Japanese mobile and social game developer Gumi has announced a new funding round.

FMH, B-Dash Ventures, East Ventures, Shinsei bank, DBJ capital, and others have invested $18 million (¥19 billion).

Gumi CFO Hiroyuki Kawamoto said that the cash will be used to increasing marketing for existing titles such as Brave Frontier, as well as develop a cross-company promotional network.

Gumi raised $26 million in late 2011, and in 2012 was rumoured to be thinking about an IPO.

Better together

While the Japanese market was dominated by feature phones, Gumi worked closely with GREE (which owns a 20 percent stake), but the smartphone transition means that developers are now having to rethink their promotion strategies.

In this context, Gumi has also announced it's set up a joint venture with Fuji Media.

Called Fuji & Gumi Games, it will publish games, comics, animation, and movies, with intellectual property shared between the two founding companies.

[source: TechInAsia]