AI tools provider AnyMind banks $13.4m from Line, others

Kosuke Sogo, CEO (L) and Otohiko Koztusumi, COO (R), AnyMind / Photo credit: AnyMind

AnyMind Group – previously known as AdAsia – has just raised US$13.4 million in funding to scale its AI solutions businesses.

Two new investors that joined the series B round hailed from Japan: messaging app Line and Mirai Creation Fund, an investment vehicle backed by automaker Toyota and financial services groups Sumitomo Mitsui and Sparx.

Singapore-based AnyMind said that strategic collaborations with these new investors would be among its primary objectives for the fresh funding. Some of the capital would also be devoted to scaling its presence in existing markets and additional hires.

AdAsia Holdings – AnyMind’s subsidiary that focuses on digital advertising – will collaborate with Line on a range of ad-related initiatives. Mirai Creation Fund will provide AnyMind with strategic consulting and will leverage the AdAsia platform for its other portfolio companies.

Launching in April 2016, AnyMind started out as an AI-driven digital advertising platform, with the aim of helping media outlets to manage and price demand from advertisers more efficiently. Since then, it has expanded to 11 countries across Asia Pacific and clocked US$26 million in revenue in 2017. It claims to have been operating at a profit since January last year.

See: AdAsia gets an extra $2.5m to take its AI tools beyond adtech

The company began applying its AI tech to areas other than advertising, leading to its restructuring into AnyMind Group and the launch of TalentMind and CastingAsia – platforms for matching job candidates with employers, and social media influencers with marketers, respectively.

AnyMind acquired Japanese publisher trading desk FourM in October 2017 and Hong Kong-based publisher trading desk Acqua Media in September 2018.