Metaps hauls in $36M, strengthens focus on payments and artificial intelligence

Metaps founder and CEO Katsuaki Sato at Tech in Asia’s Road to Jakarta Meetup

The typical Japanese startup never hits series C – good thing Metaps founder and CEO Katsuaki Sato does not mind standing out from the crowd. Sato’s firm is not gunning for an IPO, rather, Metaps announced today that it has nabbed JPY 4.3 billion (US$36 million) in a series C round. The full list of investors are not being disclosed at this time, but the company has confirmed that previous investors were included, though Sato declined to identify them. Given Metaps’ global reach, this means that Fidelity Growth Partners Japan, the only non-domestic VC firm among the existing investors is very likely involved.

Metaps made a name for itself as a must-use tool for app monetization. The company is making no move away from that industry, but the new funds are primarily earmarked for strengthening its fledging online payments service, Spike, as well as harnessing the reams of data gathered from app users.

Spike launched in March 2014 as a freemium online payment solution. Merchants with less than US$10,000 in monthly transactions can use it for free. Within seven months the service secured 40,000 merchants – three months later, the number is now over 50,000.

Due to the freemium model, Spike is adding a lot of low transaction ecommerce SMEs as customers. The number still stands out, though, considering GMO Payment Gateway (founded in 1995) is one of the market leaders with 55,000 shops using its service.

The service is not limited to Japan either. Speaking with Tech in Asia, Sato revealed that Spike already launched in the US and he is planning a European expansion next. He declined to share how many member stores hail from America.

On the artificial intelligence front, Metaps wants to improve on its already popular data analytics. The company has the data of more than one billion people who have used apps powered in part by Metaps. It analyzes the data to determine how profitable and non-profitable app users behave in the app so developers can adjust accordingly and reduce the number of non-profitable users.

Marketing is another area where the startup is making a mark via big data. “With Metaps Analytics, you can automate the time, target, type, and amount of advertisements to generate a higher performance than if a person was doing the work by hand,” Sato said.

Spike is in on the action too. The payment service has analyzed patterns of account hijacking in the online payment space and is able to send a real-time alert to a user if there is any suspicion their account has been compromised.

Metaps has so far built a successful business driving app monetization. The platform is available exclusively on Android.

A bird of a different feather

Aside from eschewing an IPO like many other Japanese companies of a similar size, Metaps stands out for its willingness to stretch itself into new markets and verticals. The globalization of the company continues apace. When we spoke with Sato last summer, 60 percent of revenue came from overseas. Now, it’s up to 70 percent, with eight offices across Asia, North America, and Europe.

Diving into online payments, when a perfectly good app monetization is in hand, represents another bold move. But Sato is likely not stopping at payments. When asked to name some strong payment services, he responded, “I’m not really looking at payment services. I do watch banks, securities, and insurance closely.”