UnicoMarketing: Here are the top three startups from Venture Day Tokyo

Friday, 12 December 2014

Here are the top three startups from Venture Day Tokyo

MakeLeaps

Venture Day Tokyo returned for its second annual event at Keio University in the Japanese capital, bringing a diverse group of local and international startups on stage to pitch to an audience of students, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists. The event – co-hosted by IE Business School, Keio Media Design School, and domestic incubator J-Seed Ventures – also featured keynote speeches from Gengo co-founder Matt Romaine and Japanese pop culture icon and Culture Japan CEO Danny Choo.

Ten startups, ranging from idea-stage to pre-series A, were given five minutes to woo the panel of investors and tech execs. Unsurprisingly, the top two finishers, both Tokyo-based, were a bit more seasoned than most of the pack. The organizers might consider evening the playing field for future events.

Without further ado, here are the top three finishers from Venture Day Tokyo 2014:

3rd place: Breezy not Wheezy

The only idea-stage startup to be honored was a New York-based team from Keio Media Design School. Breezy not Wheezy seeks to tackle the problem of asthma management. Asthma is the most common childhood disease worldwide, affecting more than 7 million children in the US alone, and treatment often requires a range of medication (inhalers) and monitoring devices.

One such device is known as a peak flow meter, which a patient blows into to determine the degree of obstruction of the airways. Breezy not Wheezy is developing a peak flow meter that connects to a smartphone and displays data through a companion app – thus making it easy to share with parents and physicians. The team has also designed a plush toy that alerts children when they need to take their medication.

The Breezy not Wheezy team was awarded a three-month residency at J-Seed’s Venture Generation incubator.

2nd place: Wovn.io

The runner-up was Tokyo-based website localization service WOVN.io. The service allows webmasters to add a widget, hidden in a single line of code, that translates their websites into the top-10 most popular languages on the web – giving access to the 70 percent of internet users who don’t speak English. The judges agreed that WOVN gave the best product demo within the pitch, stressing the importance of including an actual demonstration despite the time constraints.

WOVN has already attracted nearly US$300,000 in seed funding from Incubate Fund. Tech in Asia recently sat down with co-founder Jeff Sandford to learn more about the service and its potential, which you can read here.

WOVN was awarded with a round-trip flight to Madrid, where IE Business School is located, as well as a three-month residency at Venture Generation.

1st place: MakeLeaps

It wasn’t hard to predict that MakeLeaps would take the Venture Day Tokyo crown. The startup has already proven itself in the Japanese market and co-founder Jay Winder’s pitch was flawless. The service helps Japanese companies cut down on their notorious reliance on paperwork by moving invoicing and document management to the cloud. While the startup had early success in attracting freelancers and SMEs, Winder says that more and more large businesses are getting on board. More than 17,000 domestic businesses have signed up so far.

Looking ahead to 2015, MakeLeaps will integrate payments directly within the native ecosystem. The startup is backed by 500 Startups, AngelList, and Kissmetrics to the tune of US$750,000 – putting it light years away from the other nine contenders. But a great pitch and a solid business model is, well, a great pitch and a solid business model.

MakeLeaps landed a pair of round-trip tickets to Madrid and a three-month residency at Venture Generation.

Judge’s feedback

Giving a five minute pitch, especially when you’re running a technical startup, is no easy feat. The judges gave the following pieces of advice on how to leave a good impression: