Japan’s fabless printing startup Raksul fundraises $33.7 million

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Raksul management team

This is the abridged version from our original article in Japanese.

Raksul, a Tokyo-based startup providing online printing services, announced today that it has raised 4 billion yen ($33.7 million) from Opt, Global Brain, WiL (World Innovation Lab), Itochu Technology Ventures, Anri, Dentsu Digital Holdings, GMO Venture Partners, Link and Motivation, Gree Ventures, and Global Catalyst Partners.

This follows their previous funding round in February 2014, raising 1.45 billion yen ($14.3 million) from WiL (World Innovation Lab), Global Brain, Itochu Technology Ventures, Plus (an office stationary company), GMO Venture Partners, and Mixi.

Founded in 2009, Raksul is a fabless company that provides printing services in partnership with more than 1,600 printing facilities across Japan (as of November 2013). Users can place printing orders at affordable rates because the company takes advantage of downtime at participating printers to complete those orders.

Raksul will use the funds to provide additional support for partnering printing companies, including helping these companies buy paper or printing materials at affordable rates for leveraging volume discounts by gathering demand.

In addition, the company is looking to launch the service in other markets beyond Japan. While they are a 100-person team in Japan and Vietnam, they are planning to double its operational force by the end of this year to achieve the 1 million user goal.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by Kurt Hanson
Proofread by “Tex” Pomeroy