With Japan in sight, Dropmyemail gets funding in multi-faceted partnership with GMO Cloud

Dropmyemail announced on 15th January a partnership with cloud and hosting solutions company GMO Cloud that will see the latter invest capital into the Singapore-based startup to help it scale up in Japan. GMO Cloud is part of a leading Internet conglomerate in the country.

The exact sum of the convertible note funding, a type of loan where debt can be exchanged for equity in the borrower, is not known. However, the company has said that it is in the six-figure range. For every business partnership investment GMO Cloud makes, it typically gets an equity of no more than 15 percent.

The partnership is not just about extending the startup’s runway. GMO Cloud will resell Dropmyemail‘s corporate email backup service to its 130,000 or so customers, host its ever-increasing data load, and jointly develop a smartphone app. Dropmyemail claims that transferring its data to GMO Cloud will reduce expenditure and keep the data more secure.

In return, GMO Cloud will earn revenue directly from Dropmyemail while expanding its own product portfolio.

“Like many other countries, Japan relies heavily on email as a form of communication. There is also a high awareness, and level of concern in regard to security issues, and we believe that a simple mail backup solution that doesn’t compromise mail security will be attractive to Japanese mail users,” said Rie Endo of the corporate department at GMO Cloud, at a press conference announcing the partnership.

The internet hosting company has invested in and acquired “several dozen” companies

Since launching in March 2012, Dropmyemail has gone on to reach “nearly a million” users. It has set up offices around the world, and this new investment will enable it to embark on a phase of aggressive hiring in Japan. It is seeking personnel in sales, customer service, business development, and more.

The company has been beefing up on its business partnerships and enterprise products, transforming itself from a pure B2C startup to one incorporating some B2B elements. It launched Dropmyemail Business late last year to better meet the needs of SMEs and corporations.

The next big step for the company is surely the mobile app. Dropmyemail has indicated that it will target both consumers and businesses, giving users the ability to back up emails with their smartphones.

It is also currently in talks to partner with other Japanese companies. Internet Service Providers and mobile companies are its targets. This GMO Cloud partnership could be a gateway to even more collaborations for Dropmyemail in the country.