Kyriba Establishes Japanese Joint Venture with SunBridge Corporation to Support Kyriba’s Global and Local Market Leadership

TOKYO, Japan, June 18, 2012 — Kyriba, the leader in cloud-based treasury management solutions today announced the establishment of a new joint venture in Japan called Kyriba Japan. The joint venture will enable Kyriba to meet the demands of the increasing number of corporations in Japan and throughout Asia that are turning to cloud computing and mobile solutions to help them manage their global treasury operations.

Kyriba’s best-in-class, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution delivers a fully web-based cash, treasury, and risk management solution to over 25,000 users across 700 leading global organizations. Key features of Kyriba’s award-winning platform include:

• Global Cash Visibility, including SWIFT integration
• Cash and Liquidity Forecasting
• Payment Factories
• Bank Fee Analysis
• Accounting Reconciliation
• Exposure Management
• Hedge Management
• Supply Chain Finance

Kyriba Japan is a joint venture between Kyriba, as the majority shareholder, SunBridge Corporation, the firm responsible for the salesforce.com Japan and Concur Japan joint ventures, and Marc Benioff and Steve Singh, acting as minority direct investors. Japan operations will begin in June 2012.

“Kyriba has enjoyed remarkable success over the last few years delivering Internet-based Treasury Management Solutions to the foremost corporations around the world. We are now investing in Japan to support our global clients’ business goals and continue our geographic expansion. Japan is a key country for Kyriba in its Asian expansion, given the strength and diversity of Japanese companies. This growth further demonstrates Kyriba’s commitment to satisfy our clients’ needs globally,” commented Jean-Luc Robert, CEO of Kyriba. “We are extremely pleased to be partnered with SunBridge Corporation, Marc Benioff and Steve Singh who have demonstrated great success in building the Japanese operations of top tier global companies.”

“The Kyriba solution’s ability to combine global cash visibility, treasury productivity, and risk management on a single web platform is a critical requirement for Japanese enterprises doing business internationally as well as for multi-national corporations doing business in Japan,” said Allen Miner, the Founder and CEO of SunBridge. “Feedback from potential Japanese customers gives us confidence that Kyriba will enjoy great success in Japan.”

About SunBridge

SunBridge Corporation is an international venture capital and professional services firm.  SunBridge offers globalization support for both Japanese and US technology companies; is a premier value added reseller of leading international enterprise software products; and, offers a range of custom development and consulting services.  SunBridge’s principals share a rich heritage of having founded Oracle Japan and held senior executive positions with IBM Japan and other leading enterprise software companies. SunBridge successfully co-founded salesforce.com Japan, Concur Japan and ITmedia, and invested over $100m in more than 65 portfolio companies, resulting in nine successful IPOs and several major acquisition exits generating over $23 Billion in current market capitalization.  SunBridge offices are located in Tokyo, Osaka, Silicon Valley and Cleveland.  More information is available at www.sunbridge.com and www.sunbridgepartners.com.

Cosmetics review website goes public with IPO

Tokyo-based Internet company Istyle Inc. announced on Feb. 3 its intention to list itself on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers Market (Tosho Mothers). The planned date of the IPO is March 8, 2012.

Istyle’s flagship service @Cosme (pronounced “atto kosume,” — www.cosme.net) is the country’s largest cosmetic and beauty product community website. And as far as I can tell, it also seems to be the world’s largest website of its kind — probably due to the huge love Japanese women have for makeup.

As @Cosme’s tag line, “Everyone’s word-of-mouth site,” suggests, the main content of the site is made up of user-generated reviews of more than 200,000 cosmetic products — such as lip gloss, moisturizer, foundation, mascara and so on — from around 23,000 brands. Two million members write some 9.4 million reviews monthly, while approximately 5.5 million visitors go to the site to check the reviews. The total website traffic is a staggering 300 million page views per month.

@Cosme was founded in 1999 by Tetsuro Yoshimatsu and Meyumi Yamada, who quit their jobs (Yoshimatsu at Anderson Consulting, Yamada at a cosmetic company) and used the money they had been saving for their wedding and honeymoon to make the website.

At the time, there were other websites by cosmetic vendor companies but there was the need for a place where people could exchange honest reviews of the products. As an independent review service, @Cosme quickly grew in popularity. In an interview on the Yahoo! Chiebukuro site, Yoshimatsu recalled that during the first two years the company operated in the red, but as more and more users signed up the company saw increased advertising sales.

Since the early days of @Cosme, Yoshimatsu has been telling the media that his company’s core business is the website’s user database. Information on cross-selling, chronological purchases and the usage-history of users are stored in the database, and this information is then sold as marketing data to product vendors, who are themselves unable to trace their own consumers’ purchase history of competing vendors’ products. Selling this marketing data is now a main source of income for Istyle — and it is very profitable.

