Tokyo Otaku Mode, the startup behind the Japanese subculture site of the same name, announced today that it has fundraised from Cool Japan Fund, Japan’s state-backed fund for the promotion of the export of Japanese cultural products and services to the global market. The fund will execute an investment worth up to 1.5 billion yen ($13.7 million) in the startup in three years. In April, the company raised series A funding worth 270 million yen ($2.5 million) from several Japanese companies.
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- Tokyo Otaku Mode releases new Otaku news app for iPhone and Android
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Since its launch in the form of a Facebook fan page in 2011, the startup has acquired over 16 million likes. They registered a company in the state of Delaware in the US in December 2012, and subsequently joined Silicon valley accelerator 500 Startups.
The company also sells the popular Japanese wearable toy Moff globally, and has shipped it to over 85 countries. They will use the fund to hire more engineers to optimize their e-commerce platform for mobile users as well as to strengthen logistics and promotional efforts around the e-commerce business.
via TechCrunch Japan