Japan-based telecommunications company KDDI committed a further ¥5bn ($49m) to its Open Innovation Fund yesterday.
Managed by venture capital firm Global Brain, the fund was established in 2012 to fund startup companies both in Japan and internationally, with a funding base of ¥5bn, which has presumably now been fully invested.
The Fund has so far invested in 15 Japan-based companies and nine overseas, but will seek to expand the range of companies it funds, particularly in the internet of things space, where online and offline intersect.
KDDI announced the investment at the same time as it revealed it has invested $8m in four US-based companies, though it did not provide details of individual investments.
The companies in question are US-based Edmodo, a communication service for teachers that had raised more than $47m from New Enterprise Associates, Greylock Partners, Benchmark Capital, Union Square Ventures and Learn Capital; Issuu, a digital publishing platform that just raised $10m; Pogoseat, an event seating service that raised $1m in seed funding earlier this year; and venture capital news site VentureBeat, which announced a $2.6m venture round yesterday.