Japan’s Anydoor, offering crowdsourced translation service, acquired for $14M

SHARE:
naoki-yamada
Anydoor co-founder and CEO Naoki Yamada

See the original story in Japanese.

Japanese translation service giant Rosetta (TSE:6182) announced today that it would take the entire stake in Tokyo-based Anydoor, the company behind crowdsourced translation service Conyac, for about 1.4 billion yen (about $14 million).  In this deal, the startup plans to exchange its 49.88% stake for the acquirer’s share and receive a value for the remaining 50.12% stake in cash.

Established in February of 2009 by Naoki Yamada, who had studied abroad, Conyac is a product of his experience as he was often asked to translate short messages. According to the company’s website, it has acquired over 80,000 crowdsourced translators across 100 countries as of this month.

After winning seed money at a business competition hosted by Skylight Consulting, Yamada paired up with his buddy Tomohiro Onuma and kicked it into gear by encountering Tokyo-based startup accelerator Samurai Incubate.

Since then, Anydoor has successfuly secured funds totaling $600,000 from Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and SMBC Venture Capital in October of 2013 while receiving funding from Japanese VC firm ngi group (now known as United) as well as venture capitalist Anri Samata.

See also:

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy