AAA Rakuten backs From Scratch in series C round

Rakuten backs From Scratch in series C round

Japan-based digital marketing platform developer From Scratch has raised ¥3.2bn ($28.4m) in series C funding from backers including Rakuten Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of e-commerce and fintech group Rakuten.

Public-private partnership Innovation Network Corporation of Japan also contributed to the round alongside unnamed, existing shareholders.

Founded in 2010, From Scratch has created a web-based marketing platform dubbed B→Dash, which enables enterprise users to integrate the different elements that power marketing campaigns, from a consumer’s behavioural to purchasing data, into a single interface.

The series C funding will go towards further development of B→Dash, with a particular focus on its data integration and data processing capabilities.

From Scratch will also develop its artificial intelligence technology further, with a view to improving predictive functionality such as the ability to assign sales staff to specific customers. It also hopes to develop big data technology.

The company has now secured a total of ¥4.5bn ($40.5m) in funding, according to its latest press release. Dentsu Digital Holdings, a subsidiary of digital marketing firm Dentsu, participated in a ¥1bn round in In November 2015 alongside VC firms Global Brain and Nippon Venture Capital.

Itochu Technology Ventures, the corporate venturing vehicle for trading group Itochu, and VC firm Draper Nexus Venture Partners had previously invested ¥300m in From Scratch in May 2015.

– The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global Government Venturing

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