German drone maker Helsing has enlisted Japanese e-commerce and finance firm Rakuten to help finalize a deal to sell its unmanned systems to Japan's army, a spokesperson for Rakuten said on Monday. Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force is currently testing Helsing's HX-2 strike drone, as Tokyo looks to modernize its military and counter an increasingly assertive China. The field tests will run until the end of September, the spokesperson said. Helsing struck an "initial agreement" for the Japanese government to use its systems earlier this year, a spokesperson for the Munich-based company said, adding that the move was made possible by an unnamed "local brokerage partner." Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rakuten Group is working with defense AI startup Helsing to bring the German company's military drones to Japan. The Tokyo-based online shopping mall operator served as the point of contact between Helsing and the Japanese government, according to a Rakuten spokesperson. The country's Ground Self-Defense Force will conduct field tests of Helsing drones through the end of September, he said, without providing further details. The tie-up, which would be one of Helsing's first partnerships in the Asia-Pacific region, was first reported by the Nikkei. Japan, which for decades restricted arms exports, has been stepping up defense spending, and the country's companies have followed suit. E-commerce pioneer Rakuten has shifted some of its focus to the sector: It's partnered with a Ukrainian government agency to develop defense technologies, while subsidiary Rakuten Mobile has taken part in joint U.S.-Japan military trials of mobile technologies.

Japanese Internet services and e-commerce group, Rakuten's India unit, is opening a new office in Bengaluru on Thursday, in a bid to expand globally. The new facility houses product, engineering, and advanced research and is Rakuten Group's "largest outside Japan," according to the company. The hub will further enhance the company's capability for deep-tech innovation and research and development (R&D) in areas such as e-commerce, fintech, content and entertainment, as well as artificial intelligence (AI) in computer vision, speech, and natural language processing (NLP), the company said in a statement. Rakuten's online shopping platform is not available in India, but the $15 billion company already has an India office in Bengaluru that was set up in 2014, which, according to the company, was "the largest among its nine technology hubs outside Japan". It currently has around 2,000 employees, responsible for developing software for the company's online brokerage arm, as well as running a 24-hour security operation.

The graph represents a network of 1,000 Twitter users whose tweets in the requested range contained "fashiontech", or who were replied to or mentioned in those tweets. The network was obtained from the NodeXL Graph Server on Thursday, 27 January 2022 at 06:58 UTC. The requested start date was Thursday, 27 January 2022 at 01:01 UTC and the maximum number of days (going backward) was 14. The maximum number of tweets collected was 7,500. The tweets in the network were tweeted over the 11-day, 20-hour, 0-minute period from Friday, 14 January 2022 at 22:59 UTC to Wednesday, 26 January 2022 at 19:00 UTC.

DataDome, a cybersecurity company, announced that it has raised $35 million from Elephant, and its historical investor ISAI. The firm is known for its Software as a Service (SaaS) solution that uses artificial intelligence to protect the data of companies suffering from fraud committed by malicious robots. This investment will allow DataDome to strengthen its teams. Founded in 2015 by Fabien Grenier and Benjamin Fabre, DataDome is a cybersecurity company whose main mission is to help companies protect their data and digital activities. A fast-growing demand: bot fraud attacks are constantly on the rise as they are up 47% over the last six months.

Rakuten Group Inc. is emerging as the first real digital contender to Japan's traditional lenders, using its Amazon.com New digital bank accounts with the internet conglomerate better known for its online shopping services expanded by 20% last year and recently topped 10 million, the most among the country's online lenders. Deposits grew by about 50% over the same period to more than ¥5 trillion, putting it on par with Japan's mid-sized regional banks. Rakuten allows its more than 100 million members to collect loyalty points by using a swath of services including its bank, which can then be spent like money through its array of businesses from its travel agency to its movie and TV show app. Part of last month's deal to collaborate with Japan Post Holdings Co. on cashless payments and insurance also saw investment from Tencent Holdings Ltd., the Chinese technology giant that's helped revolutionize China's payments market through its WeChat Pay.

Japan Post Co. and major online shopping mall operator Rakuten Inc. have reached a basic agreement on a tie-up aimed at streamlining logistics with the use of digital technologies. The two companies will try to tackle delivery staff shortages and other logistics-related challenges by sharing Japan Post's massive trove of data on postal items and Rakuten's forecast information regarding online shopping demand, they said on Thursday. The mail delivery arm of Japan Post Holdings Co. and Rakuten will also consider cooperation in other fields such as cashless payment and mobile phone services. They aim to sign a final agreement in around March next year. "We see tie-up possibilities in a variety of fields, even outside the financial and mobile sectors," Japan Post Holdings President Hiroya Masuda told a news conference, showing the group's strong interest in enhancing business ties with Rakuten.

INTERVIEW: Anand Prasad (pictured), chief information and security officer at Japanese startup operator Rakuten, reckons the full benefits of AI as a means of improving IT and network security will only be unlocked if people remain in the loop. He noted companies can't rely on AI to deliver 100 per cent of their security needs: while some issues can be detected using algorithms and machine learning, "after that you'll always need a human being at the end to have a 100 per cent secure system". Prasad reckons AI will never be perfect, so "there will always be a balance". The e-commerce giant's Rakuten Mobile unit plans to take on incumbent operators NTT Docomo, KDDI and SoftBank by launching a network in Japan in October. As an internet player, he said the company is using its IT experience to differentiate itself by taking a completely cloud-native approach, with plans to virtualise the radio network.

ViSenze, an image recognition startup that delivers visual search tools designed for online retailers such as ASOS and Rakuten, recently revealed that it had secured $20 million in a Series C funding round. Both Sonae IM and Gobi Ventures co-led the financing round, which also included the participation of other investors, including returning backers WI Harper and Rakuten. Established back in 2012, ViSenze has so far raised a total of 34.5 million dollars (its previous funding round was a Series B held in September 2016). ViSenze customers include the likes of Uniqlo, Zalora, and Urban Outfitters, who bill the Singapore-based company's software portfolio as a "personal shopping concierge" that helps shoppers in finding or discovering products based on automatic photo tagging, visual search, and suggestions based on their browser history. The company's verticals include intellectual property, furniture, jewelry, and fashion.

In hopes of luring skilled workers both at home and form abroad with a chance to reside in Japan's ancient capital of Kyoto, Line Corp., a popular messaging app service, opened a new development base in the heart of the city in June. The firm plans to raise the number of engineers to 3,000, from around 2,100, in the near future. At present, the Kyoto office has 19 engineers of which 10 are from overseas. While more tech staffers are needed, "we won't lower our hiring bar," said Ryohei Miyota, who oversees the hiring of engineers at Line's Kyoto branch. Still, Line has shown it is willing to be flexible with other conditions.