THE BRIDGE

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Japan’s Money Forward acquires SaaS comparison startup Smartcamp for $18M

SCORE 1,331 Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Money Forward (TSE:3994), the Japanese company providing cloud-based accounting solutions, announced on Monday that it will take a 72.3% stake in Smartcamp, the Japanese startup behind the Boxil SaaS comparison site and the Bales inside sales support service, for about 2 billion yen, or $18.3 million US. Smartcamp eventually made an exit by joining the Money Forward group. Founded back in June of 2014, Smartcamp launched Boxil back in May of 2015 by pivoting from their previous Sket service through participating twice in Incubate Camp, an annual 2-day bootcamp program by Incubate Fund offering budding entrepreneurs with mentoring opportunities. As of October, the company boasted 1 million monthly page views and more than 120,000 registered users with bringing over 30,000 potential users to SaaS providers. Smartcamp launched a service called Bales back in September of 2017, which allows SaaS providers to outsource their sales operations to the startup. In August, they launched another new service called Biscuit, a cloud-based customer relationship management tool for inside sales. Through these services, the company has successfully been offering marketing channels for over 100 third parties. Meanwhile, Money Forward has been acquiring approximately a startup an year…

Money Forward President & CEO Yosuke Tsuji (right), Smartcamp CEO Satoshi Furuhashi (left)
Image credit: Money Forward

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Money Forward (TSE:3994), the Japanese company providing cloud-based accounting solutions, announced on Monday that it will take a 72.3% stake in Smartcamp, the Japanese startup behind the Boxil SaaS comparison site and the Bales inside sales support service, for about 2 billion yen, or $18.3 million US. Smartcamp eventually made an exit by joining the Money Forward group.

Founded back in June of 2014, Smartcamp launched Boxil back in May of 2015 by pivoting from their previous Sket service through participating twice in Incubate Camp, an annual 2-day bootcamp program by Incubate Fund offering budding entrepreneurs with mentoring opportunities. As of October, the company boasted 1 million monthly page views and more than 120,000 registered users with bringing over 30,000 potential users to SaaS providers.

Smartcamp launched a service called Bales back in September of 2017, which allows SaaS providers to outsource their sales operations to the startup. In August, they launched another new service called Biscuit, a cloud-based customer relationship management tool for inside sales. Through these services, the company has successfully been offering marketing channels for over 100 third parties.

Meanwhile, Money Forward has been acquiring approximately a startup an year to expand their business, including acquiring Klavis, the Japan-/Singapore-based startup behind accounting and book-keeping software Streamed, as well as knowledgelabo, the Osaka-based startup behind cloud-based business management analytics tool Manageboard.

With the acquisition, Money Forward can boost customer acquisition effort for their product series leveraging Smartcamp’s marketing intelligence while Smarcamp aims to attract more users for their products leveraging Money Forward’s vast network and customer base.

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Wassha, power supplier for off-grid Africa, snags $9M from Daikin, Yamaha Motor, others

SCORE 1,312 Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Wassha, developing a prepaid solar power delivery service to off-grid areas in rural Africa by networking kiosk vendors under the same name, announced today that it has raised 1.01 billion yen (about $9.2 million) in a series B round. Participating investors are Daikin Industries (TSE:6367), Yamaha Motor (TSE:7272), Mistletoe, Mizuho Capital in addition to existing investors such as The University of Tokyo Edge Capital (UTEC) and Marubeni (TSE:8002). The latest round brought their total funding sum up to about 2.4 billion yen (about $22 million). See also: Wassha, power supplier for off-grid Africa, secures $3M from Japan aid agency How Japanese energy startup Wassha delivers prepaid solar power to rural Africa Wassha installs solar panels or battery chargers, then provides LED lanterns, radios, tablets to kiosk operators; the kiosks rent these out to villagers and collect fees from them for charging power at the kiosks. The owners settle the electricity bills from smartphones and power charging boxes for the appliances, not to mention earning at each kiosk by charging money for use of mobile phones. Among the investors participating investors, Wassha aims to develop new business with Daikin Industries, Yamaha Motor, and Mistletoe….

