Japan-based mobile shopping startup Mercari, has secured $14m in funding from investors including Itochu Technology Ventures, a corporate venturing unit of Japan-based conglomerate Itochu, and GMO Venture Partners, a subsidiary of internet company GMO.
Itochu and GMO invested alongside venture capital firms Global Brain and Globis Capital Partners, and other, undisclosed investors. Mercari previously raised ¥300m ($2.9m) in its series A round in August 2013 from internet company United.
Mercari operates a customer-to-customer ‘flea market’ app available on the iOS and Android platforms that has generated over 1.5 million downloads.
“We are aiming to be the number one C2C [marketplace] app both in Japan and the US,” Ryo Ishizuka, co-founder of Mercari, said. “We are going after the US market because it is the biggest market, and we want Mercari to be a global app [and] company. To be truly global you have to win the US market. We could’ve gone after Asia, which probably gives us higher chance of succeeding than going after the US”
The funding will also enable the startup to undertake its expansion plans in Japan, which includes investing in hiring and marketing. Mercari also intends to open an office in the US in the coming months.