Participated · Series A · Apr 2021

Mercular operates a vertical e-commerce platform targeting hobbyist consumers, having started with audio gadgets and since expanded to sporting goods, cameras, collectible figures and other hobby products. The company differentiates itself by offering pre- and post-sales services for sellers, including content reviews and handling customer claims. Mercular said demand for hobby products is rising among millennials and younger generations and positions itself against general marketplaces that focus on price competition. The startup plans to use the new funding to improve its platform and expand its product assortment and categories, beginning with gaming gear. Mercular claims it is the first Thai e-commerce startup to receive funding from foreign investors. The company is based out of Bangkok.

Participated · Series A · Oct 2016

AnyPerk provides a customizable perks and rewards platform that allows businesses of all sizes to recognize and reward employees with personalized perks designed to fit their diverse and evolving lifestyles. Led by CEO Taro Fukuyama and based in San Francisco, the company serves customers with mobile and remote employees. It will use the new funding to grow its Engineering and Customer Success teams and to expand products and services. Product development plans include building an Android application and adding a geo-notifications feature to keep team leaders and mobile employees engaged. Financially, AnyPerk raised $11.5M in a Series A-1, bringing its Series A total to $20M and total capital raised since founding to $24.5M. Backers on the round included DCM Ventures, Nissay Capital, CyberAgent, Itochu Technology Ventures, GMO Venture Partners and others. AnyPerk operates a platform that enables companies of all sizes to deliver perks and discounts to employees. The company reports having “hundreds” of U.S. clients and currently employs 45 people. Since its seed round closed this past summer, AnyPerk says it has grown by more than 200 percent. It plans to use new funding to build a mobile app to push contextual perk notifications and is testing a beta feature that will let managers or colleagues give spot bonuses as money or gift cards. AnyPerk launched out of Y Combinator in 2012 and is based in San Francisco. Financially, the company has raised an $8.5M Series A and has taken in more than $13M in total funding to date. AnyPerk is a Y Combinator‑incubated platform that helps companies of all sizes deliver employee perks and benefits. The service aggregates roughly 400 perks from national chains and lets businesses upload their own perks for employees to access. AnyPerk says it works with about 2,500 customers, with Lyft cited as an example user. Co‑founder and CEO Taro Fukuyama emphasizes focusing on national chains to enable scalable partnerships rather than local-only deals. The company recently raised an additional $3 million in seed funding (bringing total seed capital to $4.5 million) and plans to use the new capital to expand its sales and marketing team and build a mobile app for redeeming perks. The funding and product roadmap indicate a push toward growth and broader mobile access while leveraging existing national-chain relationships. AnyPerk helps employers offer employee perks and discounts on web services and consumer goods. Companies can sign up for $5 per employee to provide discounts on AMC and Regal movie tickets, Dish Network, Dell computers, 1-800-Flowers and free Costco coupons. Corporate customers include Pinterest, Klout, GetAround, BirchBox, Seamless and Pandora. The company recently redesigned its site and originally launched out of Y Combinator last year. Founders are Taro Fukuyama, Atsu Takahashi and Sunny Tsang; Takahashi previously co-founded Nobot, which was acquired by KDDI for $19 million. AnyPerk announced $1.4 million in new funding from Digital Garage, Ben Lewis, Michael Liou, CyberAgentVenture and Shogo Kawada.

Participated · Seed · Oct 2013

URX develops mobile deep-linking technology that lets links route users to the best destination whether they have an app installed or are on the web. Its core products include tools for linking from mobile ads into app product pages and a new universal link service called Omnilinks, built on an open source framework called Turnpike. The company says Omnilinks work by leveraging existing meta tags and a simple urx.io prefix to expose deeplink routes with minimal developer changes. URX initially focused on e-commerce and charges e-commerce app developers a fee on top of ad costs when users convert via its links. It lists clients including Spotify, HotelTonight, Threadflip, Tapestry, WillCall, and Silvercar, but declined to provide revenue or detailed operating metrics. URX reports Omnilinks growth at "triple digits" with launch partners and is positioning the technology as an open working proposal to expand deeplinking beyond paid campaigns. URX builds deeplinks and an open-source Turnpike framework to send users directly to product pages inside apps, enabling targeted ecommerce advertising. It analyzes product pages to create thousands of ad variants and uses a product graph and machine learning to match users to offers and optimal timing. URX displays ads in other mobile apps and charges ecommerce developers a fee on top of the ad cost when users are deeplinked to purchase pages. The company reported test results such as a 0.8% CTR and a high return on ad spend, both roughly double industry averages. URX is an eight-person team based in San Francisco's South Park and participated in Y Combinator Summer 2012. It plans to capitalize on broader deeplink support from Google, Facebook, and Twitter and competes with other mobile retargeting providers like Deeplink.me, TapCommerce, and ActionX.