Two Japanese startups launch at TechCrunch50
OpenTrace is a service that “Traces items through the supply chain and adds them together to show the impact of products on the environment” (from TechCrunch). OpenTrace is run by Rinen Inc, which is owned by Hirofumi Manganji and Hiroaki Shimachi.
Rinen has received a Japanese government grant called Exploratory Software Project which is given to independent software developers who creates an original product or technology.
GazoPa (Crunchbase), a site operated by Hitachi Ltd, is “an image search engine by Hitachi that uses features from an image to search for and identify similar images” (from CrunchBase). Hitachi (TYO: 6501, NYSE: HIT) is a large multi-national IT company group headquatered in Japan.
I’ve met two Hitachi senior management guys at TechCrunch 40 last year. We (Akky and Arai) have decided to start Asiajin at TC40, and probably they’ve decided to launch their product at TC50.
See Also:
Author Information Shunichi Arai is developing a product for his new stealth startup. Arai devotes his life to software business, reading, and salsa dancing. Arai also loves to learn other cultures and languages such as Korean. 3 Responses to “Two Japanese startups launch at TechCrunch50”
Discussion Area - Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Two Japanese startups launch at TechCrunch50 | Asiajin
[...] It’s a “green” web site, which can help you to determine the CO2 impact of certain products you buy and things you do. Asiajin reported about Rinen being selected as a TC50 company here. [...]
Does a site operated by Hitachi really count as a startup???
Also their technology sounds interesting, but I’m not sure it’s revolutionary and there are other companies out their doing similar things.
No disrespect to Hitachi, but I wonder why this project was selected for Techcrunch 52? Maybe they just wanted the connection with a big Japanese brand.