Author: vivian
Mobile app management platform Hansel.io raises US$1.35 million round led by IDG Ventures
Mobile application management platform, Hansel.io, has secured US$1.35 million in a funding round led by IDG Ventures with participation from existing backer Endiya Partners, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
“What made us excited about Hansel.io was the ease with which the product can help mobile developers solve major production issues at runtime. At a time when customer acquisition and retention costs continue to skyrocket, a product like Hansel.io comes as a big boon for a great end-user experience,” Venkatesh Peddi, the Executive Director at IDG Ventures said.
With the latest proceeds, the Bengaluru-based firm will use the funds for team expansion, product development, and growth in overseas markets – that is specifically the expansion of the company presence in the North American market.
This round follows Hansel.io seed funding in February 2016 from Endiya Partners, Tracxn Labs, along with a group of angel investors including Rajesh Sawhney and Mekin Maheshwari.
“With this round of funding, the focus will be to go global, go cross-platform, and help mobile developers be as responsive to their end users as possible,” the co-founder and CEO Varun Ramamurthy explains.
Founded in 2015 by former Flipkart employees – Varun Ramamurthy, Parminder Singh, and Mudit Maur, Hansel Software Pvt. Ltd. develops crash analytics for mobile applications, offering a developer-friendly toolkit that helps them to diagnose, resolve and communicate customer issues on their application.
In other words, Hansel.io allows mobile developers to fix bugs, update configurations, edit user interfaces, and manage security policies of mobile apps at runtime. The platform is currently available on both Android and iOS.
“Despite the abundance of use cases the product provides for, for the developer, it is a simple configure-and-deploy product, where companies can go live in less than 15 minutes. We have built the product to be as intuitive and effortless to use as possible,” said Parminder Singh, one of the co-founders of Hansel.
Hansel.io can help developers start managing their live apps at runtime, with just a five-minute integration process and no code change required, developers can start managing their live apps at runtime using Hansel.
The company claims that it currently has an installed app count of more than 140 million across client such as redBus.in, Toppr, nearbuy, Voonik and ShopX among others. The firm also claims that it has impacted nearly 20 million devices, helping the users by fixing a bug, changing the UI or security permissions.
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media
Japan’s healthcare startup Cykinso secures US$2.3 million investment to provide intestinal health advice
Tokyo-based Cykinso, which develops and sells Mykinso – a test kit for intestinal flora, has announced that it has secured 270 million yen (about US$2.3 million) from the Regional Health Care Industry Support Fund and other investors in its seed round.
The GP for the Regional Health Care Industry Support Fund are REVIC Capital and AGS Consulting under the jurisdiction of the Regional Economic Revitalization Support Organization, with banks being the funds’ limited partners (LPs).
This fund follows an earlier round of angel funding from individual investors and grants secured from numerous government agencies such as the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry’s “Project to Encourage the Creation of SMEs and New Business” as well as a grant from Kanagawa Prefecture for the “Project to Promote the Creation of the Preventive Medicine market”.
Despite being grants, Cykinso has, in terms of business stages, labeled the proceeds received as their seed round, making their most recent funding essentially a series A round.
According to Cykinso. these latest proceeds will be used to finance business development, including using the data collected from the intestinal flora tests to develop a system for offering nutritional guidance. This platform will focus on gut microbiomes is unique, given the crucial role and impact it has on an individuals’ health.
Founded in November 2014 by CEO Yu Sawai, who has previously worked at a genome research company, the venture is conducting joint research with RIKEN Innovation Center’s Benno Laboratory and Osaka University’s Research Institute for Microbial Diseases’ Department of Infectious Metagenomics.
In August 2015, the Japanese startup was accredited as a RIKEN Certified Venture. Three months later, the firm released “Mykinso” – a home-testing kit for intestinal flora which allows people to test the state of their intestinal bacteria (i.e. gut biome).
Following this, there is also the release of “Mykinso Pro” for the professional market which enables medical institutions and clinics to register patient examination data and manage specimens. Data provided will be presented to the user or the user’s doctor in the form of a cloud or paper report.
The company claims that it has collected intestinal flora data from around 2000 people through both services, receiving permission from users beforehand and the assurance that users will remain anonymous. Depending on the scale of the accumulated data regarding intestinal floral, the services to be offered and the business stage will be adjusted accordingly.
