Science & technology have always found fertile ground in Japan. From manufacturing to new materials, from transportation to robotics, many of today's industry-standard owe something to Japanese innovation.

The new startup wave that is coming out from Tokyo promises nothing less.

Feeling curious already? Here's where you can find out more!

Several Japanese startups are making their way to the US and are excited about meeting you. The San Francisco community is invited to meet the first batch of 8 wonderful entrepreneurs part of a joint program run by JETRO (Japanese External Trade Organization) and Mind the Bridge.

Come meet them on Friday 15th @Mind the Bridge, 450 Townsend St.!

(An event with the second batch of startups will be hosted on the 1st of March. Below the summaries of the first batch startups)

Cinnamon

Cinnamon Inc. is a Japan and Vietnam based Enterprise AI startup which provides an AI document reader to automate the data extraction from unstructured documents to the financial industry. Cinnamon has acquired 50+ paying customers from large Japanese corporations and raised $8M Series B funding in May 2018. It has started the US expansions from 2018 and look for potential customers to conduct interviews to understand existing needs and feedback on its product.

MUI Lab

MUI Lab introduces the concept of cal design to the IOT world. It produces a wood interface for residential spaces that people can use to control other smart home services and, in the future, to interact with virtual assistants such as Amazon and Google ones.

AI Sing

AISing is a company that sits at the intersection between AI and mechanical engineering. After years of effort, they invented the AI algorithm, "DBT (Deep Binary Tree)", which can be used for edge devices. AI Sing is in the 3rd year of establishment and has raised about $2 million in funding. Some of its customers include OMRON, DENSO, East Japan Railway Company.

Paronym

Paronym.inc is a Japanese startup company that develops and distributes innovative video enhancement technology. Through releasing people from the stress of “video to search” and overcoming the digital divide and language barriers, we aim to create a next-generation video culture that allows people to enjoy a fully new video experience and entertainment.

Jeplan

We are JEPLAN, INC. and run the recycle project called “BRING” which has various participants like Patagonia, MUJI and so on. We mainly recycle clothing by using the chemical recycling technology, and manufacturing recycled polyester pellets out of the polyester fiber in used clothing collected from consumers. Our polyester pellets have the same purity is equal to the virgin PET pellet made from oil, and they are even permanently recyclable. We believe we could contribute the world by minimizing the clothing waste and reducing the use of oil, and that could even lead us to develop a real circular economy.

Yukai Engineering

YUKAI Engineering is a robotics startup that develops and sells products befitting its slogan: “Make the world a fun place to live in with robotics technology.” YUKAI’s award-winning products include Necomimi, a headband with fake cat ears that move in sync with the user’s brain waves (selected for the Time magazine’s “The World’s 50 Best Innovations 2011” list), and BOCCO, a communication robot that keeps family members in touch with each other. The latest product, Qoobo, collected funding for 230% of its initial target.

Eyes Japan

FUKUSHIMA Wheel, smart bike for hipsters featuring environmental sensors to measure live city data such as temperature, humidity, CO, NOX, radiation and so on. Gyrostabilized LEDs on the wheels display location/time-based advertisements all over the city and make this program profitable. Our App encourages sharing, dynamic pricing, navigation and shop coupons. Our mission reinvents the business model of share bike, last mile mobility, way of sustainability, environmental sensing by citizen science, prevention from bike theft and vandalism.

Sen Corporation

Sen Corporation is the No.1 company that sends photographers to kindergartens and nursery schools in Japan. It is a service that benefits both sides by reducing the workload of the teachers and improving the added value to the parents through photographic business. Established in 2004, the company has 200 employees in 9 offices in Japan, and 1 office in Taiwan, and collaborates with 5000+ schools and other organization.

About JETRO

JETRO, or the Japan External Trade Organization, is a government-related organization that works to promote mutual trade and investment between Japan and the rest of the world. Originally established in 1958 to promote Japanese exports abroad, JETRO's core focus in the 21st century has shifted toward promoting foreign direct investment into Japan and helping small to medium size Japanese firms maximize their global export potential.

About Mind the Bridge

Mind the Bridge is a boutique innovation advisory firm working at the intersection of Startups and Corporates since 2007. With HQs in San Francisco and offices and operations in 4 other countries, MTB bridges the world through entrepreneurship. In 2014 Mind the Bridge has been chosen by the European Commission to drive “Startup Europe Partnership”, the pan-European Open Innovation platform to connect startups to large corporates. Within this framework, MTB has already led many successful initiatives, and is organizing Scaleup Summits in all the major
European Stock Exchanges, fostering the EU startup ecosystem. MTB is also the host of Startup Europe Comes to Silicon Valley, an immersive program in Silicon Valley for the best EU scaleups, corporates and policymakers

Startups & Innovation from Japan. Open Friday networking