Japan’s KDDI buys members-only premium outlet site Luxa

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See the original story in Japanese.

Japan’s leading telco, KDDI, will take a majority stake in Tokyo-based Luxa, the company behind a premium outlet e-commerce site under the same name.

Luxa’s shareholders are Japanese VC firm Jafco, Tokyo-based startup BizReach, and KDDI. Upon this agreement, Luxa is expected to become a consolidated subsidiary of KDDI.

The e-commerce site provides a variety of time-limited or quantity-limited items, including designer-branded fashion items, consumer electronics, cosmetics, and apparel that are carefully selected by the company’s buyers.

Luxa was initially launched as a business of BizReach in August 2010 but was spun off in October 2010 because BizReach shifted its focus to an online premium job hunting and talent search site under the same name. Subsequently Luxa secured 500 million yen funding from Jafco in November 2010, followed by closing series B round worth 500 million yen ($5.3 million) from JAFCO Super V3 Fund in March 2013.

In September 2013, the company raised 330 million yen ($3.3 million) from KDDI Open Innovation Fund, the fund operated by Japanese telco KDDI and Global Brain, and started providing limited-offer discounts to mobile subscribers via au SmartPass, the telco’s flat-rate app subscription program.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by Kurt Hanson
Proofread by “Tex” Pomeroy