the real valuation numbers are needed to confirm the truth.

At Startup Asia Tokyo we aim to get to the bottom of this debate. We are bringing in two of the hottest young CEOs in Tokyo, Daisuke Sasaki of personal finance management tool Freee and Kensuke Furukawa of life hack site Nanapi. They will be talking with leading venture capitalists Akio Tanaka, co-founder and managing partner of Infinity Venture Partners, and Shinichi Takamiya, chief strategy officer at Globis Capital in a discussion moderated by Masahiko Homma, co-founder and general partner at Incubate Fund.

This talk is a must-see for anyone wanting to know more about where the Tokyo startup ecosystem came from and where it is going. Don’t miss it!

See: Tomoko Namba believes that DeNA is far from done (#StartupAsia preview9月3日と4日にスタートアップアジア＠東京を開催します！8月29日まで、割引コード を使ってみて下さい！
Startup Asia Tokyo 2014 is on Sep 3 and 4. Until Aug 29th, unlock secret level using code