Japan-based logistics data platform operator Hacobu has received ¥940m ($8.7m) from investors including corporates Daiwa House Group, Mitsui Fudosan, Nomura Real Estate, Seino Holdings and Toyota.
Financial services firm Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation’s SMBC Social Problem Solving Investment Fund and the Japanese state-backed JIC Venture Growth Fund I also took part in the round.
Mitsui Fudosan invested directly, while fellow property developer Nomura Real Estate and homebuilder Daiwa House Group did so through NN Corporate Capital’s NREG Innovation Fund and Daiwa LogiTech unit repectively.
Logistics Innovation Fund and Toyota Tsusho invested on behalf of transport group Seino Holdings and carmaker Toyota.
Founded in 2015, Hacobu provides big data-equipped shipping software dubbed Movo which helps transport services firms optimise their logistics operations.
Carmaker Hino Motors had provided $1.8m for Hacobu in September 2019, five months after a $3.6m round backed by electronics manufacturer Sony’s Innovation Fund and Askul Corporation, a subsidiary of internet and telecommunications group SoftBank’s Z Holdings unit.
Japan Post Capital, a corporate venturing vehicle for postal services firm Japan Post, joined unnamed returning backers to invest $1.3m in the company November 2017, following a $2.7m round two months earlier featuring Daiwa House and Sony Innovation Fund.
Askul and SMBC Venture Capital, a VC subsidiary of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, as well as Archetype Ventures and Visionnaire Ventures, had participated in a $1.5m round for Hacobu in 2016.
The company’s earliest funding took place in 2015 when it raised an undisclosed sum from Ogis-RI, a system integrator part of gas utility Osaka Gas; YJ Capital, a vehicle for internet company Yahoo Japan now part of Z Holdings’ Z Venture Capital unit; and Venture United, the corporate VC arm of internet company United.
