EC Navi Establishes “EC Navi Ventures”, Plans To Invest In Japanese And Asian Startups

Things haven’t been looking good for many Japanese VC firms lately, but that didn’t stop Tokyo-based e-commerce company EC Navi, which today announced the establishment of a VC arm called EC Navi Ventures. EC Navi Ventures is set up as a separate company (also based in Tokyo), which is 100% owned by EC Navi. The… Continue reading EC Navi Establishes “EC Navi Ventures”, Plans To Invest In Japanese And Asian Startups

Now, Long Phone Conversation Makes You Fly For Free

EC-Navi[J], a Shibuya-based tech venture running several web services such as price comparison site for e-commerce users, tied up with Japan’s second largest mobile company KDDI, and plans to launch a nationwide cellphone service as an MVNO (mobile virtual network operator). The service will start on August 3rd, and it targets females in their 20s… Continue reading Now, Long Phone Conversation Makes You Fly For Free

Major Publishers Co-launch Non-UGC Encyclopedia Site

Asahi Newspaper, the Internet portal company EC Navi[J] and major publishers like Kodansha and Shogakukan jointly launched Thursday an online encyclopedia containing 430,000 words, which is called “Kotobank[J]“.   The service is provided for free, and the joint venture expects to earn USD1M in FY2009 from Overture[J] ads appeared on the result pages of Kotobank. The… Continue reading Major Publishers Co-launch Non-UGC Encyclopedia Site

Cyber Agent Investments Organizes Business Plan Competition

Investment arm of a Tokyo-based Internet venture Cyber Agent Group, Cyber Agent Investment LTD.[J] announced to organize a business plan competition called “START”, for the purpose of discovering innovative and potential tech start-up, in cooperation with  Cyber Agent, Mixi[J], Yahoo Japan[J], EC Navi[J], CA Mobile, netprice.com, DeNA and Microsoft Bizspark. Award winning plan may get funding… Continue reading Cyber Agent Investments Organizes Business Plan Competition