Japan-based e-commerce services provider Inagora Holdings has received ¥5.3bn ($48.4m) from backers including medical product manufacturer Sugi Holdings and financial services firm SBI Holdings.
XJ Holding, the cross-border investment subsidiary of Chinese-state owned investment firm Citic Group, also took part in the round.
Founded in 2014, Inagora manages a business-to-business-to-customer platform called Wandou that supplies items manufactured in Japan to China-based buyers. The company also covers areas such as customer service, logistics, marketing, payment processing and product translation.
The funding was secured alongside Inagora’s formation of a business alliance with Sugi’s drugstore chain subsidiary, Sugi Pharmacy, which will involve Inagora providing it with information on consumer trends and marketing know-how in China and helping to strengthen its inbound business.
Inagora will partner Citic Group in a bid to increase its sales channels and expand its Chinese customer base, collaborating with Citic businesses and delivering preferential information on Wandou such as sales promotion campaigns and events to the group’s customers.
The company secured $68m in a 2017 series D round featuring SBI, trading group Itochu and telecommunications company KDDI, following $21m series C funding from World Innovation Lab (WIL), Ventech China, To-Win Invest and assorted private investors the year before.
WIL, Ventech China and Itochu had also participated in Inagora’s $26m series B round earlier in May 2016, together with brand development group MTG and ZhenFund, following $10m in series A funding supplied by backers including Ventech China and Taoyun Capital three months earlier.
