UPWARD, Inc. (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Ryosuke Kaneki; URL: http://upward.jp), whose mission is to "Make Field Workers Smarter" and provides next-generation mobile CRM, is pleased to announce that it has raised \5.5 billion in funding through a third-party allocation of shares with DBJ Capital Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Haruhiko Uchiyama), Mitsubishi UFJ Capital Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President: Nobuhiro Sakamoto), DNX Ventures (Headquarters: San Mateo, California; Managing Director: Teppei Kurabayashi), and each fund operated by Japan Venture Capital Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Minoru Tagatani) as lead investors.
Due to the declining labor population in Japan, field workers engaged in outside activities are facing increasing pressure to improve sales efficiency and reform business processes. However, the reality is that daily customer contact information is not being leveraged as a corporate asset, and sales activities remain largely dependent on individual efforts due to issues such as "not knowing which customers to visit," "cumbersome sales reporting to the company," and "lack of tangible benefits from reporting."
With this funding, UPWARD will further enhance its services and actively invest in the development and marketing of 'AGENT,' a new personal sales assistant function that includes automatic activity data input and AI-powered notifications and recommendation features using CRM data.
\u25cf DBJ Capital Co., Ltd.
\u30fb Investment Department, Senior Investment Manager, Hiroaki Suzuka
Amidst the growing labor shortage and increasing demands for work-style reforms, innovation is also required in field sales, where many workers are engaged. UPWARD has been improving the quality of its products by staying close to sales operations, contributing to the sophistication of operations in many fields. We feel the magnitude of the social impact and have invested as a lead investor in this Series E round. We expect that UPWARD, including 'AGENT,' which is scheduled to be launched soon, will bring further innovation to sales operations and accelerate data-driven sales activities.
\u25cf Mitsubishi UFJ Capital Co., Ltd.
\u30fb Investment Division 1, Deputy General Manager, Yujiro Shintani
Mobile CRM “UPWARD” has a proven track record of implementation in many Japanese sales operations, and we believe it is a true partner for customers aiming for next-generation sales operations. The personal sales
assistant function to be released in the future will further evolve it and actively support the construction of sales styles in the 5G/AI era. Through this investment, we hope to contribute to the smart transformation of Japanese industry together with UPWARD.
\u25cf DNX Ventures
\u30fb Managing Director, Teppei Kurabayashi
DNX Ventures has been investing in UPWARD since its Series C round in 2016, and this is our third investment. Under the leadership of CEO Kaneki, UPWARD has been thoroughly committed to a field-first approach, supporting the realization of DX in the sales operations of field sales, who are its users, and has achieved rapid growth as a mobile CRM. In the future, UPWARD will continue to evolve through the development of personal assistant functions and more. We expect the company to accelerate the DX of Japanese sales operations and become a leader in improving the productivity of Japanese companies.
AGENT is a new UPWARD service that automatically records daily customer visit activities for field workers. By simply carrying a smart device, it automatically inputs and aggregates customer visit dates and times, as well as the number of past visits, into your CRM. Furthermore, it is a next-generation mobile CRM core solution that makes outside sales activities smarter with automatic recommendation functions that suggest next actions.
UPWARD CO., LTD. PROVIDES DX SERVICES SPECIALIZED IN SOLVING ISSUES OF FIELD WORKERS WHO VISIT THE FIELD AND CREATE VALUE THROUGH OFFLINE CONTACT WITH CUSTOMERS, BASED ON ITS PURVIEW OF "DRAWING OUT THE CREATIVITY OF FIELD WORKERS AND ACCELERATING THE GROWTH OF COMPANIES AND SOCIETY". BY LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY TO CREATE AN ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH WORKERS CAN PERFORM THEIR TASKS WITH A SINGLE MOBILE DEVICE, WE AIM TO CREATE A WORLD IN WHICH THEY CAN BE ACTIVE REGARDLESS OF WHERE AND HOW THEY WORK.
UPWARD, Inc., Corporate Group Headquarters, PR Team
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