Tokyo-based VisasQ (VQ), the Japanese startup behind a consulting matchmaking platform under the same name, announced today that IPO application to the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) has been approved.
The company will be listed on the TSE Mothers Market on March 10 with plans to offer 500,000 shares for public subscription and to sell about 426,400 shares in over-allotment options for a total of about 2.3 million shares. The underwriting will be led by Mizuho Securities while VQ’s ticker code will be 4490.
Based on the estimated IPO price of 2,100 yen (about $19.4) a share, the company’s market valuation will be about 17 billion yen (about $156.6 million).
Its share price range will be released on February 19 with bookbuilding scheduled to start on February 20 and pricing on February 27. According to the consolidated statement as of February 2019, they posted revenue of 614 million yen (about $5.7 million) with an ordinary profit of 24 million yen (about $221,000).
Launched back in March of 2010 under the previous name of Walkntalk, VQ has been offering an online matchmaking platform where companies can get consultation and advice from appropriate professionals (the company call them ‘advisors’) according to their expertise. It’s mainly used for industrial research and market analysis.
VQ Interview, one of the products that VQ’s representative first analyzes a client’s request and then link up to an appropriate professional, has received 44,000 orders from clients as of December 2019, which accounts for 80% of the total orders across their entire product line. The company has 86,000 registered professionals in 500 different business sectors and 423 clients (as of 2020 Q3).
Led by founder and CEO Eiko Hashiba (59.33%), the company’s major shareholders include VC firm DCM (14.19%), Venture United (11.13%), CyberAgent Capital (7.22%), DBJ Capital (2.83%), Mizuho Capital (2.83%), Naoki Aoyagi (0.91%), and CTO Soshi Hanamura (0.78%).
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Minma (derived from ‘Minna no Market’ meaning ‘the market for everyone’ in Japanese), the Japanese startup behind an online service that matches customers with local professionals, announced today that it has raised 4 billion yen (about $36 million US) in the latest round. This comes from Nissay Capital, Globis Capital Partners, Innovation Growth Ventures (managed by Sony and Daiwa Capital Holdings), and Zenrin Datacom (a subsidiary of Japan’s largest map publisher) in funding as well as Japan Finance Corporation in loans. The startup has been matching customers with local professionals since its launch back in 2011, currently lists over 200 types of services in categories like house cleaning, housekeeping, on-location photo shooting, home appliance installation, and renovation. As of December end, over 33,000 stores are live on the Curama marketplace where users can compare these providers by user reviews and pricing to make a choice and book it online. The company disclosed Nissay Capital, one of the investors participating in the latest round, has poured funds in both series A and B (in 2017) rounds. The sum of funding in past rounds are undisclosed but the company shows 909.48 million yen (about $8.3…
Yusuke Hamano, CEO of Minma Image credit: Takeshi Hirano, Bridge
Tokyo-based Minma (derived from ‘Minna no Market’ meaning ‘the market for everyone’ in Japanese), the Japanese startup behind an online service that matches customers with local professionals, announced today that it has raised 4 billion yen (about $36 million US) in the latest round. This comes from Nissay Capital, Globis Capital Partners, Innovation Growth Ventures (managed by Sony and Daiwa Capital Holdings), and Zenrin Datacom (a subsidiary of Japan’s largest map publisher) in funding as well as Japan Finance Corporation in loans.
The startup has been matching customers with local professionals since its launch back in 2011, currently lists over 200 types of services in categories like house cleaning, housekeeping, on-location photo shooting, home appliance installation, and renovation. As of December end, over 33,000 stores are live on the Curama marketplace where users can compare these providers by user reviews and pricing to make a choice and book it online.
Curama Image credit: Minma
The company disclosed Nissay Capital, one of the investors participating in the latest round, has poured funds in both series A and B (in 2017) rounds. The sum of funding in past rounds are undisclosed but the company shows 909.48 million yen (about $8.3 million US) as capital stock and legal capital surplus in their corporate website as of this writing.
Minma uses the funds to increase brand awareness, develop new products, invest in relevant startups, as well as hiring and educating talents globally. The company says they have completed investing in an unnamed startup developing a chat service. Partnering with this round’s investor Zenrin Datacom, Minma plans to create a new category on the marketplace, improve functionality and user experience for store owners, and bring themselves to a higher level of marketing sophistication.
