A naukri.com initiative
TechCrunch
1M
417
Image Credit: TechCrunch
The most interesting unicorns to come out of Japan
- Japan has lagged behind other regions like the U.S., China, and the U.K. in terms of the number of unicorns and the scale of venture capital investment.
- The country's aging population, overall economic deflation, and salarymen's inclination to work at traditional, big corporations contributed to a slowdown in the startup sector.
- Despite efforts to attract interest in the country's startups such as the government's Startup Development Five-Year Plan and launch of Tokyo Innovation Base, most of the venture capital invested in Japan comes from outside it.
- According to a recent IMF report, Japan had a mere seven unicorns as of October 2023.
- Here are a few of the unicorns from Japan worth keeping an eye on: Spiber, SmartNews, SmartHR, Sakana AI, Preferred Networks, and OPN.
- Spiber uses environmentally friendly biomaterials with applications in the fashion, cosmetics, and automotive industries, and has raised $653m in total funding.
- SmartNews is a news aggregator that became Japan's first news startup to achieve a billion-dollar valuation since 2015 and has raised $479m in total funding.
- SmartHR helps enterprises manage and streamline human resources and operations, and has raised $362m in total funding.
- Sakana AI focuses on training low-cost generative AI models using small datasets and has raised $344m in funding.
- Preferred Networks designs semiconductors for AI, including for applications in autonomous driving and food inspection, and has raised $152.19m in total funding.
- OPN offers mobile payments, online payments, and virtual cards, and has raised $222m in total funding; it acquired U.S.-based MerchantE for about $400m to establish a presence in the U.S.
Read Full Article
25 Likes
For uninterrupted reading, download the app