Docomo Capital, the corporate venturing unit of Japan-based phone operator NTT, has invested $1m in Couchbase, a US-based database company, as part of its $15m series C round.
Couchbase has also signed a customer relationship with Docomo Innovations to develop and deploy mobile services using Couchbase’s NoSQL database software.
Eisuke Miki, executive president of Docomo Capital, said: “We are increasingly convinced that NoSQL database technology is disrupting the database industry and that it will be an increasingly important part of the mobile/cloud infrastructure.”
Couchbase originally raised $14m for its C round in August from venture capital firms Ignition Partners, Accel Partners, Mayfield Fund and North Bridge Venture Partners and said it had reserved $1m for strategic partners.
The C round followed the merger of CouchOne (formerly known as Couchio) and Membase (formerly known as NorthScale) in February 2011 to form Couchbase.
Membase had been funded with $10m in its B round by Accel Partners, Mayfield Fund and North Bridge Venture Partners, while CouchOne venture funding came from Redpoint Ventures.