Image credit: Wassha

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Wassha, developing a prepaid solar power delivery service to off-grid areas in rural Africa by networking kiosk vendors under the same name, announced today that it has raised 1.01 billion yen (about $9.2 million) in a series B round.

Participating investors are Daikin Industries (TSE:6367), Yamaha Motor (TSE:7272), Mistletoe, Mizuho Capital in addition to existing investors such as The University of Tokyo Edge Capital (UTEC) and Marubeni (TSE:8002). The latest round brought their total funding sum up to about 2.4 billion yen (about $22 million).

See also:

Wassha installs solar panels or battery chargers, then provides LED lanterns, radios, tablets to kiosk operators; the kiosks rent these out to villagers and collect fees from them for charging power at the kiosks. The owners settle the electricity bills from smartphones and power charging boxes for the appliances, not to mention earning at each kiosk by charging money for use of mobile phones.

Among the investors participating investors, Wassha aims to develop new business with Daikin Industries, Yamaha Motor, and Mistletoe. We were told that Wassha will unveil details on but the potential joint projects with these investors.

However, it seems like the startup aims to work with Daikin to establish a cold chain, a temperature-controlled food distribution network leveraging air conditioning and refrigeration facilities, and also work with Yamaha Motor to establish a motorcycle-based delivery network connecting the kiosks participating in the Wassha network. Kindly think a somewhat another version of Zipline (drone-based logistics platform in Africa) plus NinjaCart (fresh foods marketing platform in India).

Mistletoe has invested in Zipline and NinjaCart in addition to Agribuddy (microfinance platform for farmers in Southeast Asia) and FOMM (manufacturing floatable electric vehicles). Leveraging Wassha’s kiosk network, Mistletoe is expected to help their portfolio companies expand their solution into the African market.

Having rolled out their service in Tanzania, Wassha is planning to expand into Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Mozambique, Madagascar, and Ethiopia going forward. While keeping power delivery service in the off-grid area as a their core business, they will cultivate new businesses such as food distribution and marketplace aiming to help farmers get more income, which may lead to gaining the need of power delivery service users.

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Smart driving assistant developer Drivemode acquired by Honda R&D

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See the original story in Japanese. Honda R&D, the research and development-focused subsidiary of the Japanese automotive giant, announced on Monday that it has acquired full stake in Drivemode, the US-based startup developing smart driving assistant technology, for an undisclosed sum. The two companies will join forces to develop connect mobility services at Digital Solution Center, a newly developed facility in Honda R&D. They have been working together since 2015 sice the Honda Xcelerator open innovation program. Since its launch back in 2014, Drivemode secured seed funding from Tokyo-based Incubate Fund and then launched an Android app under the same name which allows drivers to control their cars without watching the screen of the app. Prior to launching Drivemode, the startup’s founder Yokichi Koga previously worked at a Boston-based VC as a director and then car-sharing startup Zipcar as an advisor.  

drivemode_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Honda R&D, the research and development-focused subsidiary of the Japanese automotive giant, announced on Monday that it has acquired full stake in Drivemode, the US-based startup developing smart driving assistant technology, for an undisclosed sum.

The two companies will join forces to develop connect mobility services at Digital Solution Center, a newly developed facility in Honda R&D. They have been working together since 2015 sice the Honda Xcelerator open innovation program.

Since its launch back in 2014, Drivemode secured seed funding from Tokyo-based Incubate Fund and then launched an Android app under the same name which allows drivers to control their cars without watching the screen of the app.

Prior to launching Drivemode, the startup’s founder Yokichi Koga previously worked at a Boston-based VC as a director and then car-sharing startup Zipcar as an advisor.

