AVCJ

KDDI, Yahoo, CyberAgent invest $3m in online language service

  • Andrew Woodman
  • LinkedIn  
  • Google plus  
  • Save this article  

KDDI Open Innovation Fund, CyberAgent Ventures and YJ Capital - the investment arm of Yahoo Japan - have taken part in JPY330 million ($3.2 million) round of funding for RareJob, an English-language learning website.

The Global Brains Corp-managed KDDI fund previously backed the company in 2008. Another existing investor, Mitsubishi UFG Capital, also upped its investment. Details of the transaction were not disclosed.

RareJob uses Skype to provide one-to-one English tuition for as little as JPY129 for a 25-minute session. Since its 2008 launch the company claims to have seen membership grow to around 170,000.

According to a release, RareJob will use this latest investment to improve and expand its service as well develop new products aimed at improving English pronunciation.

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

Yahoo Japan launched its JPY1 billion fund in Spetember last year and targets start-ups in the smart phone, internet advertising and cloud computing spaces.

CyberAgent launched its VC arm in 2006 and makes investment across Asia. 

  • LinkedIn  
  • Google plus  
  • Save this article  

More on North Asia

Latest News

world-hands-globe-climate-esg
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey

Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...

  • GPs