Nov 25, 2015 | By Alec

While we here in the West might know little else aside from Shapeways and 3D Hubs, way out to the far east in Japan Rinkak is one of the best-known brands. Like Shapeways, it is an online marketplace that lets makers upload their 3D printable designs and sells them directly to consumers everywhere. Rinkak is run by the Tokyo-based startup Kabuku, which is also increasingly becoming known for being fantastic at raising funds from outside investors. Following a recent seed round in the summer, they have now raised a further $6.1 million in Series A funding – all with the goal of increasing Rinkak’s global presence.

As the company announced, this series A round of funding reached the impressive sum of 750 million Japanese Yen, or roughly $6.1 million USD.  The funding has come from three companies in particular, all based in Tokyo, Japan: Global Brain Corporation (president: Yasuhiko Yurimoto), Dentsu Digital Holdings, Inc. (CEO: Nobuyuki Tohya) and the venture capital company MITSUI SUMITOMO INSURANCE (President: Hitoshi Igarashi).

This very successful round followed a previous, slightly less impressive seeding round earlier in the year, when they raised 200 million yen (or $3.3 million USD) with the help of CyberAgent Ventures. Nissay Capital and Fuji Startup Ventures. ‘The purpose of this increase in capital by Kabuku is to strengthen its organization structure, accelerate platform development in digital fabrication ecosystem for global market expansion,’ they said at the time. In other words, Kabuku, in increasing its investment revenue, seeks to further develop and expand its existing projects as well as to start new ventures. The former chairman of Qualcomm Japan, Jun Yamada, also joined the company as new external director of the board, with the goal of realizing this ambitious growth.

This new round of investments are intended for growing Rinkak’s global presence, as well as for the general market presence, the company says. ‘The company will use the funding to further expand their sales and marketing activities to address the global market demand for higher quality and more flexibility to achieve its ultimate business vision of Digital Fabrication to the People,’ they say in their statement.

And they definitely seem to have the potential to realize these ambitions. Since being founded in 2013, Kabuku has been particularly successful in bringing individual creators and high quality 3D printing together, while their cloud operation has been recognized as a particularly successful tool for boosting 3D printing efficiency by experts. They also have an excellent reputation among industry giants. Earlier in the year, they even co-developed 3D printed vehicle parts with Toyota for their Open Road project, while they have also worked together with The Loft Co., Olympus Air and have exhibited creations at the Autodesk Pop-Up event in Tokyo.

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