 

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Japanese AI-powered cancer detection startup raises $43M in series B round

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based AI Medical Service, the Japanese startup developing the AI-powered technology to detect cancerous lesions from endoscopic footage, announced on Friday that it has secured about 4.6 billion yen (about $43 million US) in a series B round. Participating investors in this round are: Globis Capital Partners（GCP） WiL Sparx Group Sony Innovation Fund by IGV（Managed by Innovation Growth Ventures, the joint venture of Sony and Daiwa Capital Holdings) Japan Lifeline (cardiovascular medical device manufacturer, TSE:7575) Japan Post Capital Aflac Ventures Ryoyo Electro (semiconductor trader, TSE:8068) SMBC Venture Capital Daiwa Corporate Investment An unnamed angel investor For the company, this follows their previous funding (series A round) worth 1 billion yen back in August of last year and brought their funding sum up to 6.2 billion yen (about $58 million US). Established by physician Dr.TOmohiro Tada, AI Medical Service has been developing an AI-powered diagnostic system for cancer detection. A survey says only 31% even among medical doctors can correctly determine the presence or absence of gastric cancer symptoms from endoscopic footage. With help from more than a few medical doctors, the company can improve the AI engine because of using hundreds of thousands of…

incubate-camp-10th-ai-medical-1

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based AI Medical Service, the Japanese startup developing the AI-powered technology to detect cancerous lesions from endoscopic footage, announced on Friday that it has secured about 4.6 billion yen (about $43 million US) in a series B round.

Participating investors in this round are:

  • Globis Capital Partners（GCP）
  • WiL
  • Sparx Group
  • Sony Innovation Fund by IGV（Managed by Innovation Growth Ventures, the joint venture of Sony and Daiwa Capital Holdings)
  • Japan Lifeline (cardiovascular medical device manufacturer, TSE:7575)
  • Japan Post Capital
  • Aflac Ventures
  • Ryoyo Electro (semiconductor trader, TSE:8068)
  • SMBC Venture Capital
  • Daiwa Corporate Investment
  • An unnamed angel investor

For the company, this follows their previous funding (series A round) worth 1 billion yen back in August of last year and brought their funding sum up to 6.2 billion yen (about $58 million US).

Established by physician Dr.TOmohiro Tada, AI Medical Service has been developing an AI-powered diagnostic system for cancer detection. A survey says only 31% even among medical doctors can correctly determine the presence or absence of gastric cancer symptoms from endoscopic footage. With help from more than a few medical doctors, the company can improve the AI engine because of using hundreds of thousands of high-definition endoscopic images to let it learn better. The engine now can detect with high accuracy the presence of Helicobacter Pylori bacteria, which is known to be the major cause of stomach cancer.

In 2017, the company won the top award at Beyond Next Ventures’ Brave accelerator program in the pre-incorporated startup segment. They also won the Best Growth and Judge awards at Incubate Camp 10th back in August of 2017, followed by winning the TechCrunch Japan award at the 10th Batch Demo Day of Recruit’s Tech Lab Paak accelerator.

The company uses the funds to promote clinical trials, expand the pipeline, hire talents, make more investments, aiming to accelerate the development of real-time endoscope AI and to get an approval of medical regulatory for it.

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Japan’s “flying car” developer SkyDrive snags $14M, expects manned test flight this year

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based SkyDrive, the Japanese drone startup spun off from the Cartivator volunteer group consisting of aircraft, drone and automotive engineers, announced on Monday that it has secured 1.5 billion yen (about $13.9 million US). The investment round is unknown but participating investors are Drone Fund, Z Corporation (investment arm of Yahoo Japan), Strive, Itochu Technology Ventures, and Energy & Environment Investment. Drone Fund and Z Corporation have participated in the startup’s past rounds. The company claims that the latest round brought their funding sum up to 2 billon yen (about $18.5 million US). Coinciding with the funding, Tatso Tsutsumi, General Partner of Strive, will join the board of SkyDrive as an outside director. The starutp will use the funds to speed up developing their drone to conduct a test flight within this year. See also: Japan startup unveils manned hoverbike, expecting it to fly above public roads SkyDrive’s so-called “flying car” is an electrically-powered, vertical take-off and landing pilotless aircraft. As a new trend in the mobility industry, the drone is expected to be used for taxi service in cities, means for transportation in remote islands and mountainous areas, emergency transport in the event…

