• Streets

  Participated · Seed · Nov 2023

  Streets operates the Streets smartphone app, a local information platform that delivers location-based stamps, e-tickets, shop updates and interview articles through collaborations with communities, businesses and municipalities. The company is also developing "apnea," an AI-powered news editing assistant that combines generative AI with media growth know-how to support企画,取材,制作 and distribution workflows. A test version of apnea has been released to cooperating partners and a trial/public beta is planned for early 2024, with media-company pre-registration already open. Streets’ app has been used at large events in Oita, Hiroshima and Shizuoka prefectures to stimulate regional information flow. The company says it will iterate apnea with UX expertise from Takayuki Fukatsu and production experience from three regional broadcasters. To support these efforts, Streets completed a pre-seed financing of about ¥50 million from individual and broadcaster partners. The startup was founded in April 2022 and is headquartered in Jingumae, Shibuya, Tokyo.

• Monstar Lab

  Led · Equity · Aug 2017

  Monstar Lab develops custom consumer and enterprise mobile applications, business software, and IoT and AR/VR solutions, offering end-to-end services from design and digital strategy to product development and marketing. The company provides localization and go-to-market support and uses flexible delivery models (Time & Material, local, offshore, or hybrid teams) to match client needs and control costs. It serves multinational clients and emphasizes placing the right development team and location under its Global IT Sourcing concept. Monstar Lab employs over 800 people across nine countries and 17 cities, with offices listed in Tokyo, Osaka, Matsue, Chengdu, Qingdao, Shanghai, Beijing, Hanoi, Da Nang, Singapore, San Francisco, Dhaka, Cebu, Manila, Copenhagen, Aarhus and London. The firm has a strong presence in Asia and plans to leverage new funding to expand further into European and North American markets. The company announced a recent investment and partnership with Denmark’s Nodes Group ApS to strengthen its Northern European and UK capabilities. Monstar Lab is a Japan’s leading mobile and web application development company offering a wide array of software development and related services. Its core offerings include mobile application development, web application development, enterprise applications, IoT, AR and VR, with turnkey services from planning to development, marketing and localization. The company operates in 7 countries across 12 cities (Tokyo, Osaka, Matsue, Chengdu, Qingdao, Shanghai, Hanoi, Da Nang, Cebu, Singapore, San Francisco and Dhaka) and maintains multiple offshore development centers. Monstar Lab employs over 600 software engineers across its offices and has a partner network of 10,000+ software developers, enabling rapid team assembly at lower cost. The company recently completed a ¥250 million (USD 2.5M) capital increase to fund continued global expansion and M&A aimed at becoming one of the world’s biggest software development arms for new and upcoming technologies. Monstar Lab cites more than 10 years of industry experience as a core value proposition. Monstar Lab provides Sekai Lab, a crowdsourced offshore app-development service that arranges engineering teams in Asia and assigns project directors or bridge engineers to manage client projects. The service claims access to more than 10,000 engineers across Sekai Lab locations in 15 countries and a Da Nang center with about 200 engineers. Sekai Lab says offshore outsourcing can reduce app-development costs to one-half or one-third of typical in-house schemes while keeping delivery oversight via local project directors. The company has expanded internationally, incorporating Sekai Lab as a Singapore subsidiary and establishing U.S. operations based in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Leadership emphasizes improving local engineer quality and retention by offering higher-skill work and a performance-oriented culture. Sekai Lab targets demand from fintech and digital-marketing clients, leveraging partnerships to source projects and sales channels.

No current team members are available.