New Investments via KDDI Open Innovation Fund Totaling Approximately 800 million yen in Four Rapidly Growing US Companies

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No.2014-119

  • KDDI CORPORATION

July 14,2014

KDDI Corporation (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Takashi Tanaka) announced today that it has invested a total of 800 million yen in four US companies via the corporate venture fund KDDI Open Innovation Fund, which is managed by Global Brain Corporation (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Yasuhiko Yurimoto). The four companies are Edmodo, Inc. (Referred to below as Edmodo), which provides a social network service for education, Issuu, Inc. (Referred to below as ISSUU), the world's largest free digital publishing platform, Pogoseat, Inc. (Referred to below as Pogoseat), a seating upgrade service for sporting events and concerts, and VentureBeat, Inc. (Referred to below as VentureBeat), which provides a technology news media.
These four companies are all experiencing rapid growth within their respective fields. KDDI decided to fund them due to the fact that they are promising startup companies with the potential for growth in Japan and globally.
KDDI Open Innovation Fund is based in San Francisco, California (USA). It explores capital investment in startup companies with the latest technology and novel business models.
When companies that have received funding explore entrance into the Japanese market, KDDI Open Innovation Fund provides a wide range of support, from business development to marketing and localization.

KDDI is committed to promoting and supporting promising startup companies both in Japan and overseas as a way to provide customers with renewed value through the use of advanced information and communications technologies.

See the official website shown below for information about KDDI Open Innovation Fund:

Open link in a new windowhttp://www.kddi.com/ventures/koif/

For more details, see the Attachment.
Attachment：New Investments via KDDI Open Innovation Fund Totaling Approximately 800 million yen in Four Rapidly Growing US Companies

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