Japanese based internet retailer Rakuten has led the undisclosed Series B round of US based website Daily Grommet.
Launched in 2008, Daily Grommet is an marketplace and review site that showcases a new undiscovered product every day. The Daily Grommet raised $3.4m in its Series A round in 2010 where investors included John Landry of seed funding venture capital firm Launch Capital and Gerry Laybourne, founder of Nickelodeon and Oxygen Media.
Rakuten and Daily Grommet have previously partnered on Rakuten-owned Buy.com, an e-commerce site founded in 1997 with more than 12m users. Daily Grommet plans to use investment to expand its site and product launch platform.
According to the press release: “together, the companies provide significant benefits to one another, as Daily Grommet will allow Rakuten to advance its sourcing, curation, and storytelling capabilities and deepen consumer connections to its merchant partners.”
Earlier this year Rakuten led a $100m investment in Pinterest, a pinboard style photo and link sharing website.