Sweden-based social media platform FishBrain has raised an $8m series A round featuring Recruit Strategic Partners, an investment subsidiary of human resources firm Recruit, The Telegraph reported on Wednesday.
The round was led by boutique venture capital firm Northzone and also included Industrifonden, Active Venture Partners, GP Bullhound, Edastra Venture Capital, and Novel TMT Ventures.
Founded in 2013, FishBrain has developed a social network for angling enthusiasts, allowing them to share their trips and catches, as well as access and provide crowdsourced information about relevant data such as weather. The app also offers a paid analytics service.
The series A funding will enable FishBrain to expand into Japan and strengthen its position in the US. The company currently operates in Sweden, the US, the UK, Canada and Australia.
Longer term, FishBrain is considering branching out into e-commerce, adding the ability to purchase equipment through its mobile app, and has earmarked Brazil and China for possible further expansion.
The company closed a $2.4m seed round in July 2014 that was co-led by Northzone and Active and which also included GP Bullhound, Edastra, Swedish state-owned fund Almi Invest, and angel investors Mathias Ackermand and Rickard Steiber.
FishBrain had previously raised $1.5m in seed funding from Industrifonden, Umando, Almi Invest and additional individual investors.