KDDI Fund participates in $2m round for Japanese game developer

Set up a year ago, Mutations develops game applications for internet and mobile. "Kaibutsu Chronicle" is one of its flagship titles developed for the Apple iPhone.

According to a release, CyberAgent Ventures injected capital into the company last September through its CA Startups Internet Fund 1, while FuRyu made its investment in February. It was not disclosed how much each investor contributed individually.

The new capital will be used by the company to accelerate its development efforts in the smart phone gaming space.

Earlier this week, KDDI joined CyberAgent Ventures and YJ Capital - the investment arm of Yahoo Japan - in a JPY330 million ($3.2 million) round of funding for RareJob, an English-language learning website.

The KDDI fund, which is backed by Japanese telecoms firm KDDI Corp, has around $50 million under management and focuses on tech start-ups. It has made six other investments, two of which came earlier this year: Japanese mobile commerce applications manager Origami, and smartphone applications developer 3rdKind.

During last week's AVCJ Japan Forum, venture capital investors remarked that the mobile internet space held the most promise in a largely untapped Japanese VC space.

"In the past, the US was ahead when it came to offering internet services but with the migration to smartphones and mobile internet, countries like Japan and Korea are becoming major players," said Soichi Tajima, president of CyberAgent Ventures. "There is room to create more business in emerging economies and this is where Japanese VCs can play a role."

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Venture
• North Asia
• Technology
• Japan
• Venture
• TMT
• CyberAgent Ventures