Japan-based business card management software provider Sansan raised $38m today in a series D round backed by enterprise software producer and existing investor Salesforce.
Future Creation Fund, the venture capital fund backed by car manufacturer Toyota and financial services firm Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, also participated in the round along with venture capital firm DCM Ventures.
Sansan provides software that helps companies effectively manage their business card creation and distribution. It has more than 1.5 million registered users and more than 6,000 businesses among its customer base.
The funding will support Sansan’s ongoing expansion into Asia, which began in 2015 with a move into Singapore, and where India has been identified as a priority. It plans to begin offering an English version of its Eight social networking app to Asian customers from September 2017.
Sansan has now raised a total of $76m since it was founded in 2007, it said. The company secured $16.9m in a January 2016 series C round featuring Salesforce’s Salesforce Ventures unit and Nissay Capital, the corporate venturing vehicle for insurance company Nippon Life.
DCM Ventures led the series C round having also led Sansan’s $14m series B round in 2014, investing alongside Nikkei Digital Media and GMO Venture Partners, respective subsidiaries of media group Nikkei and internet company GMO, as well as Energy & Environment Investment, and Innovation Network Corporation of Japan.
Human resources firm Recruit and internet company CyberAgent had invested $500,000 in Sansan in 2009, before Nissay Capital and GMO added $5m in 2013.