Nulab, the fast-growing startup will use the new funding to increase its presence in Asia Pacific, North America and Europe, offer a new security product and new features, and expand its international team.

Nulab announced it raised $5 million (USD) from venture capital firms NOW, Inc., XTech Ventures, Inc., and Shinsei Corporate Investment Limited. The new investment will support the startup’s core mission: reinvent team productivity by making it easier and more visual.

With offices in New York, Amsterdam, Singapore, and Japan, Nulab creates collaboration software that helps international teams of all sizes: from a few people to hundreds of employees working in different departments and time zones.

Nulab’s products are used by more than 4 million people in over 190 countries and include: project management and issue; tracking tool Backlog; cloud-based diagramming software Cacoo and chat app Typetalk

“We are honored to have these industry leaders on board,” said Nulab’s Co-founder Shinsuke Tabata. “It’s inspiring to know they believe in our company and share our vision to revolutionize how people work together.”

Nulab plans to leverage the funding to continue its growth and become more competitive in the collaboration software industry. Specifically, the $5 million will be used to add further features and integrations to its three software; Hire more developers in both North American and European offices; Increase international marketing efforts and Develop “Nulab Pass”, a new security product for Backlog, Cacoo, and Typetalk.

Nulab Pass will be released in Summer 2020. After enabling support for WebAuthn the past July, Nulab is now preparing to implement single sign-on (SSO) via a SAML Authentication for all its software. Users will be able to quickly and safely sign in to multiple applications with just one ID and password.

“We are excited to continue creating software that help teams break down communication barriers and organizations understand better progress towards their objectives,” commented Mr Tabata. “We aim to make collaboration smarter and more efficient. If you collaborate better, you innovate faster.”

The funding is the latest of several milestones achieved by the company in the past months: Backlog was selected as an Overall SaaS Award winner for the international 2019 APPEALIE Awards; Both Cacoo and Backlog were named Leaders in their markets by G2, the world’s largest tech marketplace; Backlog added a new Kanban board feature that empowers project leaders to have greater visual control over workflow and tasks.

Cacoo launched its Microsoft Teams integration designed to enrich communication and spur productivity among teams.
In June 2018, NuSpace, the first Nulab user community space was opened in Singapore, where members can enjoy a workspace, wifi and coffee, attend Nulab workshops and events — all for free.