Nikkei Digital Media, the corporate venturing branch of media company Nikkei, has invested in a ¥1.46bn ($14m) funding round raised by Japan-based contact sharing company Sansan.
Other investors in the round include GMO Venture Partners, the corporate venture capital unit of internet company GMO, venture capital firms DCM, which led the round, and Energy & Environment Investment, and Innovation Network Corporation of Japan.
Sansan scans business cards, digitising their data and storing it in the cloud along with additional metadata like where the card was exchanged, at what time and with which person.
The company previously raised $5m in 2013 from GMO and Nissei Capital, the corporate venturing unit of Japan’s Nippon Life Insurance Company. GMO, CyberAgent, and Recruit Incubation Partners participated in a $500,000 series A round in 2009.
Chikahiro Terada, chief executive of Sansan, said: “With over 10 billion business cards exchanged each year, Sansan is the first truly collaborative service for managing one of the oldest, yet most valuable, relationship building tools in the world.
Sansan plans to use the funds to expand into the US market and then expand into other international regions.