Japan-based heavy equipment rental service Sorabito raised ¥700m ($6.4m) on Wednesday in a round led by DG Daiwa Ventures, a joint venture between internet company Digital Garage and brokerage Daiwa.
Infrastructure painting and maintenance provider Kashiwabara and used cars and automotive parts vendor Tau took part in the round, as did GMO VenturePartners and Saison Ventures, on behalf of internet company GMO and payment services firm Saison respectively.
The round included Kiyo Lease & Capital, a subsidiary of financial services firm Kiyo Bank; Digital Transformation Fund, a vehicle for banking group Bank of Saga and its Sagin Capital & Consulting unit; software company Optim and its Optim Bank Technologies unit; and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Panasonic Finance, which is backed by financial holding group Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank and electronics producer Panasonic.
Japan Finance Corporation and Shoko Chukin Bank supplied debt financing as part of the round, which took Sorabito’s total capital to almost $24m.
Founded in 2014, Sorabito has built a cross-border trading platform for construction machinery called Allstocker and an affiliated mobile app dubbed RentalApp.
Trading conglomerates Sumitomo and Itochu had backed an $8.2m round for the company in mid-2019, the year after Spiral Ventures Japan provided $3.3m in funding.
GMO VenturePartners had already injected $820,000 into Sorabito in 2015, before it returned to participate in a $4.6m round a year later, investing alongside Gree Ventures, Opt Ventures and SMBC Venture Capital, respective vehicles for digital media company Gree, marketing group Opt and financial services group Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.
