Digital Garage Invests in SV Angel To Strengthen Its Silicon Valley Investment Portfolio

Digital Garage, Inc. (JASDAQ: 4819, Head Office: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan, President & Group CEO: Kaoru Hayashi, henceforth DG), through its investments and new business development subsidiary DG Incubation, Inc. (Head Office: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan, President: Yasuyuki Rokuyata, henceforth DGI) made an investment in ‘SV Angel III’, a venture fund with a prominent Silicon Valley investor Ron Conway as its primary strategic advisor.

SV Angel, founded by Ron Conway and David Lee, is a fund focusing mainly on providing mentoring to the early-stage startup companies. With recognized for the early-backing of Google, PayPal and Twitter, hugely successful Silicon Valley investor and entrepreneur Ron Conway, it puts priority on funding and business development of social media and mobile technology services. The fund’s investments portfolio companies include: about.me (http://about.me/, acquired by AOL), Bump Technologies (http://bu.mp/, acquired), Flipboard (http://flipboard.com/), Milo (http://milo.com/, acquired by eBay) and Path (http://www.path.com/) among others. Furthermore, there are a number of common items on Ron Conway’s and DGI’s portfolio, such as Twitter, Path, Three SF (acquired by Electric Arts), Fotonauts (http://fotopedia.com/) and Context Logic (http://contextlogic.com).

Partnership with SV Angel provides DGI with ample opportunities for indirect investments in the Silicon Valley and San Francisco based promising startup ventures. This newly-earned access to the talented young entrepreneurs is expected to introduce considerable stabilization of DGI’s investments portfolio. This is especially because through strengthening of ties with the fund’s network of angel investors and entrepreneurs, DGI gains first-hand information on the industry’s newest trends. Moreover, according to the partnership agreement, side by side with the indirect forms of investments, DGI secures a right to proceed with direct investments in the startups supported by the fund. SV Angel managing member, David Lee said “We are thrilled to welcome Digital Garage as an investor in SV Angel. We look forward to DG supporting our portfolio companies’ efforts to expand their business into Japan”.