Photo credit: Micoworks
While Line is popular across Southeast Asia, it is far from being the dominant app in the region. But it’s a different case in its home country of Japan, where it remains the most popular messaging platform.
Line’s popularity has led to companies building products on top of its offerings. One such firm is Micoworks, a Japanese martech startup that helps businesses communicate with customers through Line, among other things.
The company said it raised 3.5 billion yen (about US$24.5 million) in a series B funding round led by Vertex Growth, a growth-stage VC fund backed by Temasek subsidiary Vertex Holdings.
Other investors in the round include Jafco Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, and Mizuho Capital. Existing investors, such as All Star SaaS Fund and Eight Roads Ventures Japan, also joined.
Founded in 2017 by Osamu Yamada, Micoworks offers two main products. The first, MicoCloud, lets businesses interact with customers through Line with features such as chatbots, CRM tools, analytics, and loyalty programs. Meanwhile, Micomii lets restaurants create Line Mini Apps – web applications that run within the Line app – for online ordering, delivery, reservation, and payment services.
As of December 2023, over 1,000 brands have used MicoCloud, and the company says it maintains a monthly retention rate of over 99%.
Micoworks will use the new funds to improve its product features, build its organizational capabilities, and enter countries where Line has a large user base, such as Taiwan and Thailand. The company also plans to incorporate advanced generative AI and machine learning tech.
See also: Tokyo-listed AnyMind eyes 16x profit in 2023 as more seek online selling tools
Editing by Putra Muskita and Jaclyn Tiu
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