Tonchidot Corporation today announced it has closed a $4 million Series A financing round. New investor DCM led the financing with participation from existing investor Itochu Technology Partners (ITV).
Tonchidot has already launched their service, called Sekai Camera, in Japan and is planning to offer the service to a broader global audience. Sekai Camera is a social Augmented Reality (AR) service for browsing and sharing user-generated text, photos, voice, and other location-based information. The funding will help accelerate the company’s global expansion. Concurrent with the funding, Osuke Honda from DCM will join Tsuyoshi Ogawa from ITV on Tonchidot’s board of directors.
“Tonchidot’s Sekai Camera provides a completely new experience to mobile internet users,” says Osuke Honda of DCM. “We believe that Augmented Reality represents a tremendous opportunity for investors, particularly as you look to a global platform. We have studied the AR market for some time now and believe Tonchidot's technology platform and business model to be the most compelling among competitors in the space. We look forward to working with Tonchidot as they bring this exciting new experience to mobile users worldwide.”
“We sought out an investment partner with true global capabilities and specific knowledge of and expertise in markets in the Pacific Rim and the US,” says Tonchidot CEO, Takahito Iguchi. “DCM has already provided us with invaluable operational guidance and access to a global network of resources and we look forward to working with them going forward as we look to launch Tonchidot to a global scale.”
About Tonchidot
Tonchidot Corporation (Tokyo, Japan) offers an innovative web service/application named “Sekai Camera”, which enables mobile devices to “change the view of the real world.” Sekai Camera enables camera-attached mobile devices, through an easy-to-use augmented reality (AR) interface, to access hypertagged social, informational and entertainment services over the internet. Tonchidot first announced its Sekai Camera concept at TC50, 2008, and released in Japan its iPhone version in September 2009. For more information, visit www.tonchidot.com.
About DCM
DCM is an early stage venture capital firm supporting entrepreneurs building world-class technology companies. The firm’s partners manage US$1.6 billion and have funded leading technology companies including 2Wire, 51job (Nasdaq: JOBS), @Motion (Openwave), About.com (The New York Times Co.), All About (Jasdaq: 2454), Arroyo (Cisco), Clearwire (Nasdaq: CLWR), Dang Dang, eDreams (TA), Foundry Networks (Nasdaq: FDRY), HireRight (acquired by USIS), Internap (Nasdaq: INAP), IPivot (Intel), Neopath Networks (Cisco), Neutral Tandem (Nasdaq: TNDM), nQuire (Siebel), OPI, PGP Corporation, Recourse Technologies (Symantec), RockYou, Scigineer), SMIC (NYSE: SMI), Sling Media (EchoStar), Ustream, VanceInfo (NYSE: VIT) and Vimicro (Nasdaq: VIMC). DCM offers hands-on operational guidance and access to an extensive network of resources, including close relationships with many of the Pacific Rim’s leading companies and investors. For more information, please visit DCM’s website at www.dcm.com.