Japan-based logistics platform operator OpenLogi has raised ¥1.75bn ($16.7m) as part of an ongoing series C round featuring subsidiaries of corporates Sumitomo, Sojitz, Seino Holdings and Shinsei Bank.
Sumitomo participated directly while fellow conglomerate Sojitz invested through its Sojitz CVC unit, which is co-run by Pegasus Tech Ventures. Logistics Innovation Fund Investment Limited Partnership and Shinsei Corporate Investment represented logistics firm Seino Holdings and financial services firm Shinsei Bank respectively.
Chiba Dojo Fund II and existing investor Signifiant also took part while Aozora Corporate Investment, Shoko Chukin Bank, Japan Finance Corporation, Mizuho Bank and Resona Bank supplied debt financing.
OpenLogi’s data-infused supply chain technology is designed to accelerate the delivery of goods. The service links logistics service providers such as warehouses through its software-as-a-service management tool, dubbed OpenLogi Platform Connect.
The round took the company’s overall funding to roughly $26m and is set to close at the end of 2020 with additional investors. It will use the funding to increase its engineering team in a bid to boost its product development pipeline.
Investment and financial services group Fidelity’s Eight Roads Ventures Japan unit led a $6.5m series B round for OpenLogi in 2017, investing alongside SMBC Venture Capital, a subsidiary of financial services firm Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and other backers including Infinity Venture Partners and Spiral Ventures.
SMBC Venture Capital and Infinity Ventures had already supplied $1.9m in funding for the company the year before together with IMJ Investment Partners.
Infinity Ventures and angel investor Kōtarō Chiba provided OpenLogi with $500,000 in a 2015 round representing its earliest funding. An unnamed fund subsidiary of trading group Itochu is also among the company’s shareholders, it said.
