Fuji Startup Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of Japan-based Fuji Media, has made its first investment out of its fund.
The target company is Tokyo-based Smarteducation, a Japan start-up that develops bi-lingual mobile apps for childhood education including apps such as Oyako de Sumahon in Japanese and Kids’n Books in English.
The amount invested has not been made public in the e-education start-up has not been made public. However, this is a second round of seed funding for the Japanese company. Soon after Smarteducation was founded in 2011 it raised Y100m ($976,000) from Infinity Ventures in February 2012.
The company has launched eight apps on the AppStore, Google Play, and Amazon Android application store so far. The total downloads surpassed 3.5 million in April. Partnering with Fuji TV is expected to boost the growth.
Daigo Ikeya, the company’s chief executive officer, said that the business will first expand into North America. “In the future, we will provide a truly universal learning environment for the developing countries. Income and place don’t matter. All one needs is to have a smartphone or a tablet,” said the smarteducation website.