DCM leads $14.6m round for Japan CRM start-up

Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), Nikkei Digital Media, Energy & Environment Investment and existing investor GMO Venture partners also took part in the round.

Set up in 2007, Sansan developed Eight - which is available as an app on iOS and Android - as a combined solution for business card scanning, data entry, and contact management. Users can sync their Eight account with their social media profiles and attach business cards to their contacts. With the smart phone app, users are able to scan business cards into the system.

According to Nikkei, Sansan plans to use the funds to expand its business in the US. At present, services are only available in Japan. 

Including this latest investment, Sansan has raised around $20 million over four institutional rounds. The company first received seed funding from Tokyo's Incubate Fund shortly after its launch. It then raised it first major round in 2009, receiving JPY50 million from CyberAgent, Recruit Incubation Partners, and GMO.

GMO returned in 2013 to invest JPY500 million alongside Nissay Capital. In October of the same year, Sansan raised an undisclosed sum from Salesforce.com, a cloud-based CRM management business.

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• Topics
• Early-stage
• North Asia
• Technology
• Japan
• Technology
• GMO Ventures
• Innovation Network Corp. of Japan (INCJ)
• DCM-Doll Capital Management
• Venture