skydrive-team
The SkyDrive team
Image credit: SkyDrive

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based SkyDrive, the Japanese drone startup spun off from the Cartivator volunteer group consisting of aircraft, drone and automotive engineers, announced on Monday that it has secured 1.5 billion yen (about $13.9 million US). The investment round is unknown but participating investors are Drone Fund, Z Corporation (investment arm of Yahoo Japan), Strive, Itochu Technology Ventures, and Energy & Environment Investment.

Drone Fund and Z Corporation have participated in the startup’s past rounds. The company claims that the latest round brought their funding sum up to 2 billon yen (about $18.5 million US). Coinciding with the funding, Tatso Tsutsumi, General Partner of Strive, will join the board of SkyDrive as an outside director. The starutp will use the funds to speed up developing their drone to conduct a test flight within this year.

See also:

SkyDrive’s so-called “flying car” is an electrically-powered, vertical take-off and landing pilotless aircraft. As a new trend in the mobility industry, the drone is expected to be used for taxi service in cities, means for transportation in remote islands and mountainous areas, emergency transport in the event of a diaster. Compared to conventional air crafts, the drone is cost-effective, makes lower noise but requires a smaller space for take-off and landing.

SkyDrive was qualified as a finalist in the Tokyo Startup Gateway 2014 startup incubator, and then won the 5th place at the Launch Pad pitch competition at Infinity Ventures Summit 2015 Spring in Miyazaki. We have learned that the company secured funds from Drone Fund’s 2nd fund earlier this year.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda

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Japanese house construction management SaaS Andpad closes series B with $22.6M

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Oct, the Japanese startup developing and providing the Andpad house construction management platform, announced on Thursday that it has closed a series B round by raising funds from the investment arms of four regional banks in Japan in addition to existing investors. Participating investors are Senshu Ikeda Capital, Iyogin Capital, Kyogin Lease & Capital, Chibagin Capital, Globis Capital Partners, DNX Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and Beenext. This is additional funding in a series b round following the previous announcement back in March of this year, brings the total funding sum in the round up to about 2.4 billion yen (about 22.6 million US). Launched back in 2016, the platform has been adopted by more than 1,600 companies by March of this year. Through respective partnerships with the regional banks participating in this round, the company wants to more focus on expanding their business into provincial areas, aiming to help address labor shortage and improve productivity in the entire Japanese construction industry. Translated by Masaru Ikeda

andpad_featuredimage
Andpad
Image credit: Oct

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Oct, the Japanese startup developing and providing the Andpad house construction management platform, announced on Thursday that it has closed a series B round by raising funds from the investment arms of four regional banks in Japan in addition to existing investors.

Participating investors are Senshu Ikeda Capital, Iyogin Capital, Kyogin Lease & Capital, Chibagin Capital, Globis Capital Partners, DNX Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and Beenext. This is additional funding in a series b round following the previous announcement back in March of this year, brings the total funding sum in the round up to about 2.4 billion yen (about 22.6 million US).

