[e27] CyberAgent Ventures invests in Korean app developer Woowa Bros

CyberAgent Ventures has announced that it has made a US$0.5 million investment in Woowa Brothers, the developer of popular Korean food delivery app Baedalui Minjok. 

This investment is part of a US$12 million round that includes other investors such as Altos Ventures and IMM Investment. According to a report by Platum, the factors that made Woowa Bros so attractive to investors include its total sales of around US$9.4 million in the past three years, as well as its pole position among food delivery apps in Korea, capturing 60 per cent of the market, with over 10 million downloads in total. ...

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e27  3/10/2014 [en]

memo

• CyberAgent Ventures is developing its network around Asia including China and South East Asia. The network must be attractive for start-ups located in Asia aiming to expand to other Asian countries.
• http://www.woowahan.com/

[TechCrunch] Atomico-Backed Quipper Gets Another $5.8M To Expand The Reach Of Its E-Learning Platform

Quipper, an e-learning platform backed by the London-based VC firm, Atomico, that’s led by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström, has closed a new tranche of funding. The $5.8 million Series A2 round takes Quipper’s total funding to just over $10 million to-date. 

Participators in its Series A2 round include existing investors Atomico and Benesse, a major Japanese education publisher. Additional unnamed investors also joined in the round. ...

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TechCrunch 3/6/2014 [en]

memo

• Quipper was founded by one of the co-founders of DeNA, a mobile social game developer. It is interesting that the company is actually located in UK, but focuses on Asian market including Japan.
• http://www.quipper.com/

Mobile Vein Authentication, Universal Robot Raises 100M Yen From NTT Docomo Ventures And SMBC Venture Capital / SankeiBiz

Universal Robot develops a palm vein authentication software for mobile which advantage is recognized by NTT group. The system does not require dedicated device such as near-infrared devices to detect vein. Only camera of smartphones or tablets enables a palm vein authentication. ...

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SankeiBiz 3/6/2014 [jp]

memo

• Authentication technology for mobile has a great potential in various uses cases such as payment or key. But that means there are many competitive technologies and solutions. 
• http://www.urobot.co.jp/

HRM Software, CYDAS Has Capital Alliance With Salesforce.com / Venture Now

CYDAS announced capital alliance with Salesforce.com aiming to expand its business to global market by providing its Performance Cloud, cloud based human resource management application on Salesforce's AppExchange.

Performance Cloud is a human resource management system for staff deployment and education of employees. It visualizes skills, experiences, and performance of staffs to plan career development. ...

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Venture Now 3/4/2014 [jp]

memo

• There has been almost no Japanese enterprise applications to go global market in the past. But as many mobile apps from Japan are getting successful thanks to global platform like AppStore or Google Play, enterprise SaaS services may be able to succeed on Salesforce platform. It is interesting to see if CYDAS will become one of the cases in the future.
• http://www.cydas.co.jp/