Japanese FinTech startup Emerada has secured ¥200m ($1.8m) in a Seed round led by D4V.
Two unnamed major financial institutions and undisclosed individual investors also contributed to the round.
The Tokyo-based company says it aims to tackle the disparity in information surrounding funding and financial affairs between established financial institutions and small businesses.
Emerada this year plans to launch a peer-to-peer lending marketplace and an equity crowdfunding platform through which investors can back SMEs and startups.
It is currently awaiting approval from the Japanese Financial Services Agency.
Investor D4V is a joint venture founded by US-based design studio Ideo and Tokyo-based investment fund Genuine Startups.
So far this year it has backed California-based AI financial trading startup Alpaca’s $1.75m round and Tokyo-based crowdfunding site Campfire’s $2.83m Seed round.
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