Japan-based restaurant listings app provider Retty has received ¥1.1bn ($10.7m) in series D funding from investors including ABC Dream Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of media group Asahi Broadcasting Corporation, The Bridge reported yesterday.
Venture capital fund World Innovation Lab led the round, while Eight Road Ventures Japan, a subsidiary of US-headquartered financial services firm Fidelity, also participated.
Retty has built a restaurant listings and recommendation app that has doubled its monthly active users to 20 million in the last 14 months. It is targeting 100 million by 2020, and intends to expand into additional markets to reach that goal.
Overseas growth is on the horizon for Retty, which will spend a portion of the series D cash to recruit system engineers to work on an international version of the app and upgrade its backend infrastructure to support that growth. It also plans to complete a dashboard interface that can be used by restaurants.
Retty has now raised approximately $23.6m altogether, with internet company CyberAgent among the investors in its $285,000 seed round in 2011.
Online media company Gree, telecommunications firm NTT and financial services provider Mitsubishi UFJ added $1.2m the following year, investing through Gree Ventures, NTT Investment Partners and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital respectively.
Itochu Ventures, the corporate venturing vehicle for conglomerate Itochu, led a $3.2m series B round in 2013 that also featured financial services firm Mizuho’s Mizuho Capital unit, before Retty raised $8.2m from Gree Ventures, Mizuho Capital and Eight Roads Japan, then called Fidelity Growth Partners Asia, in March 2015.