In an interview with Bridge back in 2018, Minma CEO Yusuke Hamano said he could see no noticeable competitor at that time. Looking at each of verticals close to what the marketplace lists in categories, we can find several potential competitors in a broad sense, such as Reform Guide graduating from Asahi Shimbun Media Lab’s accelerator, photographer client matchmaking startup aMi, P2P sharing economy startup Anytimes, memento disposer/pest-control firm matchmaking platform Ocomari, and recently-IPO’d Jimoty. US-based unicorn Thumbtack raised $120 million in a series H round last year.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Jimoty, the Japanese startup behind online classifieds site under the same name, announced in late December that the IPO application to the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) has been approved. Jimoty provides listings in a wide range of categories, including items for sale, job listings, services, and events. The company will be listed on the TSE Mothers Market on Feb 7 with plans to offer 50,000 shares for public subscription and to sell 190,600 shares in over-allotment options for a total of 1,220,700 shares. The underwriting will be led by Daiwa Securities while Jimoty’s ticker code will be 7082. Its share price range will be released on January 22 with bookbuilding scheduled to start on January 23 and pricing on January 29. According to the consolidated statement as of December 2018, they posted revenue of 935.89 million yen (about $9 million) with an ordinary profit of 7.06 million yen (about $64,000). Led by Opt Holdings (30.68%), their major shareholders include NTT Docomo (16.22%), Infinity Venture Partners (14.23%), Proto Corporation (10.71%), Energy & Environment Investment (9.51%), Jimoty CEO Takahiro Kato (8.71%), Lifull (4.29%), Japan Best Rescue System (2.14%), and Seibu Shinkin Capital. See also: Japanese…
Tokyo-based Jimoty, the Japanese startup behind online classifieds site under the same name, announced in late December that the IPO application to the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) has been approved. Jimoty provides listings in a wide range of categories, including items for sale, job listings, services, and events.
The company will be listed on the TSE Mothers Market on Feb 7 with plans to offer 50,000 shares for public subscription and to sell 190,600 shares in over-allotment options for a total of 1,220,700 shares. The underwriting will be led by Daiwa Securities while Jimoty’s ticker code will be 7082.
Its share price range will be released on January 22 with bookbuilding scheduled to start on January 23 and pricing on January 29. According to the consolidated statement as of December 2018, they posted revenue of 935.89 million yen (about $9 million) with an ordinary profit of 7.06 million yen (about $64,000).
Led by Opt Holdings (30.68%), their major shareholders include NTT Docomo (16.22%), Infinity Venture Partners (14.23%), Proto Corporation (10.71%), Energy & Environment Investment (9.51%), Jimoty CEO Takahiro Kato (8.71%), Lifull (4.29%), Japan Best Rescue System (2.14%), and Seibu Shinkin Capital.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based TimeTree (previously known as Jubilee Works), the startup behind shared calendar app for couples under the same name, announced in late December that it has raised about 1.96 billion yen (about $17.9 million) in the latest round. Participating investors are Seoul-based Stonebridge Ventures, Persol Innovation Fund (investment arm of Tokyo-based human resource services company Persol Holdings=TSE:2181), and Orient Corporation (TSE:8585). This follows their venture round (raising undisclosed amount) back in December of 2018, series A round (raising $4.6 million) back in August of 2017, and seed round (raising $1.9 million) back in October of 2016. The TimeTree app allows users to share their calendar with their family members, loved ones, friends and colleagues. It surpassed 20 million registered users in December, planning to launch TimeTree Ads, the ad network which can target users based on their schedule, as well as the TimeTree API that enables an easy integration with other apps for input and output schedule data.
Tokyo-based TimeTree (previously known as Jubilee Works), the startup behind shared calendar app for couples under the same name, announced in late December that it has raised about 1.96 billion yen (about $17.9 million) in the latest round.
Participating investors are Seoul-based Stonebridge Ventures, Persol Innovation Fund (investment arm of Tokyo-based human resource services company Persol Holdings=TSE:2181), and Orient Corporation (TSE:8585). This follows their venture round (raising undisclosed amount) back in December of 2018, series A round (raising $4.6 million) back in August of 2017, and seed round (raising $1.9 million) back in October of 2016.
The TimeTree app allows users to share their calendar with their family members, loved ones, friends and colleagues. It surpassed 20 million registered users in December, planning to launch TimeTree Ads, the ad network which can target users based on their schedule, as well as the TimeTree API that enables an easy integration with other apps for input and output schedule data.
See the original story in Japanese. As previously reported, a brand new startup conference called Barkation was announced to take place on February 19 and 20 this year, primarily organized by the former Slush Tokyo team, but we learned today that it will be canceled this year. The main reason behind the cancellation is the team couldn’t spend enough time preparing for the conference, such as training volunteers, and they will focus on building the Bark community this year. Thanks to their concept that the conference shouldn’t come first but is just as part of the Bark community, the cancellation will give no significant impact on their ongoing activities. In an interview with Bridge, Bark CEO Haruka Furukawa said her team decided to cancel because they don’t want participants from Japan and the rest of the world to get disappointed. Over the past few years, there has been a series of announcements of cancellations and suspensions of global startup conferences. Austria’s flagship conference Pioneers, which has been running for eight years since 2011, announced a break last year. Tech in Asia has shut down their conferences in Singapore and Tokyo and currently runs it only in Jakarta. RISE, hosted in…
The Bark Launch Party took place in October in Harajuku, Tokyo. Image credit: Bark
As previously reported, a brand new startup conference called Barkation was announced to take place on February 19 and 20 this year, primarily organized by the former Slush Tokyo team, but we learned today that it will be canceled this year. The main reason behind the cancellation is the team couldn’t spend enough time preparing for the conference, such as training volunteers, and they will focus on building the Bark community this year.
