Japanese investors Spiral Ventures and Mynavi back startup studio T9L

By Payal Ganguly

  • 25 Sep 2018
Credit: Reuters

Venture builder T9L Technologies has raised an undisclosed amount from Japanese venture capital firm Spiral Ventures and Mynavi Corp., Japan’s biggest recruitment information provider for graduates. The funding is part of an ongoing round for Singapore-based T9L, which plans to raise $10 million (Rs 72.6 crore) by the end of the first quarter of 2019.

To build a startup, T9L has product and brand teams, designers, data scientists, as well as legal, marketing, finance and operation experts. The venture builder also helps startups raise money from several funds, especially Spiral Ventures, which has exclusively partnered with T9L for India.

The startup studio, going by its site, has launched 19 companies, including CrownIt and Pluss. T9L will use the funds to launch 200 companies over the next five years, with a focus on South Asia, America and Africa. The round also gives the strategic investors a minority stake in the companies launched by T9L.
 
“At T9L, we will have to increase our team strength from 50 to meet the target of 200 companies. Of the seven investments of Spiral Ventures in India, six have been in our portfolio companies. Mynavi, which has a higher ticket size for investment, and Spiral Ventures will also get to evaluate companies in the T9L portfolio,” Fahad Moti Khan, founder at T9L, told TechCircle.
 
Yasuhiro Seo, general partner at Spiral Ventures, said, “Japanese investors, especially corporate ones, which aim for strategic synergy with Indian local businesses, have been extremely bullish.”
 
Mynavi, which is also a limited partner in Spiral Ventures, will look at investing in growth-stage companies. “The problems in Japan are distinct from those of India and we want to partner entrepreneurs who are solving these problems,” said Hidekazu Ito, director at Mynavi.