The Japanese startups ecosystem is evolving at an exponential rate with a drastic increase in market size. Recognized as a nation with the most innovative brains, their entrepreneurial sector is booming and technological advancement is a major fuel driving startups in Japan. The Japanese government promotes holistic startup growth and promotes startup culture extensively.
Japan accounts for less than 2% of the world population but its contribution to the world’s corporate segment is around 11% due to large companies being started from Japan. Japanese people have great scientific skills and never hesitate to research deep into the topic to gain knowledge and that accounts for their startups being successful and well researched, they also don’t shy away from risky situations and have great risk-taking abilities.
Climbing up to the position of largest SaaS and cloud market in the whole Asian continent, Japan has become a hub for new businesses. The Japanese government has a structured 7 step strategy to grow and benefit the startup ecosystem in the country, creating a startup-specific city, improved incubation cells, increased startup knowledge being some of its features. These initiatives also pave the way for international investors to show a keen interest in Japanese startups.
The startup ecosystem particularly in Tokyo is valued at 25 billion dollars which is much more than the global average.
The main sectors that Japanese startups target are fintech, robotics, and advanced manufacturing and almost half the robotic manufacturing takes place in Japan. Being one of the most competitive financial centers in the world, Tokyo is all set to foster new and growing startups in the country.
Best Japanese Startups To Watch
Below is a list of top startups in Japan that everybody should follow. This list is an answer to every question revolving around Japanese startups.
1. Liquid Global
Liquid Global is a top-notch cryptocurrency exchange platform that is available globally. Found in the year of 2014, Liquid Global operates liquid.com, a platform specifically for trading and other financial services powered by blockchain technology. Liquid currently has offices in major cities like Singapore, Japan, and Vietnam and has partnered with local partners with great knowledge in the field.
It has also launched a mobile app called liquid pro that is an upgraded version of the trading platform and provides services like deep analysis, upgraded portfolio management on mobile phones, and execution of strategic trading. Liquid pro is available for use to both android and ios users and is a free-to-use application.
The app displays full strategic qualities helping traders make sound choices. Some of its noteworthy tools are, SMA, Bollinger bands, and EMA, this compact mobile application also facilitates quicker reaction towards market fluctuations. Japan being its founding nation, a mobile app called liquid lite was specifically launched for Japanese people to give them the comfort of trading in their own specific way.
Liquid’s success can be attributed to its expertise in the banking and finance sector and its promise to always deliver what’s best for its users. It also keeps emphasizing providing top-notch security services with biometric unlocking features, using cold wallets to store customer’s total assets, and much more.
Liquid is committed to launch new services and upgrade its platform in varied ways including a distributor ledger that allows companies to build their services using distributed ledger techniques.
2. Yappli
Yappli is an application that helps in designing applications that can be directly managed by locals without any app development knowledge or expertise in the programming field. It basically has a business-to-business model and works as a software company working to equip its users with the ability to build and manage their own mobile applications without having to design them.
It provides off-the-shelf apps because Yappli recognizes the fact that not everybody wanting to launch an app can be an avid coder.
They brought a revolutionary wave in the whole app development sector with their over-the-top services and not just that, Yappli also provides certain other services like API relation services to provide a better user experience.
Having raised a considerable amount of funding, Yappli is aiming to steadily increase its revenue streams.Yappli has strong past experience, it has worked with huge brands to create Japanese language apps for their Japanese clientele, for instance, they have worked with Toyota motor, Under Armour and many such names.
Yappli has received a trail of awards due to its extraordinary services and elite clientele. With its market size increasing exponentially there is no doubt that Yappli will succeed in the future with flying colors.
3. Paidy
This Japan-based startup is one of the biggest buy now pay later platforms in Japan, it enables people to pay for their purchases without any hassle. A phone number, email, and your name are all it requires to pay through Paidy, it eliminates the troubles of card payment. Having recently partnered with Paypal for wallet linking, Paidy has gained widespread acknowledgment and acceptance.
The platform is optimized in such a way that it leaves no room for mismanagement and works efficiently on mobiles. It uses its advanced proprietary technology to guarantee payments to the merchants and creditworthiness. Users have the liberty to pay for their purchases each month in a consolidated bill using Paidy’s services.
It acts as a bridge between consumers looking for efficient payment options and vendors looking for hassle-free payments. It utilizes its team of experts that have plenty of knowledge about machine learning and has also added a new service to the bucket i.e. Paidy link, so Paidy link instantly links account holders to their online wallets.
Last year Paidy also launched the three installments system wherein buyers can split their purchases into three simple installments. Having received fundings from around the world, Paidy has raised a total of 277.9 million dollars in almost 10 rounds of fundings. Due to the ongoing pandemic, people have shifted to online payments drastically and that led to increased interest in Paidy.
4. Playco
Playco is one of its kind startups focusing on an instant gaming setup. It works in an environment where people can play games together without any technological restrictions.
Created by co-founders of Game Closure and Zynga as well as two game producers, Playco aims at bringing back the simplicity of playing games together without handling game downloads or any such issues.
Playco works on making games as accessible as calling or texting in today’s age, it works on promoting gaming together just through a hyperlink. It facilitates instant gaming platforms without downloading a gaming app. It has also secured partnerships with Facebook, Snapchat, and like names. Playco has already managed to come under the umbrella of unicorn startups and is willing to utilize this capital funding to strengthen partnerships with global companies.
The technologies that can be utilized to bring the instant play life are cloud gaming, platform-specific tools and HTML5. Their cutting-edge technology helped them create their own gaming engine and now this big shift in the gaming scenario would require reinventing a lot of popular genres.
PlayCo achieved unicorn status just at the series A level funding and that speaks volumes about its enormous capabilities in the gaming industry.
5. Smart News
This Japan-based start-up is one of the most top-rated news apps in the world. The reason for its widespread acknowledgment can be attributed to its segregation of content according to personal interests, they work on finding stories by analyzing user’s interests and then analyses them to suggest further stories.
This app comes free of cost and is in charge of delivering content to 300 plus renowned US publishers some being Business Insider, entertainment weekly, and SB Nation. Despite being free of cost SmartNews never compromises on content quality and that is the reason for its strong user base. They work with a bunch of reliable publishers and promote flexibility by promoting reading at every location just through your phone. This app saves time and promotes an informed environment t the same time.
SmartNews has some qualities that make it a better platform than other news sites. Smartnews has stories that are available in the original web version and offline version too. It also features a smart mode that enables readers to load articles instantly and in an easily readable format.
Its promise to focus on discovery and personalization is what makes it a showstopper in its industry and its machine learning algorithms also help them get hold of its audience and attain their attention.
