VCs back Asia expansion by Japan's Sansan

According to local media, the round amounted to JPY4.2 billion ($38 million). The capital will be used to advance the company’s business card app, known as Eight, with a view to establishing the service as the top business platform in Asia, including India.

Founded in 2007, Sansan focuses on services related to professional connections with technology products such as optical character recognition software for digitizing business cards and cloud-based information management services. According to a statement, Eight is Japan’s biggest business network based on business cards with more than 1.8 million registered users.

Sansan received a S$24.2 million ($17.8 million) Series C round last year from DCM, Salesforce and Nissay Capital for an expansion effort in Singapore. DCM also led a JPY1.5 billion round in 2014 with participation from Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, Nikkei Digital Media, Energy & Environment Investment and early investor GMO Venture Partners.

Mirai is a JPY13.5 billion technology-focused fund backed by Toyota Motor, Sumitomto Mitsui Banking and Sparx. The vehicle is targeting a corpus of JPY50 billion and as of May claimed to have invested 30 companies with assets under management worth JPY36.5 billion.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Technology
• Expansion
• Japan
• professional services
• DCM-Doll Capital Management