Nihongo Bashi gets SEEDS’ funding; certified as a ‘SEEDS Enterprise’

Linguistic services provider, Nihongo Bashi (www.nihongobashi.com), has announced that SEEDS Capital Pte Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), will take an equity stake in the company, matching the investments of third party private sector investors under the SEEDS programme. .Officially accorded the status of a SEEDS’ Enterprise at a ceremony in Singapore recently, Nihongo Bashi now becomes a pioneer in this field to receive the funding.

SEEDS is a $80m co-financing scheme initiated by the Singapore government, which matches dollar-for-dollar equity stakes in promising start-ups backed by third-party private sector investors.

“We are extremely pleased to receive this backing from SEEDS. It is a vote of confidence on the growth potential of our business and the company’s ability to add economic value to the country, while carrying Singapore’s values of quality, transparency and continuous improvement to our businesses,” said Karthik Tirupathi, Founder and President of Nihongo Bashi.

The SEEDS funding matches the investment into Nihongo Bashi by two reputed entrepreneurs, Bobby Choonavala and Jayesh Parekh, earlier this year.
“In a short span, the company has demonstrated its ability to deliver quality linguistic services and capitalise on the immense growth potential of Indo-Singapore-Japan business relations,” said Ms. Lee Ying Adams, General Manager of SEEDS,”Like Nihongo Bashi, SEEDS Capital welcomes other companies that leverage Singapore’s global connectivity, pro-business environment and robust infrastructure to expand their business. “

Mr. Choonavala, who is CEO & Managing Director of Twinwood Engineering Ltd, an IT/software services company added,”As more and more companies globalize, the need to bridge language and cultural barriers in business increases. This is the huge gap the company strives to fulfill. With Asia being the hotbed of activity in the software/IT services as well as other high-technology segments, Nihongo Bashi can play a major role in helping companies cut through linguistic barriers with its domain expertise in Japanese business education and Asian language translations.”

Nihongo Bashi will use the fresh capital to fund its rapid expansion plans for its Japanese education services in India as well as grow its Asian language translation services business globally. Earlier this year, the company entered into a strategic alliance with RSST to jointly set up a Center for Excellence in Japanese Education in Bangalore, besides partnering with 26 engineering colleges across the country to offer its courses.

“We aim to consolidate our leadership position as foremost provider of Japanese business education in India by expanding the reach of our programs to different parts of the country by partnering with top educational institutions as well as business enterprises,” said Mr.Tirupathi. “Moreover, by meeting the translation and localization needs of clients from Europe and the United States, we have positioned Singapore as an ideal offshore location for the high-quality, cost-effective delivery of these services. With our proven offshore delivery model, we are striving to be the premier translation & localization provider (http://www.nihongobashi.com/translation_services/translation_services.html) in Asia.

About Nihongo Bashi
Singapore-headquartered Nihongo Bashi (www.nihongobashi.com) is a Start-up EnterprisE Development Scheme (SEEDS) enterprise providing linguistic services. The company offers education & training services focused on Japanese language, business and management, culture and etiquette, and translation & interpretation services in all the major Asian languages including Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Arabic. The company’s mission is to ““Increase India's market readiness for expected faster growth in economic ties with East Asia".

Nihongo Bashi’s educational services (http://nihongobashi.com/educational_services/educational_services.html) are designed to equip professionals with a proficiency in Japanese language and prepare them to live and work in Japan. A leader in Japanese education in India, the company has successfully rolled out its Academic Japanisation Programme in association with leading IT companies and academic institutions. Students from 26 educational institutions across Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai and Coimbatore have found lucrative career options after undergoing the various Academic Japanisation Programs conducted by Nihongo Bashi.

Nihongo Bashi provides translation & localization services in all the major Asian languages (Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Malay, Hindi, to name a few) and across various domains including engineering, management, manufacturing, finance, to name just a few. With offshore facilities, Nihongo Bashi offers a global delivery model for companies in need of a cost-effective translation service with a fast turnaround time without worrying about the quality and reliability of the translations.

Media Inquiries
T.Karthik
President
Tel: +65 6224 8116
tkarthik@nihongobashi.com

Business Inquiries
Pankil Shah,
Vice President
Tel: +91.80.41254041/42
pshah@nihongobashi.com