Launched back in 2016, the platform has been adopted by more than 1,600 companies by March of this year. Through respective partnerships with the regional banks participating in this round, the company wants to more focus on expanding their business into provincial areas, aiming to help address labor shortage and improve productivity in the entire Japanese construction industry.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda

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Japan’s luxury brand consignment app Reclo raises $34M to boost China expansion

SCORE 1,489 Takeshi Hirano Takeshi Hirano
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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Active Sonar, the startup behind luxury brand consignment app Reclo, announced on Thursday that it has raised 3.6 billion yen (about $33.8 million US) from CITIC Capital, SBI Investment, and SBI Securities with loans from Mizuho Bank. Using the funds, the company will strengthen its China expansion. CITIC Capital is the asset management arm of Chinese largest financial conglomerate CITIC Group. Other details, such as the investment ratio of each investor and market cap, payment dates, were not diclosed. When you have a luxury brand item which is no longer needed, the Reclo platform allows you to ask experts for the appropriate value and price to sell it online. The platform will handle all other time-consuming processes such as selling the item, receiving payments from and shipping to the buyer so that all you have to do is just send the item to the platform. If you are not satisfied with the expert’s assessment, the platform would send you back your item for free. Unlike typical auction platforms or flea market apps, Reclo is not a C2C (consumer-to-consumer) marketplace and can prevent users from buying knock-off items which is often seen in the…

reclo-mobile-app
Reclo
Image credit: Active Sonar

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Active Sonar, the startup behind luxury brand consignment app Reclo, announced on Thursday that it has raised 3.6 billion yen (about $33.8 million US) from CITIC Capital, SBI Investment, and SBI Securities with loans from Mizuho Bank. Using the funds, the company will strengthen its China expansion. CITIC Capital is the asset management arm of Chinese largest financial conglomerate CITIC Group. Other details, such as the investment ratio of each investor and market cap, payment dates, were not diclosed.

When you have a luxury brand item which is no longer needed, the Reclo platform allows you to ask experts for the appropriate value and price to sell it online. The platform will handle all other time-consuming processes such as selling the item, receiving payments from and shipping to the buyer so that all you have to do is just send the item to the platform.

reclo-on-taobao
Reclo’s Chinese version on Taobao

If you are not satisfied with the expert’s assessment, the platform would send you back your item for free. Unlike typical auction platforms or flea market apps, Reclo is not a C2C (consumer-to-consumer) marketplace and can prevent users from buying knock-off items which is often seen in the luxury second-hand market.

The company started the platform’s Chinese version last year, which greatly contributed to the growth of the transactions and doubling the company’s overall sales compared to last year. In addition, over half of the total transactions comes from outside Japan, with China accounting for 70%. With the further business expansion in China, the company set up a local subsidiary in Shanghai last year, planning to curating luxury items in addition to the consignment sales business.

See also:

Translated by Masaru Ikeda

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Japan’s Gitai, developing robots replacing astronauts, secures $4.1M series A round

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Gitai, the Japanese telexistance robotics startup for the space industry, announced on Tuesday that it has secured $4.1 million US in a series A round. The round is led by Spiral Ventures Japan with participation from DBJ Capital (the investment arm of the Japanese government-backed Development Bank of Japan), Japanese electric power development company J-Power, 500 Startups Japan (now known as Coral Capital). Among these investors, 500 Startups Japan follows their previous investment in the latter’s seed round (securing $1.25 million US) back in 2017. This brings the startup’s total funding to date up to over 600 million yen (over $5.6 million US) but it may reach up to 1 billion yen (about $9.4 million) by additional funding within this year since the current round is not yet closed. Gitai plans to use the funding to develop autonomous space robots which may replace astronauts in their missions as well as launching a vehicle carrying robots to the International Space Station which is scheduled in late 2020. Gitai was initially focused on the telexistence technology which connects an operator and a robot in two different locations, but later shifted its primary business to serving…

gitai-robot-6th-prototype
6th prototype robot
Image credit: Gitai

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Gitai, the Japanese telexistance robotics startup for the space industry, announced on Tuesday that it has secured $4.1 million US in a series A round. The round is led by Spiral Ventures Japan with participation from DBJ Capital (the investment arm of the Japanese government-backed Development Bank of Japan), Japanese electric power development company J-Power, 500 Startups Japan (now known as Coral Capital).

