Betaworks, a US-based start-up funding and product launch company, has found a kindred spirit in new investor Digital Garage, the Japan internet services company and incubator that has recently invested $7.5m into the business. The investment was part of a $10m series C round that also included angel investors including Adrian Aoun (Wavii) and Blake Krikorian (Sling Media). News of the deal was reported by several news sites, including CrunchBase/TechCrunch.
Much like Betaworks, Digital Garage is also a builder and investor in start-ups. The latest investment is very strategic, however, for Digital Garage since the deal is to be a partnership of sorts so that Japanese start-ups have a good network to work with in the US and others where Betawork investments operate.
The Betaworks story comes full circle as portfolio company executives are in some cases now investors in betaworks, such as Twitter. The last time that betaworks raised capital was in 2010, when it raised $20m from a lengthy list of investors. The business has many entrepreneurs cum angel investors on its side including Tumblr’s David Karp, Salesforce Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff, Jerry Yang (Yahoo), Ev Williams (Twitter), Abdur Chowdhury (Summize founder), Dave Morin (Path), and Gerry Laybourne, who is on the betaworks board. The business also includes corporate venturing investors, such as Intel Capital, AOL Ventures, SoftBank Capital, Lere Ventures and the New York Times.
Betaworks’ portfolio includes companies such as Digg, Dots, and Alphaworks, to name just a few. Average seed investments made by the business are in the $100,000 to $200,000 range.
Pictured: Kaoru Hayashi, President and Chief Executive Officer of Digital Garage