Participated · Series C · Dec 2023

WAmazing operates a tourism platform (OTA) that centralizes online reservations across five major inbound consumption categories: accommodation, sightseeing, shopping, transportation, and food & beverage. Its product suite includes WAmazing Discover, WAmazing Stay, WAmazing Shopping, WAmazing Transport, WAmazing Play, and WAmazing Snow, and it distributes free SIM cards via machines at 25 Japanese airports to grow membership. The company has three business lines: the OTA business, Regional Tourism DX (launched April 2020) and Inbound Marketing Consulting (launched November 2022). Main service markets are Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mainland China, Southeast Asia, and Australia. WAmazing reported that overall sales in FY2023 were 5.5 times and OTA transaction volume (GMV) 3.8 times those in FY2020, and registered members exceeded 520,000 at the end of October 2023. Regional Tourism DX saw orders in FY2023 rise 1.5 times year-over-year and cumulative sales across the past four fiscal years reached approximately JPY 1.8 billion. The company says growth is accelerating post-pandemic and is recruiting urgently (more than 50 open positions) while seeking capital and strategic partnerships to support further expansion. WAmazing provides a tourism platform service for overseas visitors to Japan, offering OTA reservation services across accommodation, sightseeing, shopping, transportation, and food & beverage via web, app, and WeChat. The company operates three business lines: OTA, Regional Tourism DX (launched April 2020), and Inbound Marketing Consulting (launched November 2022), and offers services such as WAmazing Discover, Stay, Shopping, Transport, Play, Snow, and Insurance. WAmazing reported that OTA GMV in January 2023 was 2.2× January 2020 levels, owned-media monthly users were 3.5× January 2020, and registered members exceeded 400,000 at the end of January 2023. Orders in the Regional Tourism DX business in FY2022 increased 2.3× year-over-year, and cumulative sales for that business over the past three fiscal years reached approximately JPY 1 billion. The company uses free SIM distribution machines at 23 international airports to drive membership growth and has achieved seven consecutive fiscal years of sales and growth since establishment. WAmazing plans to use new capital to recruit talent, secure growth funding, and form capital and business alliances with strategic investors and regional banks to expand inbound business and revitalize local communities.

Participated · Series A · May 2019

Tyffon builds and operates high-end “free roam” VR location-based experiences (Tyffoniums) that combine VR technology and multi-sensory effects in physical environments for social, free-roam play. The company has developed three experiences for its Tyffoniums: Corridor (mixed reality horror), Fluctus (mixed reality fantasy ride), and Tarot VR: Voyage of Reverie (22 mixed reality experiences). Tyffon is developing additional hyper-realistic, character-driven immersive content, including experiences based on major media and entertainment franchises. It currently operates two Tyffoniums in Tokyo (Odaiba and Shibuya) and plans to open a third Tokyo venue and its first U.S. Tyffonium in Los Angeles later this year. Tyffon, led by CEO Ken Fukazawa, is a graduate of the Disney Accelerator. Financially, the company has raised more than $12M to date following a new Series A tranche. Tyffon develops and operates hyper-realistic Tyffonium location-based experiences that combine virtual reality technology and multi-sensory effects in physical environments that allow guests to roam freely and interact socially. Its first two Tyffonium experiences are Corridor, a mixed-reality horror experience, and Fluctus, a mixed-reality fantasy ride on a floating ship; Tyffon is developing additional hyper-realistic and character-driven content. The company operates its first Tyffonium in Odaiba, Tokyo and plans to open a second in Shibuya in November. Tyffon intends to expand its venues to the U.S., with its first U.S. location planned for Los Angeles, and will use new funds to expand its U.S.-based team. The company said it will work with U.S. media and entertainment companies to bring brands, content, characters and intellectual property to life within its experiences. Tyffon is based in Santa Monica, California, and is a graduate of the Disney Accelerator powered by Techstars.

Participated · Series D · May 2016

Affectiva is a pioneer of Emotion AI and a developer of Human Perception AI that leverages deep learning, computer vision, speech science and large real-world datasets to detect nuanced emotions, complex cognitive states, activities, interactions and objects. An MIT Media Lab spin-off, the company supplies Automotive AI solutions to OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, ridesharing providers, fleet managers and autonomous-vehicle developers to understand drivers' and passengers' states and moods. Its technology is also used by 25 percent of the Fortune Global 500 to test consumer engagement with ads, videos and TV programming. The company plans to use new funding to deploy Human Perception AI in production vehicles and expand in conversational interfaces, social robotics and market research. Leadership emphasizes creating safer, more comfortable in-vehicle experiences through attention management and predictive analytics integrated with vehicle computing platforms. Financially, Affectiva closed a $26 million funding round that brings total invested capital to $53 million. Affectiva develops emotion recognition technology that enables developers to create hyper-personalized experiences across industries such as gaming, advertising, healthcare and automotive. Its solutions allow adaptive games that change based on a player’s mood, clinical research applications that respond to a patient’s emotional state, and video communication platforms that optimize presentations based on audience engagement. An MIT Media Lab spin-off, the company provides its solutions to more than 1,400 brands to gather insight and analytics in consumer emotional engagement. The company raised $14M in venture capital and intends to use the funds to hire new people, continue innovating in Emotion AI, and accelerate growth into global markets. Leadership changes announced alongside the round include Nick Langeveld named Chairman of the Board and Dr. Rana el Kaliouby moving into the role of Chief Executive Officer. Founded in 2009 by Rosalind W. Picard and Rana el Kaliouby out of the MIT Media Lab, Affectiva develops facial-tracking technology to measure human emotional responses. Its core product, Affdex, is used to test and optimize ad effectiveness and is deployed by clients including WPP's Millward Brown. The company also produces a Q Sensor wearable biometric device, used by “hundreds” of universities and corporations. Affectiva is building a large repository of facial-response data from users in more than 20 countries to help content creators understand cultural differences in reactions. The company plans to use its new funding to move Affdex beyond advertising into consumer-facing applications, social environments, and games. Financially, the company has raised $12M in the announced Series C and has total funding of $20.2M alongside grants from the National Science Foundation; Mary Meeker and Frank Meehan joined its advisory/board ranks as part of the financing. Affectiva spun out of MIT’s Media Lab and builds emotion-measurement technology for ad and brand testing. Its core product, Affdex, uses webcams to track viewers’ responses to videos and can recognize complex emotions such as confusion. The company also offers a wireless biosensor called the Q Sensor. Affectiva says Affdex has been used to crowdsource readers’ responses at Forbes.com and to test Super Bowl campaigns with research agency Millward Brown. It will use a $500,000 NSF grant to continue developing Affdex and to build an "emotional norms database" to benchmark ad engagement and cross-country responses. The startup has raised venture funding, most recently a $5.7M Series B, and says its technology could eventually expand beyond ad testing to help people with autism understand facial expressions. Affectiva is a Waltham, MA company founded in 2009 by MIT scientists Rosalind W. Picard and Rana el Kaliouby and led by CEO Dave Berman. The company develops the Affdex software, which reads emotional states such as liking and attention from facial expressions using a webcam and employs computer vision, machine learning and patented methods to interpret non-verbal responses at scale. It also develops the Q Sensor, a wearable biometric sensor used by more than 100 universities and corporations to track excitement, engagement, stress and anxiety. Affectiva intends to use new funding to expand development and marketing of Affdex and to advance the Q wearable. The company positions its technology to help understand how people feel in order to improve products and experiences.