Sansan, the Japan-based operator of an online business card management service, has secured $16.9m in a series C round featuring cloud computing company Salesforce.com and insurance firm Nippon Life.
Venture capital firm DCM Ventures led the round, whole the corporates invested through their Salesforce Ventures and Nissay Capital units.
Founded in 2007, Sansan oversees a cloud-based business card transcription and collaborative business card management service. The capital will be used to expand Sansan’s presence in Singapore, strengthen its product with a view to mobile, and to open its platform to other enterprise services.
Chika Terada, founder and chief executive of Sansan, said: “From the newly raised capital we will invest S$4.2m (US$3m) in the Singapore market in 2016 to reach out to more companies that could benefit from using our platform.
“In Singapore, we pin our hopes on tapping a large pool of [small and medium-sized enterprises] that are rapidly going digital and adopting cloud-based solutions to enhance productivity, better manage costs, and most importantly to effectively engage their customers, build loyalty, and ultimately, grow the business.”
DCM also led a $14m round for Sansan in 2014 that included Nikkei Digital Media, a corporate venturing subsidiary of media company Nikkei, GMO Venture Partners, which acts as the investment arm of internet company GMO, Energy & Environment Investment, and Innovation Network Corporation of Japan.
Nissay Capital and GMO provided $5m for Sansan in 2013, after GMO, internet company CyberAgent and human resources provider Recruit had supplied $500,000 in series A funding in 2009.