Osaka, 2 November 2020 – Startupbootcamp, the leading global network of industry-focused accelerators, announces the ten growth-stage startups – known as scaleups – who will be joining the Startupbootcamp Scale Osaka program in November to expand their businesses into the Japanese market.
Following the success of the first cohort, which held its Virtual Demo Day in February, Startupbootcamp Scale Osaka targeted and scouted growth-stage Smart Cities & Living scaleups across a wide range of industries including Mobility, Living, Tourism, and Health & Wellbeing, which lead to 550 overall applications which were considered for admission into the program.
Startupbootcamp Scale Osaka hosted a three-day Digital Selection Days event on October 28-30 which brought together the top 20 applicants from 10 countries, a selection of the 74 mentors dedicated to the program and the Japanese partners including Hankyu Corporation (Business agent: Hankyu Hanshin Properties Corp.), JR West Innovation, Dentsu, Sakura Internet, JT, The Yomiuri Shimbun and SMBC. The three days focused on narrowing down the top 20 applicants to select the final scaleups that would join the program and create pilots together with the partners. At the end of the event, ten scaleups from six countries were selected to join the Scale Osaka program, which begins on November 24, 2020 and concludes in a Demo Day on February 26, 2021. The selected companies are as follows:
- Anagog LTD (Israel) Using AI smartphone technology, they allow companies to provide hyper-personalized and contextualized offers to their customers with unmatched privacy control.
- Blacksquared GmbH / Changers.com (Germany) A smartphone-based green bonus app to empower and motivate users to take part in eco-friendly and healthy activities.
- Djinn Sensor (United Kingdom) Human-centered management for indoor environments which can also handle disease risk analytics.
- Edisn.ai (United States) An AI-powered fan engagement platform that enables interactivity and monetization of live video content.
- Kiana (United States) A real-time contact tracing system which uses device-based detection and location-based analytics.
- Off-Blocks Ltd (United Kingdom) Provides digital signatures and contactless transactions across mobile and web using blockchain technology.
- Questo (Romania) A Marketplace and travel platform for gamified, self-guided tours. Every tour has a fun theme (story), and the travelers follow clues and solve challenges.
- Sarafan Technology Inc (United States) Introduces AI-based features for streaming content enrichment to educate, entertain and inspire the audience.
- Save a Crust (Singapore) Using AI Technology to help prevent food loss and upcycles food waste into beverages and other products.
- WeSpire (United States) Helps companies communicate and measure the impact of their purpose initiatives to their employees by inspiring them to take action on sustainability, social impact and more.
Joshua Flannery, CEO of Startupbootcamp Scale Osaka & Rainmaking Innovation Japan, said: “COVID-19 raised many questions as to whether we could attract applications from startups around the world during these unusual times, so we were relieved and excited to receive over 500 overall applications for this cohort #2 program and the quality of the applications is outstanding – with some startups already having raised $100M, $85M and many over $20M already. We are focused on creating tangible impact – both business and social impact in our program and look forward to working with our seven corporate partners to drive Osaka’s transformation into a truly smart city this year”.
