KDDI Corp. has led a ¥1.2 billion round of investment in Gunosy Inc., the Japanese developer of a news reader application for smartphones and tablets.
Jafco Co., the nation's biggest venture capital firm, and Tokyo-based B Dash Ventures Inc. joined KDDI in the deal, Gunosy said in a statement on its website. KDDI is making its second investment in Gunosy, founded in 2012, following an initial funding round in March, the statement said.
KDDI, Japan's third-largest wireless carrier by market value, has been making investments in mobile app developers. Gunosy's application, which presents news content from more than 50 Japanese media and divides them into customizable categories, has been downloaded more than 3 million times since it was introduced in January 2013.
Gunosy is the second-most popular news application on Apple Inc.'s Japanese app store and on Google Play, after software developed by Yahoo Japan Corp., according to data from App Annie Ltd. this month. Gunosy targets 100 million downloads globally in three years.