THE BRIDGE

tag Chatwork

Japanese business chat tool developer Chatwork files for IPO

SCORE 1,082 The Bridge The Bridge
SHARE:

Kobe-headquartered Chatwork, the startup behind a cloud-based business chat tool under the same name, announced on Thursday that its IPO application to the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) has been approved. The company will be listed on the TSE Mothers Market on 24 September with plans to offer 600,000 shares for public subscription and to sell up to 1,270,500 shares in over-allotment options, for a total of 7.9 million shares. Daiwa Securities will lead the underwriting. Its share price range will be released on 29 August with bookbuilding scheduled to start on 2 September and pricing on 6 September. According to the consolidated statement as of December 2018, they posted revenue of 1.31 billion yen (about $12.3 million) with an ordinary loss of 186 million yen ($1.75 million) and a net loss of 110 million yen ($1.04 million). Chatwork, the company’s flagship service, is now being served to 2,747,000 users while 364,000 paying users among them are subscribing to its premium service (as of June this year). In addition, the company also sells antivirus products of Slovakian IT security company ESET. Founded in July of 2000 as EC Studio, the company raised 300 million yen (about $2.5 million) from GMO Venture…

chatwork_screenshots
Image credit: Chatwork

Kobe-headquartered Chatwork, the startup behind a cloud-based business chat tool under the same name, announced on Thursday that its IPO application to the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) has been approved. The company will be listed on the TSE Mothers Market on 24 September with plans to offer 600,000 shares for public subscription and to sell up to 1,270,500 shares in over-allotment options, for a total of 7.9 million shares. Daiwa Securities will lead the underwriting.

Its share price range will be released on 29 August with bookbuilding scheduled to start on 2 September and pricing on 6 September. According to the consolidated statement as of December 2018, they posted revenue of 1.31 billion yen (about $12.3 million) with an ordinary loss of 186 million yen ($1.75 million) and a net loss of 110 million yen ($1.04 million).

chatwork-office
Image credit: Chatwork

Chatwork, the company’s flagship service, is now being served to 2,747,000 users while 364,000 paying users among them are subscribing to its premium service (as of June this year). In addition, the company also sells antivirus products of Slovakian IT security company ESET.

Founded in July of 2000 as EC Studio, the company raised 300 million yen (about $2.5 million) from GMO Venture Partners in April of 2015, and subsequently 1.5 billion yen (about $12.8million) from GMO Venture Partners, Jafco, Shinsei Corporate Investment, and SMBC Venture Capital in January of 2016. Established in Osaka, they have moved their headquarters to Tanigami, the western part of Kobe City, as an effort to help making the mountainous area “another Silicon Valley”. They also have business operations in Tokyo and Osaka as well as a representative office in Taipei.

See also:

Related news

  1. Preparing for an IPO, Japan’s business chat tool provider Chatwork raises $2.5 million
  2. Japan’s business chat tool Chatwork lands $12.8M funding to fuel global expansion
  3. Japanese crowdsourcing startup Lancers files for IPO

Japan’s business chat tool Chatwork lands $12.8M funding to fuel global expansion

Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
SHARE:

Osaka-based Chatwork, a Japanese startup that operates a cloud-based chat tool for business under the same name, announced today that it has fundraised 1.5 billion yen ($12.8 million) in a series B round from Jafco, Shinsei Corporate Investment, SMBC Venture Capital, and GMO Venture Partners. This follows the company’s previous $2.5 million funding in April 2015. The latest funding means the company has raised 1.8 billion yen ($15.3 million) to date. Since its launch in March of 2011, the Chatwork app has been providing a business chat environment for corporate users, with features like group chat, task management, file management, and video conferencing. They are serving 86,000 corporate users worldwide, many of whom are small and medium-size enterprises. With the funding, the company will boost service expansion in the United States and Asian markets, aiming to acquire 150,000 companies as users in three years. See also: Japan’s Chatwork brings its business chat tool to Europe Edited by Kurt Hanson

chatwork_featuredimage

Osaka-based Chatwork, a Japanese startup that operates a cloud-based chat tool for business under the same name, announced today that it has fundraised 1.5 billion yen ($12.8 million) in a series B round from Jafco, Shinsei Corporate Investment, SMBC Venture Capital, and GMO Venture Partners. This follows the company’s previous $2.5 million funding in April 2015. The latest funding means the company has raised 1.8 billion yen ($15.3 million) to date.

Since its launch in March of 2011, the Chatwork app has been providing a business chat environment for corporate users, with features like group chat, task management, file management, and video conferencing. They are serving 86,000 corporate users worldwide, many of whom are small and medium-size enterprises. With the funding, the company will boost service expansion in the United States and Asian markets, aiming to acquire 150,000 companies as users in three years.