Among these investors, 500 Startups Japan follows their previous investment in the latter’s seed round (securing $1.25 million US) back in 2017. This brings the startup’s total funding to date up to over 600 million yen (over $5.6 million US) but it may reach up to 1 billion yen (about $9.4 million) by additional funding within this year since the current round is not yet closed.

Gitai plans to use the funding to develop autonomous space robots which may replace astronauts in their missions as well as launching a vehicle carrying robots to the International Space Station which is scheduled in late 2020.

Gitai was initially focused on the telexistence technology which connects an operator and a robot in two different locations, but later shifted its primary business to serving the space industry back in 2017. Earlier this year, the company announced it has appointed Yuto Nakanishi as COO. Nakanishi is a humanoid scientist/engineer and former CEO of Schaft, the Japanese robotics startup acquired by Google.

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Boasting 300M+ consumer reach in Asia, Yoyo launches Popstar influencer platform

Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
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See the original story in Japanese. Manila-based Yoyo Holdings, the startup known for its PopSlide mobile rewards platform, announced on Monday that it has officially launched a micro influencer platform called PopStar. Since its quiet launch in a stealth mode back in July of last year, the platform has acquired more than 200,000 micro influencers in the Philippines and Indonesia, boasting an accumulated total of 300 million consumers following the influencers as the number of the platform’s marketing reach. The number of their influencers registered is ranked on the top in all across the Asian market where influencer marketing is specifically trending. As a reason why the company can attract such a huge number of influencers, Yoyo Holdings founder and CEO Yosuke Fukada pointed out they could leverage the PopSlide app which helped them reduce the marketing cost for acquiring influencers for PopStar as well as having built a system that allows them to easily manage the entire process from managing influencers to measuring campaign performances. Fukada also told us the story behind why Popstar was launched: Under the mission of allowing people to use mobile internet for free of charge, Yoyo was founded and then launched apps like PopSlide…

popstar-1st-anniversary-party
PopStar hosted a party in Manila in July, celebrated its 1st anniversary with about 100 influencers.
Image credit: Yoyo Holdings

See the original story in Japanese.

Manila-based Yoyo Holdings, the startup known for its PopSlide mobile rewards platform, announced on Monday that it has officially launched a micro influencer platform called PopStar. Since its quiet launch in a stealth mode back in July of last year, the platform has acquired more than 200,000 micro influencers in the Philippines and Indonesia, boasting an accumulated total of 300 million consumers following the influencers as the number of the platform’s marketing reach.

The number of their influencers registered is ranked on the top in all across the Asian market where influencer marketing is specifically trending. As a reason why the company can attract such a huge number of influencers, Yoyo Holdings founder and CEO Yosuke Fukada pointed out they could leverage the PopSlide app which helped them reduce the marketing cost for acquiring influencers for PopStar as well as having built a system that allows them to easily manage the entire process from managing influencers to measuring campaign performances.

Fukada also told us the story behind why Popstar was launched:

Under the mission of allowing people to use mobile internet for free of charge, Yoyo was founded and then launched apps like PopSlide and Candy. However, marketing condition have been changed a lot since our foundation seven years ago. Now that we see everyone using Ineternet and data charge cost has significantly dropped down.

In our team, we’ve been discussing how we can keep creating values to the society with PopSlide and Candy only. How can we make more impact? How can we create a service that bring people beyond Internet? Such thought inspired us to invent PopStar.

See also:

popstar-dashboard-audition_screenshot
The “Online Audition” function encourages influencers to submit their sample for a tryout.
Image credit: Yoyo Holdings (Image is partially modified.)

Yoyo has built a platform that helps them easily find influencers who are likely to better reach the appropriate target audience according to the subject of their clients in addition to encouraging these influencers to submit their sample for a tryout. Also, the platform’s dashboard can facilitate everything needed for influence marketing, including managing campaigns, creating performance reports for clients, invoicing to clients, and paying rewards to influencers. Leveraging all this, Yoyo claims that all campaign placements can be managed by just a few people in charge.

