Social application provider, Community Factory raised 180M yen from mixi /TechCrunch Japan

The first investment from mixi Fund, which mixi set up to promote its open strategy, was for Community Factory. The startup raised 20 million yen from mixi Fund in 2009 April and as its fourth fundraising, secured 180 million yen from mixi again.

Community Factory which begun providing application when mixi was just opened is a pioneer of a social application provider in Japan. Current hit application is "Minna no Kentei" surpassing 5.7 million registered users.

The company also provides Orkut, Google's social network, with games co-developing with local partners in Brazil.

With the investment, mixi holds nearly 40% share of Community Factory, which has raised 130 million yen from Mizuho Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and Nissei Capital in 2010 June and also from Cyber Communications in 2009 November.

TechCrunch Japan 1/28/2011

memo

• mixi positions itself as a social graph provider, which means it focuses on operating the platform and does not provide applications itself.
• Following joint venture with CyberAgent, it looks like mixi would like to accelerate providing applications using its capital.