Japanese collaboration software startup Nulab banks $5m

Nulab, a Japan-based company developing online collaboration tools, announced that it has raised US$5 million from venture capital firms Now, XTech Ventures, and Shinsei Corporate Investment Limited.

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Photo credit: Nulab

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Founded in 2004, Nulab’s products include online project management and bug tracking software Backlog, cloud-based diagramming software Cacoo, and chat app Typetalk. In 2018, it launched its first community space, NuSpace, where startups and developers can come together to work on digital projects, attend tech events, enroll in seminars, and get questions answered about Nulab apps.

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The company said that the products are used by more than 4 million people in over 190 countries. Fukuoka-based Nulab currently has offices in New York, Amsterdam, Singapore, Tokyo, and Kyoto.

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It will use the new funds to add more features and integrations to its products, hire more developers for its North American and European offices, boost its international marketing efforts, and develop its new security product, Nulab Pass, which will be released in summer this year.

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Nulab is also preparing to implement single sign-on for all its software so that its users can sign in to multiple apps with just one ID and password.

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The company raised US$887,000 from East Ventures in 2017 in its first funding round.

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According to industry data, working from home and remote locations has grown 159% since 2005 across the globe, more than 11x faster than the rest of the workforce. As of 2019, only 32% of Japanese companies have flexible working policies, yet 80% of employees in the country expressed the desire to work remotely.