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Japanese fashion commerce giant Zozotown buys e-commerce solutions provider Aratana

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See the original story in Japanese. Start Today (TSE:3092), a company that provides Japan’s largest fashion commerce site Zozotown, announced today that it has acquired e-commerce solution provider Aratana. Aratana was launched with the aim to create new jobs for 1,000 people in Miyazaki, a coastal city on Japan’s Kyushu Island. Since its launch in 2007, the company has served more than 800 Japanese companies to develop their e-commerce sites. Meanwhile, Start Today has been helping apparel brands develop e-commerce sites in addition to operating Zozotown, Start Today’s flagship fashion commerce site. Through the partnership, Aratana will help Start Today offer their e-commerce site development services to apparel brands. As reported last year, Aratana is comprised of more than 100 engineers, with a 24-year-old security hacker as CTO at the head of the list. The company will maintain its independent business operations with their personnel structure unchanged after the acquisition. Start Today acquired DIY e-commerce solution startup Stores.jp in 2013. It will be interesting to see how the tie-up will bring synergy to both companies. Translated by Masaru Ikeda Edited by Kurt Hanson Proofread by “Tex” Pomeroy  

zozotown-aratana_logos

See the original story in Japanese.

Start Today (TSE:3092), a company that provides Japan’s largest fashion commerce site Zozotown, announced today that it has acquired e-commerce solution provider Aratana.

Aratana was launched with the aim to create new jobs for 1,000 people in Miyazaki, a coastal city on Japan’s Kyushu Island. Since its launch in 2007, the company has served more than 800 Japanese companies to develop their e-commerce sites.

Meanwhile, Start Today has been helping apparel brands develop e-commerce sites in addition to operating Zozotown, Start Today’s flagship fashion commerce site. Through the partnership, Aratana will help Start Today offer their e-commerce site development services to apparel brands.

As reported last year, Aratana is comprised of more than 100 engineers, with a 24-year-old security hacker as CTO at the head of the list. The company will maintain its independent business operations with their personnel structure unchanged after the acquisition.

Start Today acquired DIY e-commerce solution startup Stores.jp in 2013. It will be interesting to see how the tie-up will bring synergy to both companies.

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

 

Japan’s e-commerce solutions company Aratana acquires security startup Gehirn

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This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese. Aratana, the startup that provides most solutions needed to launch an e-commerce site, announced earlier this week that it has acquired security solution startup Gehirn (named after ‘brain’ in German) and logistics company Terminal. Since its launch back in 2007, Aratana has been serving over 5,000 companies with e-commerce solutions such as Cagolab (customizable e-commerce suite) and Sketch Page (e-commerce site design tool). Some of our readers may recall that the company fundraised 550 million yen (about $5.5 million) from Japan’s Docomo Ventures and recruiting company LiveSense (TSE:6054) last year. Using the funds raised at that time, they took over Japanese fashion and culture news publishing company Honeyee.com last year. With the acquisition at this time, they aim to solidify their edge and provide a more flexible but secured platform for their users. Coinciding with the acquisition, Gehirn’s CEO Daiki Ishimori joined the board of Aratana Group as CTO and will focus on increasing the skill level of engineers at Aratana as well as managing the security business at Gehirn. Born in 1990, Ishimori started running his own server at home when he was attending an elementary school. Subsequently…

hamauzu-ishimori
From the left: Aratana CEO Shinji Hamauzu, Gehirn CEO Daiki Ishimori

This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese.

Aratana, the startup that provides most solutions needed to launch an e-commerce site, announced earlier this week that it has acquired security solution startup Gehirn (named after ‘brain’ in German) and logistics company Terminal.

Since its launch back in 2007, Aratana has been serving over 5,000 companies with e-commerce solutions such as Cagolab (customizable e-commerce suite) and Sketch Page (e-commerce site design tool). Some of our readers may recall that the company fundraised 550 million yen (about $5.5 million) from Japan’s Docomo Ventures and recruiting company LiveSense (TSE:6054) last year. Using the funds raised at that time, they took over Japanese fashion and culture news publishing company Honeyee.com last year.

With the acquisition at this time, they aim to solidify their edge and provide a more flexible but secured platform for their users. Coinciding with the acquisition, Gehirn’s CEO Daiki Ishimori joined the board of Aratana Group as CTO and will focus on increasing the skill level of engineers at Aratana as well as managing the security business at Gehirn.

Born in 1990, Ishimori started running his own server at home when he was attending an elementary school. Subsequently he attended the Security Camp training program run by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, where he got huge knowledge and experience about the server security.

In 2008, he moved into limelight since he pointed out mistakes in the hacking scene in Japanese TV drama series Bloody Monday, and later was hired by Japanese computer security company Cyber Defense Institute at his age of 18. He’s been providing consulting services in the computer security field to governmental institutions and major corporations in Japan, and subsequently established his own company Gehirn back in 2010.

When I visited Gehirn's office, they were displaying the earthquake early warning (EEW) system that they have developed.
When I visited Gehirn’s office, they were displaying the earthquake early warning (EEW) system that they have developed.