Here’s why: There are very few Web services that have as many female users as @Cosme. The recipe site Cookpad is the other notable example of a listed company that shares this female-skewed demographic, and the huge number of women using these sites is massively appealing to advertisers who want to run effective marketing campaigns by targeting female consumers. Current stakeholders in @Cosme’s parent company Istyle include large Web companies such as the nation’s largest portal, Yahoo! Japan; blog and community company Cyber Agent; and the huge social gaming network Gree.

However, any review-based service is always going to have problems with false reviews. And there are often claims by users that specific products have unnaturally positive ratings and reviews. As a result, some serious users actively seek out suspicious activity, such as products that have a bunch of positive “cookie-cutter” reviews churned out by users who have never reviewed any other brands.

With sites like @Cosme gaining more and more influence over purchasers’ decisions, it is no surprise that sellers who are poor at marketing are tempted by easy solutions such as bribing reviewers or writing fake reviews. This year opened with news of stealth-marketing in the Japanese Web scene, as the restaurant-review site Tabelog was tainted by the discovery of manipulated reviews by paid reviewers.

A few weeks later, likely inspired by the Tabelog incident (as the value of stealth-marketing related news soared), it was reported in the Asahi newspaper that Navit, a PR agency, had manipulated user reviews on @Cosme. With the Facebook IPO overseas, the buzz of an Internet-based company going public here has been growing, and it was unfortunate for Istyle that the news of the fake reviews happened just before their IPO.

There are already several companies listed on the Japanese stock market that offer services particularly popular in Japan. These include Cookpad (recipes), Ekitan (train transfer info) and Zappalas (fortune telling). @Cosme will be another example of a listed company that has a definitely Japanese flavor. It is hard to tell whether this kind of company only succeeds in Japan simply because of a certain cultural peculiarity, or whether future Web trends will see such companies do well overseas — much like Web-browsing on cellphones, which was once thought of as a uniquely Japanese phenomenon.

New joint venture with SunBridge Corporation supports Concur’s commitment to global and local market leadership

TOKYO and REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Concur (Nasdaq: CNQR), a leading provider of integrated travel and expense management solutions, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to establish a new joint venture in Tokyo, Japan, known as Concur Japan. The joint venture, which will be led by Japanese technology veteran Shigeru Fujii, will enable Concur to meet the demands of the increasing number of corporations in Japan and throughout Asia that are turning to cloud computing and mobile solutions to help them control expenses.

Concur Japan is a joint venture between Concur, as the majority shareholder, SunBridge Corporation, the firm responsible for the salesforce.com Japan joint venture, and Marc Benioff, acting as a minority direct investor. The transaction is expected to close in February 2011.

“The embrace of cloud computing in Japan continues to drive growth opportunities for SaaS providers that offer real and compelling value to their clients. Increasingly, Japanese companies are turning to Web and mobile solutions to help them reduce costs, increase scalability and flexibility, and make life easier for their employees,” said Steve Singh, chairman and CEO of Concur. “Concur’s integrated travel and expense management solutions fill a critical need for organizations of all sizes looking for greater control and visibility into their T&E spend. Fujii-san’s deep enterprise software expertise in Japan combined with SunBridge’s and Marc’s records of success helping businesses grow in the second largest economy in the world puts us in an excellent position for growth.”

“I am excited about the market potential for integrated travel and expense management solutions that bring the benefits of cloud computing, mobile and social computing together in an integrated way that’s beneficial for companies and their employees,” said Shigeru Fujii, Concur Japan’s newly appointed Chief Executive Officer.  Prior to joining Concur, Shigeru Fujii spent the last 25 years serving in a variety of senior leadership roles, most recently within the Office of the President of Ashisuto K.K., a leading Japanese independent software distributor, where he was responsible for strategic planning.

“Concur’s strengths in on-demand and mobile innovations and its commitment to delivering local market solutions that help companies drive down the costs of doing business position them extremely well in the Japanese market,” said Allen Miner, the Founder and CEO of SunBridge. “With our track record of helping cloud computing service providers be successful in Japan, I have no doubt that Concur has what it takes to enjoy similar success.”

About Concur

Concur® is a leading provider of integrated travel and expense management solutions for companies of all sizes. Concur’s easy-to-use web-based and mobile solutions help companies and their employees control costs and save time. Learn more at www.concur.com.

About SunBridge

SunBridge Corporation is an international venture capital and professional services firm.  SunBridge offers globalization support for both Japanese and US technology companies; is a premier value added reseller of leading international enterprise software products; and, offers a range of custom development and consulting services.  SunBridge’s principals share a rich heritage of having founded Oracle Japan and held senior executive positions with IBM Japan and other leading enterprise software companies. SunBridge successfully co-founded salesforce.com Japan and ITmedia, and invested over $100m in more than 65 portfolio companies, resulting in eight successful IPOs and several major acquisition exits generating over $21 Billion in current market capitalization.  SunBridge offices are located in Tokyo, Osaka, Silicon Valley and Cleveland.  More information is available at www.sunbridge.com and www.sunbridgepartners.com.