Thanks to their concept that the conference shouldn’t come first but is just as part of the Bark community, the cancellation will give no significant impact on their ongoing activities. In an interview with Bridge, Bark CEO Haruka Furukawa said her team decided to cancel because they don’t want participants from Japan and the rest of the world to get disappointed.
Over the past few years, there has been a series of announcements of cancellations and suspensions of global startup conferences. Austria’s flagship conference Pioneers, which has been running for eight years since 2011, announced a break last year. Tech in Asia has shut down their conferences in Singapore and Tokyo and currently runs it only in Jakarta. RISE, hosted in Asia by the WebSummit organizer, has also announced that it will cancel the 2020 edition over the recent tension in Hong Kong.
Thursday, 6pm JST – Update: Minor correction applied into Yoneyama’s previous position, Samurai Africa Fund II’s targeted geographical markets, and my misunderstanding that the first fund’s investment capacity is still remaining. Tokyo-based VC firm Samurai Incubate announced on Thursday that it has launched a new fund focused on starups in Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria. The fund is titled Samurai Africa Fund II, aiming to acquire 2 billion yen (about $18.3 million US) for investments. As for the ticket sizes, the fund invests a minimum cheque size of 5 million to 50 million yen (about $46,000 to $460,000 US) for startups in the seed to series A stage while targeted verticals are FinTech / InsureTech, logistics, MedTech / healthcare, retail and e-commerce, AgriTech, transport and mobility, and entertainment. Since the fund is called in that way, some of our readers may be wondering when its first fund was formed, but it seems to refer to Leapfrog Ventures, a seed-stage fund jointly launched in May of 2018 by Samurai Incubate and its former employee Takuma Terakubo. According to their corporate history, the firm rebranded Leapfrog Ventures into Samurai Incubate Africa back in June of 2019. As of June last year when…
Thursday, 6pm JST – Update: Minor correction applied into Yoneyama’s previous position, Samurai Africa Fund II’s targeted geographical markets, and my misunderstanding that the first fund’s investment capacity is still remaining.
Tokyo-based VC firm Samurai Incubate announced on Thursday that it has launched a new fund focused on starups in Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria. The fund is titled Samurai Africa Fund II, aiming to acquire 2 billion yen (about $18.3 million US) for investments. As for the ticket sizes, the fund invests a minimum cheque size of 5 million to 50 million yen (about $46,000 to $460,000 US) for startups in the seed to series A stage while targeted verticals are FinTech / InsureTech, logistics, MedTech / healthcare, retail and e-commerce, AgriTech, transport and mobility, and entertainment.
As of June last year when the African investment vehicle was rebranded, we can confirm Terakubo was still serving the company as CEO at that time but Samurai Incubate CEO Kentaro Sakakibara has taken over the position by now. With all these facts, we can understand that the vehicle has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Samurai Incubate for their startup investments in Africa. According to reliable sources, Terakubo is currently preparing for his own new fund for African startups. We’ll keep you updated about his progress when it becomes available.
Rena Yoneyama, Managing Partner of Samurai Incubate Africa, will play a management role for the second fund. Prior to Samurai Incubate, she previously worked with the Development Bank of Japan and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation followed by serving Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Moroccan office as an assistant Project Formulation Manager and Tokyo-based Techfund as a director. Samurai Incubate Africa is commissioned by JICA to conduct research on promoting entrepreneurship and finding out the local startup ecosystem in Africa. The firm says the work doesn’t in any way imply in evaluating the fund.
The first fund has chosen Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and South Africa as the geographical region as their focus while Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania are removed and Nigeria is added for that of the second fund.
(The firm told Bridge that they are NOT intended to remove Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania from their targeted geographical markets.)
Seeing a remarkable growth, Nigeria boasts the largest market in the Sub-Saharan region. With this in mind, it seems that Samurai Incubate Africa has re-shuffled their targeting markets to put the limited resources into places with the potential largest output. At the time of launching the first fund, they said they were aiming to invest in about 80 startups. It has now become clear that they have invested in 18 companies in Africa, which is equivalent to about a quarter of the initial target.
The first fund was so far invested in the Senri sales optimization platform for manufacturing and distribution businesses in Africa, Kenya-based sales bot and SaaS startup Biashara, and Rwandan regional FinTech startup Exuus. The first fund appears to have investment capacity remaining, but it is still unclear whether the fund’s focused investment region will remain the same or will follow the second one.
(In addition to 500 million yen as the initial target size of Leapfrog Ventures, Samurai Africa Fund I incorporated 10% of Samurai Incubate Fund VI (3.45 billion yen) which was launched back in February last year. The first Africa fund has no further investment capacity remaining since it has completed investing. We can assume the ticket size per startup was larger than initially expected while the number of investees is less than a quarter of their initial target.)
In this area, there are some companies in Japan offering corporate advisory and startup support initiatives in Africa, such as Tokyo-based Double Feather Partners.
Takeshi Hirano
Masaru Ikeda
The Bridge
