Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co has made an undisclosed investment in Singapore-based big data company Crayon Data. This comes two months after Tata Group chairman emeritus Ratan Tata’s investment into Crayon Data. The funds from Mitsui will help Crayon Data accelerate global expansion enhancing the product, so as to give better customer insights.

“Mitsui is not just bringing in funds, but also a deep faith in our vision — to build a personalised choice marketplace, where consumers, enterprises and merchants can all experience the magic of choice. We look forward to our foray into the Japanese market this year,” said Suresh Shankar, Founder of Crayon Data.

The investment includes a business service agreement, under which Mitsui will support the launch of Crayon Data’s products in Japan and the expansion of its customer assets.

“We believe that personalisation, which Crayon Data brings through big data analysis of consumer behaviour, is going to be key for every business related to consumer interactions, across every industry and every geography,” said Hideki Noda, General Manager of IT service division at Mitsui.

Srikant Sastri, Co-Founder of Crayon Data, said Mitsui will support the launch of its products in Japan. “Without a well-established player, who has credibility and local knowledge, it will be hard to breakthrough because the Japanese market is so different and big. I would expect one or two Japanese customers to be on board by June,” said Sastri.

Crayon Data had earlier raised around $10 million in Seed and Series-A funding from angel institutional investors such as Jungle Ventures and Spring Seeds.

Source: The Economic Times