Having already invested upwards of $50 million on photo pinboard service Pinterest back in May, Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten (JSD:4755) is now once again making an investment in a US startup. This time it’s Daily Grommet, and while the specific amount of the series B round was not disclosed, its interesting to see Rakuten involved.
Daily Grommet is not your typical e-commerce site, featuring a unique product (or a ‘Grommet’) each day with an infomercial-style YouTube video that creates a story around each product. While most of the videos are pretty interesting, the YouTube channel doesn’t have a huge amount of traffic though, with just over 428,000 views and 214 subscribers.
Interestingly, Daily Grommet is quite active on Pinterest too, asking its community for potential products to feature as Grommets.
Rakuten’s CEO Hiroshi Mikitani explained why Daily Grommet is a good fit for his company:
Our investment in Daily Grommet supports our overall global strategy of creating an enhanced consumer experience in e-commerce. Particularly in light of our recent Pinterest investment, we’re excited to be working with a company that shares our view of curating new, innovative and unique products across the web and the world.
Daily Grommet began in 2008, and since then it has featured over 1,000 products and companies, and noted in its announcement that it has already worked with Rakuten’s Buy.com to “expand Daily Grommet’s reach.”
You can check out one of the most recent featured Grommets below, a gourmet mushroom kit that recycles used coffee grounds.
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