MUMBAI: Dentsu Ventures Global Fund I has made an investment in San Francisco based Nexbit Systems Inc, a startup developing cloud-integrated services for smart devices from both the hardware and software perspectives.

Nextbit is the third company in which Dentsu Ventures has invested since its launch in April 2015.

The company was established with the objectives of investing in ambitious start-up companies that will create an as yet unseen future and furthering open innovation across the Dentsu Group through collaboration with investees. In addition to funding, Dentsu Ventures will support businesses and entrepreneurs by providing problem-solving solutions and resources that are unique to the Group.

On 1 September, Nextbit launched Robin, a “cloud-first” smartphone that enables synchronized cloud storage of music, videos, apps, photos and other high-volume data without any user action required. The crowdfunding campaign for the Robin smartphone was launched the same day, and the US$500,000 goal was reached within a matter of hours. Nextbit is pushing mobile computing forward with the introduction of innovative software and hardware that solves important user problems such as running out of local storage space on smart devices.

As smart devices continue to diversify, Dentsu Ventures believes that real-time data integration and linking across devices together with the development and provision of unprecedented user experiences that optimise this capability will become increasingly important. Nextbit’s innovative technology will offer smart device users an entirely new type of cloud service in this Internet of Things era.

Looking ahead, the Dentsu Group will provide support for the spread of the Robin smartphone worldwide as well as the other new businesses that Nextbit will develop in the future.