The Coral Capital team
Japan’s early-stage fund Coral Capital closes third fund at US$128M
The crux: Coral Capital, an early-stage VC fund focussed on the Japanese market, has announced the first and final close of its third fund worth JPY 14 billion (~US$128 million).
Investors (LPs): Mizuho Bank, Mitsubishi Estate, Shinsei Bank, Pavilion Capital, Founders Fund, Dai-ichi Life Insurance, GREE, and undisclosed domestic and international institutional investors.
The philosophy: This new fund will continue to invest in the top seed and early-stage companies in Japan.
Ticket size: US$500,000 to U$5 million
The uniqueness: Coral will be deploying first cheques of anywhere from US$500K all the way to US$5M ーmaking it one of the largest seed to early-stage players in Japan. It has also allocated a significant portion of the fund for follow-on investment.
Also Read: 25 notable startups in Malaysia that have taken off in 2021
“With more ambition, more talent, and more capital coming into the Japan ecosystem, we firmly believe that Japan has the potential to produce not only more unicorns, but decacorns. The entire economy is undergoing widespread digital transformation, and startups are the best positioned to ride this wave. Japan is also home to brilliant technologists and scientists that, given the right conditions, have the potential to build global enterprises. We’ll continue to drive the ecosystem forward, and hopefully play a small part in helping these courageous entrepreneurs build us a better future,” said James Riney, founding partner and CEO of Coral Capital.
Same-day delivery service Dostavista rebrands to Borzo, raises US$35M Series C
The crux: Dostavista, a crowdsourced same-day delivery service operating globally, has changed its name to Borzo to unite its businesses in 10 different countries under a single brand. As part of its growth strategy, the company also raised US$35 million in a Series C.
Investors: Mubadala, VNV Global, RDIF and others.
Plans: To strengthen its position on the international market under the Borzo brand and develop new products.
More about Borzo: Founded in 2012, Borzo provides same-day delivery to a rapidly expanding customer base of 2 million users. The company has operations in 10 countries, including Brazil, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Russia, Turkey and Vietnam.
Borzo has over 2.5 million couriers and 2 million active customers, 75 per cent of which are small and medium-sized businesses. It fulfils up to 3 million orders per month.
The services are available in 10 countries including Brazil, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Russia, Turkey and Vietnam.
Pakistan’s influencer marketing platform Walee raises US$2.7M seed
The crux: Walee, an influencer ecosystem solution based in Karachi, has raised US$2.7 million in seed funding from Z2C Limited, an advertising, public relations, technology, and commerce holding company in Pakistan.
The investment comes within a month of Z2C Limited-owned Starcom affiliate media agency Brainchild Communications Pakistan (BCP) signing a strategic partnership agreement with Walee to distribute Walee Enterprise, an AI-enabled social media listening, and digital service centre platform.
Also Read: Why these four Vietnamese startups made it to the Forbes Asia watchlist
Plans: The funds will support the company’s aggressive regional growth ambitions in Pakistan and the Middle East, accelerating product development and service growing clients across ten core verticals.
More about Walee: Focused on a performance-driven approach, Walee’s influencer marketing solution links to a social commerce solution and marketplace that connects multichannel networks and influencers with advertisers and media agencies. Walee offers content creators a digital infrastructure to efficiently and seamlessly find advertisers, show interest to partake in a campaign, execute on deliverables, and get paid all from one system.
Launched in 2019, Walee is Pakistan’s fastest-growing and largest influencer marketing services and social commerce play, with more than 100,000 registered users.
The team is dedicated to developing future-thinking solutions for all situations, whether for a small business owner, a Fortune 100 company, or for public service, and has served all major industry verticals including FMCGs, telecoms, financial services, fashion, lifestyle, entertainment, and more.
The full suite of MarTech products and services under Walee includes Walee Influencer Marketing, Walee Shops, Walee Marketplace, Walee Pocket, and Walee Enterprise. Supported by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google Accelerator, Ignite under the Ministry of IT, Amazon and others, Walee is already a leading MarTech player nationally.
Northern Arc concludes a US$50M ECB transaction with Japan’s JICA
The crux: Northern Arc Capital, a debt platform in India, has concluded a US$50 million external commercial borrowing (ECB) transaction with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a governmental agency that works towards promoting economic and social growth in developing countries.
The plans: Northern Arc will use the proceeds to cater to the credit demands of women borrowers or towards products that disproportionately benefit women.
About Northern Arc: Formerly IFMR Capital Finance Limited, Northern Arc is a platform in the financial services sector set up primarily with the mission of catering to the diverse credit requirements of under-served households and businesses. Its business model is diversified across offerings, sectors, products, geographies and borrower segments.
The post In brief: Borzo raises US$35M Series C, Coral Capital III makes final close, Walee raises funding appeared first on e27.