Westlake, OH (PRWEB) December 15, 2010

Blue Spark Technologies, Inc., the leading producer of thin, flexible, printed power source solutions, has closed a $7.5 million Series B investment. Existing institutional venture investors Early Stage Partners and SunBridge Partners were joined by several private investors.

Gary R. Johnson, Blue Spark President and Chief Executive, said, “The Blue Spark team is delighted to have the support of new investors and the continuing confidence of early backers, who have provided additional resources to enable Blue Spark to continue to prosper. I’m pleased to report that applications enabled by printed batteries are developing rapidly as the early adopters of our battery technology transition from development to successful product introductions.”

John Gannon, General Partner of SunBridge said, “Since leading the Series A round in 2007 we have seen the company achieve important milestones in organizational and market development, including generating initial revenue in huge opportunities. We are very pleased to support Blue Spark in this round, which provides resources for its transition into high volumes and profitability.”

“Early Stage Partners,” according to Managing Director Jim Petras, “has focused on funding young Northeast Ohio companies through development into commercialization. Blue Spark has identified and developed outstanding market opportunities that can be served with its world class printed battery technology. Early Stage has supported Blue Spark since its founding. We are pleased with Blue Spark’s progress and with the contribution that high growth companies we have supported are contributing to economic revitalization in Northeast Ohio.”

Blue Spark will focus its resources on ramping manufacturing to support market successes in multiple projects and to the acceleration of new applications that require thin, printed, disposable batteries.

About Blue Spark Technologies

Blue Spark Technologies, Inc. is the leader in developing flexible, printed, “green,” proprietary power source solutions for battery-powered printed electronic systems. The company was founded as Thin Battery Technologies in 2002 with patented technology and technical leadership from Energizer (Eveready Battery Company). Blue Spark customers include manufacturers, product designers, and integrators across multiple industries including: interactive packaging, RFID, pharmaceutical, powered smart cards, and novelty items. Users of products powered by Blue Spark batteries enjoy increased efficiency, greater convenience and portability, improved safety, lower manufacturing and assembly costs, higher profit margins, and greater environmental responsibility. For more information, visit http://www.bluesparktechnologies.com or call +1 440 249 5400.

About SunBridge Partners

SunBridge Partners is a US-based venture capital firm pursuing a targeted, research-based approach to identifying and investing in private US technology companies pioneering innovations based on advanced technologies in computing, communications and manufacturing, including materials, semiconductors, components, equipment and software. SunBridge Partners’ capacity for strategic guidance based on deep domain expertise, proven track record of assisting portfolio companies, and global network of contacts and partners providing international market insight and revenue opportunities make it a preferred and effective investment partner to the most promising of startup companies. https://sunbridgepartners.com

About Early Stage Partners

Early Stage Partners is an early stage venture capital fund based in Cleveland, Ohio with an office in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is the largest and most active early stage venture firm in Ohio, with $99 million under management in two funds. Early Stage Partners invests primarily in promising opportunities in the life sciences, cleantech, and information technology. Since inception, Early Stage Partners has invested in over 30 high potential companies in Ohio, Michigan, and elsewhere. The company’s principals have over 90 years combined experience in early stage company formation and development and significant operating experience. http://www.esplp.com.

For the better part of 20 years, Mac lovers fumed in frustration as Apple languished in sub-5% PC market share territory. Wintel dominated. Big, ugly, buggy, clunky, and everywhere. It seemed as if graphic designers were the only people stubbornly refusing to admit defeat and join the rest of the planet in using Windows.

But then Steve Jobs came to the rescue — and over time, people actually started buying Macs again. And then the iPod! and iTunes! Somehow Apple found a way to reinvent and completely dominate an entire category of consumer electronics. The company seemed to change overnight — and became the leading-edge technology giant it always knew it was supposed to be.

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Salesforce Shells Out $170 Million To Acquire Japanese Subsidiary From VC Firm

CRM and cloud giant Salesforce.com is shelling out $170 million to fully acquire its Japanese subsidiary, Salesforce Japan, from VC firm SunBridge and other stockholders. The subsidiary was formed in 2000 as a joint venture between Salesforce and SunBridge. Until now, Salesforce has the majority control (with 73 percent) but is purchasing all outstanding shares from the VC firm and other stockholders. Salesforce says the joint venture agreement has subsequently been terminated with the acquisition.

It appears that the reasoning behind the move is financial. Salesforce says that Jaapan is the largest revenue contributor in Asia Pacific for Salesforce, and “acquiring full ownership in Salesforce Japan allows Salesforce.com to further benefit from the growth in the Japanese cloud computing market and integrate and align its financial and operational functions.” In the first half of 2010, Asia Pacific sales accounted for 14 percent of Salesforce.com’s revenue, which is an 11 percent increase from the same period in 2009.

A few weeks ago, Salesforce announced that it would be adding a new data center in Tokyo to support a growing customer base in Japan. Clearly the company sees the country as a valuable revenue stream and counts Japan-based Canon and Fujitsu as customers.