Nippon Venture Capital invests $1.7m in internet start-up Volare
Nippon Venture Capital has invested JPY170 million ($1.7 million) in Japanese web solutions start-up Volare.
The Tokyo-headquartered company, which launched in 2007, provides web consulting and search engine optimization (SEO) services. It also runs an app search site called Appliv, which was launched in August of last year.
According to a release, the new capital will be used to improve and expand the site, which provides a platform by which users can discover and review smart phone apps on Apple's App Store. Volare claims the website receives an average of 6 million page views a month, with around 1.65 million individual visitors.
In conjunction with the investment, the company has also launched Appliv Ad, a service which allows developers to promote their applications on the Appliv platform.
The Japanese mobile app market is one of the biggest in the world, with Apple's App Store taking the lead in sales. According to AppAnnie, a company with monitors the global mobile app industry, Apple's App Store revenue in Japan is more than double that of Android's Google Play, despite two-thirds of the country's smart phone population using the Android operating system.
Meanwhile, Japan overtook the US as the leading revenue-generating country for Google Play last October. As of May this year, Japanese apps accounted for seven of the top 10 grossing games on the App Store, and accounted for all the top 10 games on Google Play.
The last month alone has seen considerable investment activity in the space. Scentan Ventures joined strategic investor Macromill in backing Glider Associates, the start-up behind smart phone curation app Antenna while Femto committed JPY100 million of seed funding to Toreta. Japanese mobile game developer Alt Plus also looked to expand its regional footprint by acquiring a 10% stake in VC-backed Korean game startup Emagine.
During AVCJ Japan Forum last June, industry participants noted how, despite the growth in the space, many opportunities are still being overlooked.
"This is a game changing time with the rise of smart phones and tablets and the proportion of smart phone users becoming bigger," said Takao Ozawa, COO with Yahoo! Japan VC fund YJ Capital. "With smart phone devices people feel the internet is closer and more services are being used via the internet. It will be a big change and I am paying a lot of attention."
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