Japan
The latest startup and technology news coming out of Japan.
Japan’s SmartHR raises $140M Series E as strong demand for HR tech boosts its ARR to $100M
The round was led by KKR and Teachers’ Ventures Growth, an investment arm of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son announced on Thursday that the Japanese tech giant has set up a joint venture in the country with Chicago-based health tech company Tempus. Together, the…
Autify launches Zenes, an AI agent for software quality assurance
With the advent of generative AI, AI applications are transforming and reshaping various industries and changing how people work. Software development is no exception. San Francisco- and Tokyo-based startup Autify…
After announcing a strategic partnership with SoftBank in April, Perplexity — the AI search engine that has ambitions to take on Google — is now using the deal to expand…
There has been a lot of bad news about social media startups lately. Multiple companies, including Twitter alternative Post News, and IRL have shut down. And ShareChat’s valuation has dropped…
Alchemist’s latest batch puts AI to work as accelerator expands to Tokyo, Doha
Alchemist Accelerator has a new pile of AI-forward companies demoing their wares today, if you care to watch, and the program itself is making some international moves into Tokyo and…
Mark Zuckerberg woos Big Tech in Asia to double down on AI chips
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who is touring Asian countries this week, said in a meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday that Meta wants to beef up…
SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son is reportedly seeking $100B to build a new AI chip venture
SoftBank Group’s Masayoshi Son has made no secret of his intent to double down on the red-hot artificial intelligence industry. Now he’s fundraising for his next move in that strategy.…
Line Next, a web3 unit of the Japanese messaging app Line, raised $140 million in its funding led by Crescendo Equity Partners, a Peter Thiel-backed private equity firm in South…
Japan’s MagicPod takes its no-code testing platform global
Tokyo-based MagicPod is a no-code test automation platform for web and mobile apps that, until now, almost exclusively focused on the Japanese market. There, it counts Line, Japan’s most popular…
Memory chip maker SK Hynix, a shareholder of Kioxia, opposes a merger with Western Digital
A long-expected merger of two of the world’s biggest memory chip companies — Western Digital and Japan’s Kioxia — may be hampered by one of Kioxa’s shareholders, SK Hynix. The…
Stock trading API developer Alpaca raises $15M convertible note from SBI Group
Investing apps help anyone access the stock market to make trades. Alpaca, a San Mateo-based startup, offers stock and crypto brokerage trading services via API that enables investing fintech companies…
Japanese VC Beyond Next Ventures raises $67.7M in a first close of its deep tech fund
A Japanese fund focused on early-stage, Asian deep tech startups is doubling down on the opportunity, despite a wider slowdown investing in moonshots globally. Tokyo-based Beyond Next Ventures is targeting…
Josys, a startup offering a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform to automate corporate IT software application management, has raised a $93 million Series B round led by existing backer Global Brain and…
An increasing number of companies are looking to automate as a shortage of skilled workers is expected to take a toll on manufacturers through 2030. Tokyo- and Atlanta-based startup Mujin, which develops…
SoftBank launches an OpenAI for Japan: SB Intuitions, building LLMs and generative AI in Japanese
AI may have found a center of gravity in the Bay Area, but we’re seeing a lot of activity elsewhere among those who believe that there is a market opportunity…
Ample to bring EV battery swapping to Mitsubishi trucks in Japan
San Francisco startup Ample is bringing its modular electric vehicle battery swapping technology to Mitsubishi Fuso’s electric trucks this winter, the company said Tuesday. This marks the first time Ample’s…
Tractable snaps up $65M led by SoftBank for car and property damage appraisals using AI
When it comes to transforming business operations, artificial intelligence holds a lot of promise across many industries. Today, a startup that has been an early mover in the area of…
SoftBank backs Japanese robotics startup Telexistence in $170M funding round
SoftBank is backing Japanese robotics startup Telexistence, making good on the tech giant’s recent pledge to go back on the investment offensive in light of the current AI hype. Tokyo-based Telexistence…
CADDi raises $89M Series C to scale its B2B supply chain marketplace for manufacturing parts
The pandemic has damaged the entire manufacturing supply chain, which is not likely to return to normal until at least 2024 due to a few challenges, including the ongoing U.S.-China…
TuSimple has started testing its self-driving truck tech in Japan
TuSimple, a publicly traded company developing self-driving trucks, is doing regular test runs on an expressway in Japan, marking its entrance into the island nation, the company said Tuesday. The…
6 investors explain why they are bullish about Japan’s startup scene despite an uncertain economy
Thinking of Japan often evokes notions of bleeding-edge tech mixed with deep tradition and culture. The country’s startups, however, haven’t seen the sort of growth that upstart tech companies in…
OpenAI’s ChatGPT iOS app now available in Canada, India, Brazil and 30 more countries
OpenAI has expanded the availability of its ChatGPT app for iOS users in India and more than 30 other countries — just a week after its launching it in the…
Micron Technology said it will invest up to 500 billion yen ($3.6 billion) in Japan for the next few years with support from the Japanese government to up its game in…
Japanese construction tech Aldagram nails down backing from Panasonic
Aldagram, a startup out of Japan developing project management software for construction companies, has picked up a new strategic backer to help it build out its footprint across Asia and…
Luup raises $30M ahead of Japan’s new micromobility rules
Japanese shared micromobility startup Luup has raised $30 million (4.5 billion yen) in a Series D financing round, which consists of 3.8 billion yen in equity and 700 million yen…
As tech slumps, SoftBank sells VC unit to Singapore-based firm led by Masayoshi Son’s brother
SoftBank is selling one of its venture capital arms, South Korea-based SoftBank Ventures Asia (SBVA), to The Edgeof, a Singaporean investment firm, according to the two companies. The deal’s financial…
China probes Micron for cybersecurity risks, urges Japan to stay out of US chip export curbs
The U.S. and China chip battle continues to escalate. In China, the country’s cybersecurity watchdog has initiated a probe into U.S. memory chip maker Micron Technology, according to a statement…
When Masaya Aso worked on autonomous driving technology at Bosch in Japan and Germany, he realized that “many tasks were still manual as over 85% of warehouses have almost no…
Apply now to speak at TechCrunch Disrupt in September
Do you have the desire, the expertise and the followers it takes to be a speaker at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023 on September 19–21 in San Francisco? Then heed this call…
