Japan-based medical database operator Kakehashi raised ¥1.8bn ($17.1m) yesterday from investors including Sony Innovation Fund by IGV and Salesforce Ventures, representing electronics manufacturer Sony and enterprise software provider Salesforce respectively.
The corporates were joined by Chiba Dojo, Coral Capital, DNX Ventures and Japan Co-Invest III Limited Partnership. The round took the total received by the company to approximately $50m since it was founded in 2016.
Kakehashi is the developor of software tools including Musubi, which helps users navigate pharmacies remotely, and Pocket Musubi, an app that compiles medical contacts.
The company will use the cash to expand its business lines and create new products in a bid to help digitise the pharmaceutical industry and build a robust medical product ecosystem.
Medical software provider PHC Corporation had supplied an undisclosed sum for Kakehashi in December 2019.
The December round followed a $24m series B round two months before featuring insurer Aflac, marketing agency Dentsu, education services provider Globis, conglomerate Itochu, digital media company Gree and financial services firms Mizuho Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.
The corporates took part in the series B through Aflac Ventures, Dentsu Ventures, Globis Capital Partners, Itochu Technology Ventures, Strive, Mizuho Capital and SMBC Venture Capital, investing with DNX Ventures, Coral Capital and Chiba Dojo.
Globis Capital Partners, Itochu Technology Ventures, Salesforce Ventures and SMBC Venture Capital had already backed an $8.2m series A round for the company in 2018 that also featured Coral Capital, DNX Ventures and Strive (then known as 500 Startups Japan, Draper Nexus Ventures and Gree Ventures respectively), the last two having chipped into a $630,000 seed round two years before.
