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Japanese e-commerce platform provider Base raises $2M from CyberAgent

Takeshi Hirano Takeshi Hirano
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See the original story in Japanese. Japanese e-commerce platform provider Base announced today that it will raise 200 million (approximately $2 million) from Japanese internet giant CyberAgent. This will be the first investment from the latter’s new fund targeting middle- and late-stage startups, also known as Fujita Fund after the company’s CEO Susumu Fujita. According to Base’s CEO Yuta Tsuruoka, his company also raised 50 million yen ($500,000) from Sun Eight Investment back in July. The total amount of funds raised is about 273 million yen ($2.73 million), including investments from East Ventures, Party Factory, and angel investors. Tsuruoka describes meeting with Fujita back in August: About four months ago, I met up with him for the first time. After Rising Expo [1] back in September, I had a chance to see him and shared our KPIs. I think at that moment, he seemed to decide on the investment. When we look at how the platform was growing back in August, one of its primary sources of traffic was from Ameba, CyberAgent’s blog platform, following Facebook and Twitter. Subsequently, Tsuruoka asked his co-founder/investor Kazuma Ieiri to ask Fujita if CyberAgent was interested in investing. And to his surprise Fujita was…

yuta-tsuruoka
Base CEO Yuta Tsuruoka

See the original story in Japanese.

Japanese e-commerce platform provider Base announced today that it will raise 200 million (approximately $2 million) from Japanese internet giant CyberAgent. This will be the first investment from the latter’s new fund targeting middle- and late-stage startups, also known as Fujita Fund after the company’s CEO Susumu Fujita.

According to Base’s CEO Yuta Tsuruoka, his company also raised 50 million yen ($500,000) from Sun Eight Investment back in July. The total amount of funds raised is about 273 million yen ($2.73 million), including investments from East Ventures, Party Factory, and angel investors.

Tsuruoka describes meeting with Fujita back in August:

About four months ago, I met up with him for the first time. After Rising Expo [1] back in September, I had a chance to see him and shared our KPIs. I think at that moment, he seemed to decide on the investment.

When we look at how the platform was growing back in August, one of its primary sources of traffic was from Ameba, CyberAgent’s blog platform, following Facebook and Twitter. Subsequently, Tsuruoka asked his co-founder/investor Kazuma Ieiri to ask Fujita if CyberAgent was interested in investing. And to his surprise Fujita was indeed interested.

With the funds raised this time, Base plans to expand its team from 12 to 20 people, and to intensify marketing and advertising efforts as well.

We have acquired 50,000 merchants in the last eleven months, showing about 10% monthly growth on average. We recently launched an iOS app, and it seems to have had a big impact for our merchants, changing their experience and environment. For example, a retailer manufacturing handmade crafts can handle all the necessary tasks with his iPhone, ranging from taking pictures of items to be sold to his store management.

70% of Base’s user activity comes from smartphones, yet another indication that the Japanese e-commerce industry has mostly transitioned to mobile. The company is exploring monetization opportunities but intends to keep focusing on user acquisition for the time being.

  1. An annual startup showcase event by CyberAgent Ventures.↩

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  3. Base: The Japanese freemium e-commerce platform that’s following Shopify’s lead

Base: The Japanese freemium e-commerce platform that’s following Shopify’s lead

SCORE 8,643 Takeshi Hirano Takeshi Hirano
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See original story in Japanese. Base is a Tokyo startup that provides an easy-to-implement e-commerce platform. It was born from Project Liverty, a tech savvy team led by serial entrepreneur Kazuma Ieiri. On Friday, the service added a new feature called BASE apps, allowing users to set up a shop under their own domain name. it also includes SEO (search engine optimization), and packaging material that merchants can use when shipping. With the exception of credit card surcharges, the service is provided completely free, and that includes these new features. The company’s CEO Yuta Tsuruoka explains that they will gradually add new features week by week, such as logo design, the ability to offer limited time discounts to customers, and even photo shoots for merchandise. Following Shopify’s successful ‘plug-in strategy’ Base was inspired by Shopify, the third-ranked e-commerce platform behind Amazon and eBay in terms of transaction volume (about $1 billion) in the US. In contrast to competitors, Shopify generates its revenue partially from plug-in usage. Essentially this means that when you add features or services to your e-shop, you will be requested to pay extra. Yuta adds: In the US, many merchants who have their e-shops on multi-tenant e-commerce…

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See original story in Japanese.

Base is a Tokyo startup that provides an easy-to-implement e-commerce platform. It was born from Project Liverty, a tech savvy team led by serial entrepreneur Kazuma Ieiri. On Friday, the service added a new feature called BASE apps, allowing users to set up a shop under their own domain name. it also includes SEO (search engine optimization), and packaging material that merchants can use when shipping.

With the exception of credit card surcharges, the service is provided completely free, and that includes these new features. The company’s CEO Yuta Tsuruoka explains that they will gradually add new features week by week, such as logo design, the ability to offer limited time discounts to customers, and even photo shoots for merchandise.

Following Shopify’s successful ‘plug-in strategy’

Base was inspired by Shopify, the third-ranked e-commerce platform behind Amazon and eBay in terms of transaction volume (about $1 billion) in the US. In contrast to competitors, Shopify generates its revenue partially from plug-in usage. Essentially this means that when you add features or services to your e-shop, you will be requested to pay extra. Yuta adds:

In the US, many merchants who have their e-shops on multi-tenant e-commerce platforms have [not been doing well], and they are now moving to marketplace platforms. I really want this shift to come to Japan.

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The startup’s plug-ins motivate small merchants and even individuals to open shops online. They also provide outsourced logistics service for merchants, and plan to provide vendor-managed inventory services. You can order logo design or a website template from partnering crowdsourced services via the Base platform.

Among the available plug-ins, some allow goods producers to even offer to develop merchandise for you. See apps.thebase.in to learn more about what features they provide.

Monetizing the payment process

Does the Base platform fully drive its business only with these plug-ins? Yuta says the answer is no:

During the testing period, we’ve seen merchants were using our platform in many different ways. Some merchants were selling web services, digital content, or other non-tangible services on the platform. It shows us there’s e-commerce potential far beyond just merchandise distribution. That’s the key for making our business successful, I believe.

He aspires to make this into another Paypal, as opposed to the next Rakuten or Amazon. The Base platform aspires to handle not only merchandise logistics but also monetary transactions between merchants and shoppers which may generate a huge volume of commission.

The e-commerce platform has acquired more than 23,000 merchants in the four months since its launch, where a variety of items ranging from luxury furniture to show tickets are being sold. The average price per customer reaches around 3,500 yen (around $35).

In January, the startup fundraised 23 million yen ($230,000) from Partyfactory, East Ventures, and several angel investors. We’ll keep you updated about how their business further grows from here.

Related news

  1. Japanese e-commerce platform provider Base raises $2M from CyberAgent
  2. Japanese e-commerce platform Base raises $3M from Global Brain
  3. Japanese e-commerce platform provider Base introduces new iPhone app

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