In October 2016, Cykinso has along with dispensing pharmacy big name Aisei Pharmacy (TSE:3170) and leading mobile service provider MTI (TSE:9438) held an event called “Intestinal Summit” to promote awareness among general consumers about intestinal flora and services.
Additionally, this week the Japanese startup will move offices from the Kanagawa Science Park, where they have resided for the two years since inception, to the Good Morning Building in Shibuya, Tokyo. For Cykinso this signifies its transformation from a purely academic venture into the business domain.
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media
Japan’s VR startup HoloEyes wins Tech Lab Paak awards on Recruit Holding’s Sixth Demo Day
Japan’s Recruit Holdings has held its annual Demo Day last month for the 6th batch of its startup accelerator Tech Lab Paak, a community space for IT members, located in Shibuya, Tokyo.
The facility is managed by Recruit’s R&D headquarters and acts as an incubator to support tenant startups which are classified into community and project members throughout the incubation process.
The classification is made in reference to the maturity of their developing services whereby the startups, after half a year, will have to present and exhibit their incubation outcome since they have moved in.
The Demo Day for the 6th batch was a big pitch event seeing the participation of 21 teams whereby six teams in the regular course and six teams in the virtual reality (VR) course made three-minute pitches presenting their incubation results since joining the program.
Additionally, the remaining nine teams were excluded from examination by judges though they were given the chance to make one-minute pitches which can be voted for the Audience Award.
Judges for the pitch competition included the CEO of Colopl Next – Shintaro Yamagami , the Director of LINE Business Strategy – Shinichiro Isago, the Startup Business Development Manager of Amazon Web Services in Japan – Hiroshi Hata, the Managing Partner of 500 Startups in Japan – Yohei Sawayama, and the Head of Media Technology Lab and Recruit Holdings – Yoichi Aso.
There were 7 prizes in total, that is the choice startup from each individual judge a Special Award as well as an Audience Award. In this event, HoloEyes, a startup aiming to make an information revolution in the medical field using VR has received the Tech Lab Paak award, winning a supplemental prize of pair meal ticket for a hotel dinner.
Founded by Naoji Taniguchi, an engineer and Maki Sugimoto, a surgeon and the Associate Professor of the International University of Health and Welfare Graduate School, HoloEyes is a technology that will help the medical world through the facilitation of medical information sharing of human bodies in the 3DVR form.
In this aspect, HoloEyes has constructed a medical VR database which through the accumulation of various CT scan data will be utilised to construct customised 3D human body models. For instance, if the criteria are the terms male, 60s, prostate cancer, 3D images of matched cases will be output. Then, doctors can utilize these 3D images for diagnosis references of similar cases or training upon surgical operations.
The firm expects a business model providing VR viewers for hospitals and selling collected data after obtaining patients’ consent to medical colleges or pharmaceutical companies.
On the other hand, winners also include MacroSpace which won the 500 Startups Award along with meal tickets worth 30,000 yen, Embody me by Paneo which won the Colopl Next Award and its supplemental prize of Apple store gift cards worth 30,000 yen, as well as Orario which won the LINE Award with a set of uncut boiled snow crab, and Oton Glass who won the AWS Award with 30,000 Amazon gift cards and a lunch ticket for Amazon cafeteria.
Additionally, a Special Award was also awarded to Psychic VR Lab for their STYLY project – a VR shopping platform focusing on fashion with its supplemental gift being a visit right for Microsoft Japan’s Technology Center led by its Director Madoka Sawa. Besides, the Audience Award accompanied by a supplemental prize of the membership of TECH LAB PAAK as a Project Member was given to Orario and Macrospace.
Online golf platform GolfLAN acquires Singapore-based competitor GolfGreedy in cash-and-stock deal
Dehli-based golf course aggregator, GolfLAN has acquired its Singapore-based competitor GolfGreedy in a cash-and-stock deal, the company said in a statement on Monday.
This deal comes as GolfLAN’s second acquisition in six months after it has bought Dubai-based golf technology company StayPrime in July 2016 for US$1 million.
Founded in 2011 by Dhruv Verma, an XLRI alumni and avid golfer, GolfLAN offers a subscription-based service for golfers to book tee times through the startup without the requirements of having a club membership.
GolfLan.com, a unit of GolfLAN Technology Solutions, is an online golf marketplace that is digitising the sport to make it more accessible, subsidised and convenient for the masses.
On GolfLAN’s cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform Online Tee Time Organiser (OTTO), both amateur and professional golfers can find golf equipment and trainers, in addition to booking tee slots at over 1,000 courses across 40 countries from anywhere in the world.