PopStar clients are vary from crypto exchange, credit card issuer, major drug store chain, underwear brand, to operator of children’s playground. With a variety of influencers, the platform can deal with many different types of products and services which requires it to reach a huge variety of audience.

popstar-one-stop-dashboard
Image credit: Yoyo Holdings

Fukada added:

PopSlide, the mobile rewards platform we’ve been offering since several years ago, is also boasting a high user retention rate. We cannot disclose exact numbers but I think it must be higher than that of typical popular mobile game titles. Wondering one of the reasons why PopStar is going well is we are a product company and are good at making products.

In contrast to celebrities’ push into leveraging digital media such as YouTube marketing effort, the micro influencer segment is still behind in visualizing its components because influencers can also a long-tail in the whole marketing industry.

If they can achieve a data-driven approach and performance improvement through systemization, there would get a huge business opportunity. Yoyo claims that they want to become the top player in this sector by 2020. Fukada didn’t mention whether a regional or global top but that probably means the global one.

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Japan’s social gifting and e-voucher rewards platform Giftee files for IPO

SCORE 2,010 Takeshi Hirano Takeshi Hirano
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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Giftee, the Japanese startup behind the platform allowing users to send friends an e-voucher which they can then redeem at selected retailers, announced on Friday that its IPO application to the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) has been approved. The company will be listed on the TSE Mothers Market on 20 September with plans to offer 800,000 shares for public subscription and to sell 658,000 shares in over-allotment options, for a total of 3.59 million shares. Nomura Securities will lead the underwriting. Its share price range will be released on 30 August with bookbuilding scheduled to start on 3 September and pricing on 9 September. According to the consolidated statement as of December 2018, they posted revenue of 1.12 billion yen (about $10.5 million) with an ordinary profit of 283 million yen ($2.7 million). Given that the tentative share price will be set at 1,250 yen and the company has issued a total of 24.03 million shares to date, their market cap is expected to be around 31 billion yen ($290 million). Founded in October of 2008, Giftee started the social gifting platform under the same name back in March of 2011. Subsequently the…

giftee-tealive-malaysia
In addition to its home turf of Japan, Giftee’s eGift system is now available in Malaysia.
Image credit: Giftee

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Giftee, the Japanese startup behind the platform allowing users to send friends an e-voucher which they can then redeem at selected retailers, announced on Friday that its IPO application to the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) has been approved. The company will be listed on the TSE Mothers Market on 20 September with plans to offer 800,000 shares for public subscription and to sell 658,000 shares in over-allotment options, for a total of 3.59 million shares. Nomura Securities will lead the underwriting.

Its share price range will be released on 30 August with bookbuilding scheduled to start on 3 September and pricing on 9 September. According to the consolidated statement as of December 2018, they posted revenue of 1.12 billion yen (about $10.5 million) with an ordinary profit of 283 million yen ($2.7 million). Given that the tentative share price will be set at 1,250 yen and the company has issued a total of 24.03 million shares to date, their market cap is expected to be around 31 billion yen ($290 million).

Founded in October of 2008, Giftee started the social gifting platform under the same name back in March of 2011. Subsequently the company launched a B2B service called Giftee for Business back in April of 2016, which allows companies to send an e-voucher to their clients and now accounts for 62% of the total revenue. They formed a capital and business tie-up with Japanese credit card giant JCB and department store operator Marui Group.

Gifttee had attracted a total of 1.1 million users with its original consumer-focused service since its launch to December of 2018, which eventually reached 1.25 million users back in June this year. Led by founder and CEO Mutsumi Ota (20.46%), the company’s major shareholders include telco giant KDDI (15.46%) and VC firm Jafco (15.05%).

See also:

Translated by Masaru Ikeda

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