AnyMind Group secures US$13.4mil Series B funding

• Funds will be used in product and technology development, marketing and talent acquisition
• Looking to enter its next phase of progress, to expand market share

SINGAPORE-headquartered AI solutions provider, AnyMind Group raises US$13.4 million (RM56 million) in Series B funding from Line Corporation and Mirai Creation Fund, a limited partnership mainly backed by Toyota Motor Corporation and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), operated by SPARX Group.

Existing shareholders, including JAFCO Asia and Dream Incubator also participate in this round.

AnyMind Group raised an initial US$12 million of Series A funding in April 2017, and an additional US$2.5 million in September 2017 to develop its technology and scale outside advertising and marketing industry.

The funds will be used to further develop existing platforms, grow market share in the advertising, marketing, and human resources industries, also for talent acquisitions.

AnyMind Group chief executive officer and co-founder Kosuke Sogo says that the company’s primary goal for this round of funding is on strategic business collaborations with Line Corporation and Mirai Creation Fund.

“We have experienced great growth in the past 2.5 years and are now looking to enter our next phase of progress, to expand market share in geographies and industries we are in.

“As we have been operating at a profit since January 2017, our focus for this round was to select investors that could take us to the next level of growth.”

The company generated US$12.9 million in revenue in its first eight months of operations in 2016, and doubled its revenue to US$26 million in 2017.

AnyMind Group chief operating officer and co-founder Otohiko Kozutsumi says, “We differentiate ourselves by focusing on developing our technology. And with the technology that we offer, we are able to get market share.”

Line Corporation will collaborate with AnyMind Groups’s unit, AdAsia Holdings for digital advertising. AdAsia Holdings provides online marketers and publishers with integrated end-to-end solutions for online advertising and site monetisation needs.

To date, it is powering more than 12 billion monthly impressions across 800 publishers through display, native, and video advertising.

Other than AdAsia Holdings, AnyMind Group is also the parent company of TalentMind and CastingAsia.

TalentMind is a HR platform that utilises AI to facilitate recruiters and human resource professionals in the recruitment process and is used by over 150 businesses in Asia.

CastingAsia provides marketers access to connect with influencers and micro-influencers in the Asian region and now has 30,000 influencers on its platform.

The company also acquired Japanese publisher trading desk, Four M in October 2017, and Hong Kong based publisher trading desk Acqua Media in September 2018.

Otohiko says that these acquisitions help the company to add networks to the market.

AnyMind Group now operates in 11 markets namely Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Cambodia, Philippines, Shanghai, HongKong, and Malaysia with 13 offices and 330 staff. It will expand engineering resources by four times and locate additional product development headcount in its Bangkok and Tokyo offices.

“Mirai Creation Fund supports the development and expansion of AI-driven businesses by utilising knowledge gained from past investments in many AI companies. In addition, we are in corporation with limited partnerships companies and intend to conduct more sophisticated advertising and marketing activities in Japan and other Asian countries by utilising AdAsia’s platform,” said SPARX Group chief executive officer and founder Shuhei Abe.