Following this acquisition, GolfGreedy will become part of the GolfLAN group but will continue to operate under its own brand name. More than 10,000 subscribers of GolfGreedy, mainly from Singapore and nearby regions, will gain access to all the golf courses on the GolfLAN platform, that is 1,200 courses across 40 countries pro-acquisition.
Besides, the golf platform is also looking to expand it to 2,000 by the end of 2017. While club operators registered with GolfGreedy will be able to use GolfLAN’s superior golf cart management system and tee sheet management solution.
“Singapore is an important golfing destination in Southeast Asia. And golf, as an industry is also growing rapidly. This transaction clearly establishes our leadership in this region and industry. Golf lovers, through us, will get a host of choices to book a tee time and also experience a range of our world-class services,” said Dhruv Verma, the founder and CEO of GolfLAN.
In November last year, the company has raised US$1 million (Rs 6.65 crore) from existing investors YourNest Angel Fund and Africa’s IT/ITES group iSON. Prior to that, it has also raised US$1 million in its first round of funding from YourNest and other angel investors in March 2015.
Recently, GolfLAN is looking at Africa, the U.S. and Australia for its next phase of expansion. “Our inorganic strategy for phase 1 is done. Now we will pump more money to grow these companies and will focus on phases 2 which will begin with South Africa,” said Verma adding that the company is in talks for a potential acquisition in the mentioned country within the next six to nine months.
Commenting on the acquisition, Sunil Goyal, the CEO of YourNest as well as an investor of GolfLAN said, “GolfLan is on a high growth trajectory with an energetic founding team that thinks long term. Our team has been actively engaging with Dhruv and team, as they work towards their goal of being the world’s best tee-time aggregator. We are thrilled to see them grow fast and are confident that they will drive further technology disruption and innovation in the golfing market.”
Also, with GolfGreedy and StayPrime in its ownership, the Dehli-based aggregator will consolidate its position as the leading provider of golf and related technology products in its key focus markets of Southeast Asia, the Middle East and India. GolfLan is also in talks with venture capital investors to raise about US$5 million by July.
“We are excited to be a part of the GolfLAN family. We started as a golf course aggregator to help golfers pursue their passion to get a good round at reasonable prices. Today we are still very much focused on doing that, albeit with more intelligence built in so that we can add value to the customer’s gold search and booking journey,” Gerald Koh, the co-founder of GolfGreedy said.
The company is looking to beef up its technology in 2017 and will launch an in-house service along the lines of StayPrime, in addition to investing US$1 million for market development in the Southeast Asian region over the next year.
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media
Comic art platform Kuaikan Manhua closes US$36 million Series C round led by Tiantu Capital
China’s Tiantu Capital has led a 250 million yuan (about US$36 million) Series C round funding in Kuaikan Manhua, an online and mobile platform for original online comic artwork targeting young readers.
The financing round was reportedly completed in October last year and other investors who also participated in the round include Sequoia Capital, GX Capital, Engage Capital and Chinese news reader app, Toutiao.com. This brings the value of the Beijing-based startup at over 1 billion yuan (approximately US$140 million).
“China’s animation and comics content market are in the initial development stage. It is also an area that the Chinese government encourages,” said Neil Shen, the founding managing partner at Sequoia Capital China. “Kuaikan Manhua focuses on a niche market and has successfully established a leading position.”
Founded in 2014 by a well-known animation artist Chen Anni, Beijing-based Kuaikan Manhua currently has active monthly readers of 24.6 million while daily viewership reaching 7.27 million. The platform has signed over 1000 works and more than 500 comic artists, where some of the popular authors has a fan base of over one million.
Aside from the increase in the magnitude of users and works, the comic artwork startup has also recently moved their office to Wangjing Soho as well as an increase in company size, increasing from the original 40 employees to a recruitment of more than 100 people.
Upon the completion of this financing round, the capital will mainly be used in the cooperation with the external CP as it can be difficult to solve the problem of creating self-published content which requires professionals as well as the expenditure of energy in order to build a solid team.
Besides, the platform will still retain its original intents of providing light comics, targeting the new generation of young readers and their fragmented time in reading comics – that is an average daily usage of about 40 minutes, according to the data from Kuaikan.
The company previously raised 100 million yuan (about US$14 million) in a series B financing round from unnamed investors in 2015.