Sansan to use Series C funds to boost Singapore presence

• Raises US$16.9mil from DCM Ventures, Salesforce and Nissay Capital
• To boost presence in Singapore, expand into new markets  

JAPANESE cloud-based business card management services provider Sansan said it would use its US$16.9-million (S$24.2-million) Series C funding to accelerate product innovation and international business growth, and especially to enhance its reach in Singapore.
 
The latest round of funding includes investments from Silicon Valley’s DCM Ventures, with the participation of Salesforce Ventures (Salesforce.com’s global corporate investment group) and Nissay Capital.
 
These venture capital firms focus their investments on the mobile, Internet, software and services sectors, and have financed Sansan previously, the company said in a statement.
 
“Since our last financing, Sansan has been rapidly growing in Japan market, and raised brand awareness in the United States and Singapore,” said DCM Ventures general partner Osuke Honda.
 
“DCM is confident that with Sansan team’s expertise and product set, it can certainly be the leader in the contact/ business relationship management space, and we will continue to support its global growth,” he added.
 
Sansan said it would use the added capital to enhance its reach in Singapore, where it first established operations in October 2015, and to develop its product offering with a strong emphasis on mobile.
 
Additionally, it plans to open its platform to connect to other enterprise services, expanding its user base beyond SMEs (small and medium enterprises) to include large businesses.
 
“From the newly raised capital, we will invest US$3 million in the Singapore market in 2016 to reach out to more companies that could benefit from using our platform,” said founder and chief executive officer Chika Terada (pic).
 
“In Singapore, we pin our hopes on tapping a large pool of SMEs 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,” he added.
 
According to Statistics Singapore, there were approximately 187, 700 SMEs by the end of 2014. The number makes up 99% of the island state’s total enterprises and contributes to nearly half (48%) of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), Sansan said.
 
“Sansan wants to seize this extraordinary market opportunity and this fresh funding will help us move with faster strides in realising our vision and passion,” said Terada.
 
“With the infusion of new capital, we want to place mobile as our top priority, as well as enhance our platform ecosystem to integrate with more CRM (customer relationship management) tools that can be used by MNCs (multinational corporations) and governments,” he added.
 
Sansan has a portfolio of over 4,000 premium corporate users nationally and internationally including the Japanese Government, Avnet, Brother Industries, Intel, Japan Post, SAP, and Toyota.
 
Its cloud-based business card management solution helps companies to use the data in their business cards to enhance their business prospects, share and manage connections across geographies.
 
Related Stories:
 
Business cards? Not quite as passé as you think
 
Singaporean SMEs Part 1: The government’s guiding hand
 
Sansan expands APAC footprint with Singapore office
 
 
For more technology news and the latest updates, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn or Like us on Facebook.