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Shinsei Bank backs Series B for Japan's Smart Education

  • Andrew Woodman
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Shinsei Corporate Investment (SCI), a unit of Japan's Shinsei Bank, has committed JPY75.3 million ($748,000) to educational smartphone app developer Smart Education. This brings the start-up's Series B round to a total of JPY350 million.

Prior to this investment, Smart Education raised JPY200 million from Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and Infinity Venture Partners in December 2012, plus an additional JPY75 million from Fuji Startup Ventures and CyberAgent Ventures back in April.

Smart Education develops tablet and smart phone educational apps for young children, and has already released nine apps, produced over 300 songs and 80 digital picture books. Its apps have been downloaded 3.7 million times and claim 800,000 monthly active users. In June last year the business released English versions of its apps.

According to a release, this represents the first pre-IPO investment for SCI which chose to invest in Smart Education because of its "track record and future growth potential in the smart phone and tablet markets which are expected to expand further in the future."

Shinsei established SCI last November as part of a strategy to strengthen its private equity business. Through SCI, Shinsei Bank aims to invest in businesses across various sectors and growth stages. 

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