The Venture Codex

Participated · Equity · Apr 2023

SmartRyde operates a marketplace that provides pre-booked airport transfer services to over 700 airports worldwide. The company recently launched a "Demand Partner API" that lets OTAs and airlines access its airport transfer network to offer services during hotel and flight bookings. SmartRyde aims to build a global distribution system (GDS) for airport transfers to connect OTAs, airlines and other travel providers and to modernize inventory and vehicle allocation in the taxi and limousine industry. With the new API and its GDS ambitions, the company plans to expand partnerships with large OTA networks to increase inbound tourism to Japan. SmartRyde also intends to support domestic taxi operators by improving profitability and enabling cost reduction through streamlined operations. The company is headquartered in Tokyo. SmartRyde is a Japanese online pre-booked airport transfers service platform and marketplace that connects travelers to local transportation operators and online travel agencies. The company was founded in 2017 by co-founder and CEO Sota Kimura after he experienced difficulty getting a taxi from an airport. SmartRyde operates airport transfer services in 150 countries across 700 airports, and has collaborated with roughly 650 taxi companies and more than 25 OTAs including Booking.com, Expedia, Trip.com, Traveloka and Despegar. Unlike ride-hailing companies, SmartRyde offers a one-stop travel service that includes sightseeing and booking airline tickets and hotels, and it plans to continue promoting partnerships with OTAs, travel agencies and mobility companies. The company plans further expansion in major cities and tourist destinations such as Mexico, Spain, Thailand, the Dominican Republic, the U.S. (Honolulu, Las Vegas, Miami) and Japan. SmartRyde saw a significant decrease in reservations after March 2020 due to COVID-19, but bookings have been increasing since December 2020, particularly from U.S. tourists; its market was described as about $10 billion, with peers including Talixo, Holiday Taxis, Transferz's Taxi2Airport and Huangbaoche.

Participated · Series C · Nov 2020

Floadia develops and licenses embedded non-volatile flash memory IP cores used in microcontrollers, power semiconductors, sensors and other chips. Its technology reportedly consumes only 1/1,000,000 of the power required to write and erase data versus competitors, offers strong high-temperature tolerance, and adds only one-third of the additional integration cost. Its first flash IP, “G1,” is deployed in automotive microcontrollers by domestic semiconductor manufacturers and has been adopted by a Taiwanese foundry for smartphone components. Founded in 2011 by engineers with long experience at Hitachi and Renesas, the company focuses on ultra-low-power memory technology. Floadia plans to use the new funding to strengthen sales of its embedded flash IP to semiconductor manufacturers and to advance development of ultra-low-power AI accelerator chips that utilize its flash memory devices. The company has raised a cumulative total of approximately ¥4.95 billion to date. Floadia develops embedded non-volatile memory IP and the associated manufacturing processes and circuit designs that enable integration into microcontrollers, power semiconductors, sensors and other semiconductor devices. Its memories reduce power consumption and cost, offer auto-grade heat endurance, and can be embedded without changing existing IP designs to ease analog/digital integration. Floadia's technology has been adopted in in-vehicle microcomputers and Toshiba microcontrollers and is used for smartphone components produced by Taiwanese foundries. The company is working with major foundries to transplant its technology onto the 130nm BCD Plus platform and planned mass production from early 2021. Founded in 2011 by engineers who left Renesas Electronics, Floadia is based in Kodaira-shi, Tokyo. Financially, the company raised approximately ¥1.2 billion in its Series C and has raised about ¥3.6 billion in total to date. Floadia Corporation develops embedded flash memory IP, licensing manufacturing process know-how and circuit designs for embedded non-volatile memory production. Founded in 2011 by engineers from Renesas Electronics and led by President Kosuke Okuyama, the company is based in Tokyo, Japan. Its core product is embedded flash memory IP intended for integration into semiconductor manufacturing. Floadia plans to use the new funds to expand its embedded flash IP business into automotive, low-cost IoT and mobile device markets. Financially, the company closed a ¥1.6 billion (approx. US$14.5M) Series B and had previously raised ¥800 million (US$7.3M) in a 2015 Series A. The business model centers on licensing IP to enable customers to produce embedded non-volatile memory.