Tokyo-based mobile app developer Akatsuki announced today that it has raised 1.4 billion yen (or about $14 million) from Globis and Link and Motivation. The company plans to accelerate its international business expansion using these new funds.
Since its launch back in June of 2010, the company has been responsible for games like Thousand Memories and Tails of Links, both of which have shown rapid growth. ...
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The Bridge 5/21/2014 [en]
memo
- Finance news of mobile game developers are decreasing recently compared to a few years ago, but the amount is increasing. Fundraising of over 10 million dollars are also increasing this year, but interestingly many of them raised $14 million such as Raksul, Mercari, and Sansan. It should be just a coincidence?
- http://aktsk.jp/
Japanese ad platform operator FreakOut applied and was approved for an IPO on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers Market today. The company is expected to be listed on June 24th, with plans to offer 530,000 shares for public subscription and to sell 112,500 shares in over-allotment options for a total of 332,500 shares.
The company was launched back in October of 2010, and subsequently introduced demand-side platform FreakOut in January of 2012 and data management platform Mother in March of 2013. ...
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The Bridge 5/19/2014 [en]
memo
- The economic situation in venture industry of Japan has been getting better recently, but it is also difficult to estimate until when the trend lasts. It may be a good timing to go IPO now. With the capital raised by IPO, FreakOut may accelerate the global strategy.
- https://www.fout.co.jp/
Sansan Inc., a cloud contact-management service, has raised $14 million in funding led by DCM. The Tokyo-based startup plans to use the capital to break into the U.S. market this month, as expand in other international markets. Other participating investors include the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, Nikkei Digital Media, Energy and Environment Investment, Inc, and GMO Venture Partners. Sansan has also received previous investment from Salesforce.com.
In the U.S., Sansan will compete against products such as Cisco Unified Intelligent Contact Management Enterprise, OnContact, and Act!. But the company, which says it currently has over 2,000 corporate customers in Japan, hopes to differentiate its service, which automatically tracks information like who met the contact, where, when, and for what reason. Sansan’s software also transcribes business cards and uploads data into its cloud-based platform. ...
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TechCrunch 5/19/2014 [en]
memo
- The lineup of investors is very various from Japanese government backed INCJ to green tech focused fund, Energy and Environment Investment to US based DCM. It will be a great challenge to go into US market with a B2B solution.
- https://en.sansan.com/
GREE Ventures has just announced the initial closing of its second fund. Dubbed the AT-I Investment Limited Partnership, this is a 5 billion yen fund (or about $50 million) which it will use to target tech startups in Japan and South East Asia, mostly series A stage companies at about 100 million yen to 300 million yen per company ($1 million to $3 million).
Investors in the fund include GREE Inc, SME Support Japan, Credit Saison, Ateam Inc, and Mizuho Capital. The announcement notes that a second closing will likely come later this summer.
The Bridge 5/16/2014 [en]
Tokyo-based startup BASE, a company that aims to help users to create an ecommerce website within 30 seconds has raised $3 million from Global Brain. Founded in December 2012 by Yuta Tsuruoka and Kazuma Ieiri, BASE is similar to Shopify except that it is free. It is currently powering over 80,000 online shops in Japan.
Kosuke Okubo, a representative of BASE confirms that the startup does not plan to charge users this year. “In 2015, we may start charging users for our extension apps and more,” says Okubo. ...
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Tech In Asia 5/15/2014 [en]
memo
- Ecommerce site developing services became very hot last year with BASE and another fast-growing startup, Stores.jp, which was acquired by Zozotown, Japan's largest fashion commerce site back in July last year. BASE seems to look to different type of exit than Stores.jp.
- https://thebase.in/
Tokyo-based Donuts, a mobile game developer and the creator of the video app MixChannel, announced today that it has invested an undisclosed sum in Nagisa. Details of this investment were not disclosed but it appears to be worth about $1 million according to Nagisa’s corporate profile and past funding history.
Launched back in 2010, Nagisa operates a messaging app called Balloon, and previously raised 100 million (or about $1 million) from Nissay Capital. Subsequently, they also produced the photo effects app Kame Camera, the diary app Livre, and a virtual idol app The 49th Girl — all of which have surpassed five million downloads cumulatively.
The company also tells us that their movie app Slide Movies has acquired over 700,000 downloads in the two months since its launch back in December, and its monthly downloads surpassed 1 million in April alone. ...
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The Bridge 5/15/2014 [en]
memo
- Both company develop mobile apps targeting a consumer market, so there will be synergy. Nagisa could make use of the capital to develop more mobile apps taking advantage of the existing user base.
- http://nagisa-inc.jp/
ESTmob, the Seoul-based team behind file-sharing app Send Anywhere revealed today it has completed a US$1 million seed round led by Rakuten Ventures. ESTmob cofounder Suhyuk Kang tells Tech in Asia that it will use the funding to expand its userbase around the globe and ramp up the app’s feature set.
Send Anywhere delivers a basic, somewhat mundane utility to device owners. After one downloads the app, a user selects a file he or she would like to send, and is then given a six-digit code (or a QR code). That code is then shared with the intended recipient, who then inputs it into the app on his own device. ...
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Tech In Asia 5/12/2014 [en]
memo
- The investment may be one of a few cases for Rakuten to invest in early stage starup without obvious synergy with Rakuten's main businesses. File sharing with mobile is not a big market at this moment, but it may have a potential to become a huge market as more people tend to use smart devices than PC.
- https://send-anywhere.com/
