Internet company Yahoo Japan has acquired a majority stake in Japan-based online recipe provider Dely for ¥9.3bn ($83.7m), two years after first investing in the company, The Bridge reported on Wednesday.
Yahoo Japan, which owned a 15.9% share of the company following its inaugural investment in 2016, will invest the latest funding at a valuation of about $184m.
Founded in 2014, Dely is the owner of Kurashiru, an online recipe listing platform that has more than 18,000 cooking videos.
The Kurashiru app has been downloaded more than 12 million times, though Dely only pivoted to that model in early 2016 after its original idea, a food delivery business, stalled. Dely had raised about $62m in funding altogether.
Dely raised an undisclosed amount from e-commerce company Beenos, Anri, East Ventures and Party Factory in 2014.
Yahoo Japan took part in a $4.5m round for Dely in 2016 that included mobile advertising technology and content producer United and Gumi Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of mobile game publisher Gumi, investing through its YJ Capital subsidiary.
YJ Capital and Gumi Ventures returned for a $27.2m round for Dely in March 2017, participating together with Das Capital and private investors including existing backer Yusuke Sato.
Dely raised a further $30.3m from Yahoo Japan, United, telecommunications and internet group SoftBank and mobile game publisher Akatsuki in January this year. It has not revealed whether any investors exited in the latest transaction.