See also:

Edited by Kurt Hanson

Related news

  1. Japanese business chat tool developer Chatwork files for IPO
  2. Preparing for an IPO, Japan’s business chat tool provider Chatwork raises $2.5 million
  3. 18 startups from around the world compete at B Dash Camp pitch arena in Fukuoka

Preparing for an IPO, Japan’s business chat tool provider Chatwork raises $2.5 million

Junya Mori Junya Mori
SHARE:

See the original story in Japanese. Osaka-based Chatwork, a Japanese startup that operates a cloud-based chat tool for business under the same name, announced today that it has fundraised 300 million yen ($2.5 million) from GMO Venture Partners. The funds will be used to hire engineers to strengthen system development, promotional efforts for user acquisitions, and partnering with other companies. Chatwork will greatly expand business in Asia, leveraging GMO Venture Partners’ massive links with startup ecosystems and payment networks in the region. Headquartered in Osaka, Chatwork has regional offices in Tokyo and Silicon Valley. The company is a 35-person team, but will grow to over 100 people within a few years. Chatwork plans to release the tool’s version 4.0 in this year, rolling out a fully-renewed interface of the mobile app, strengthening task management and video conference functions, developing a desktop app, and officially launching an application programming interface (API). Since its launch in 2000, Chatwork has been bootstrapping the business in positive balance. With the funding, the company will focus on strengthening its business structure and product development. The company is today preparing for an IPO. Translated by Masaru Ikeda Edited by Kurt Hanson and “Tex” Pomeroy

ryu-muramatsu-toshiyuki-yamamoto
From the left: GMO Venture Partners’ founding partner Ryu Muramatsu, Chatwork CEO Toshiyuki Yamamoto

See the original story in Japanese.

Osaka-based Chatwork, a Japanese startup that operates a cloud-based chat tool for business under the same name, announced today that it has fundraised 300 million yen ($2.5 million) from GMO Venture Partners. The funds will be used to hire engineers to strengthen system development, promotional efforts for user acquisitions, and partnering with other companies.

Chatwork will greatly expand business in Asia, leveraging GMO Venture Partners’ massive links with startup ecosystems and payment networks in the region. Headquartered in Osaka, Chatwork has regional offices in Tokyo and Silicon Valley. The company is a 35-person team, but will grow to over 100 people within a few years.

Chatwork plans to release the tool’s version 4.0 in this year, rolling out a fully-renewed interface of the mobile app, strengthening task management and video conference functions, developing a desktop app, and officially launching an application programming interface (API).

Since its launch in 2000, Chatwork has been bootstrapping the business in positive balance. With the funding, the company will focus on strengthening its business structure and product development. The company is today preparing for an IPO.

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

Related news

  1. chatwork Japan’s Chatwork brings its business chat tool to Europe
  2. get-gamba Japanese business reporting tool Gamba raises $200,000 from Skyland Ventures
  3. Business reporting tool Gamba now integrates with GitHub, BitBucket, and more

Japan’s Chatwork brings its business chat tool to Europe

Junya Mori Junya Mori
SHARE:

See the original story in Japanese. Chatwork Inc., a Japanese startup that operates a cloud-based chat tool for business, has announced that it would start expanding service operations to the European region from Luxembourg. This follows its international expansion to North America last year, and the Asian region this past spring. The Chatwork app was launched back in March of 2011, providing a business chat environment for corporate users, with features like group chat, task management, file management, and video conferencing. Luxembourg is known for having a very low tax rate, and has succeeded in inviting a number of multinational companies to set up shop there. It’s surrounded by Germany, France, and Belgium, and most local citizens can speak English, Luxembourgish, German, and French. Chatwork has decided to start its European operations here because of these geographical and linguistic advantages. The company was in attendance at ICT Spring 2013, an annual tech startup conference in the country taking place this week. The startup recently unveiled that it has acquired more than 200,000 users as of this month. In terms of the ratio of paid to unpaid users, Chatwork has performed even better than services like Dropbox or Evernote, which are…

logotype_basic_bgnone

See the original story in Japanese.

Chatwork Inc., a Japanese startup that operates a cloud-based chat tool for business, has announced that it would start expanding service operations to the European region from Luxembourg. This follows its international expansion to North America last year, and the Asian region this past spring.

The Chatwork app was launched back in March of 2011, providing a business chat environment for corporate users, with features like group chat, task management, file management, and video conferencing.

Luxembourg is known for having a very low tax rate, and has succeeded in inviting a number of multinational companies to set up shop there. It’s surrounded by Germany, France, and Belgium, and most local citizens can speak English, Luxembourgish, German, and French. Chatwork has decided to start its European operations here because of these geographical and linguistic advantages. The company was in attendance at ICT Spring 2013, an annual tech startup conference in the country taking place this week.

The startup recently unveiled that it has acquired more than 200,000 users as of this month. In terms of the ratio of paid to unpaid users, Chatwork has performed even better than services like Dropbox or Evernote, which are said to be around 4 to 4.5%. More than 50,000 users visit the service every day, and more than 100 million messages have been exchanged using the platform.

The startup unveiled a screen-sharing feature called ChatWork back in May. And from here, it will be interesting to see how much traction it can build in the country where Skype started its journey.

Related news

  1. Preparing for an IPO, Japan’s business chat tool provider Chatwork raises $2.5 million
  2. skeed Japanese startup offers network optimization in Europe, sets up shop in Luxembourg
  3. get-gamba Japanese business reporting tool Gamba raises $200,000 from Skyland Ventures

Recent Articles

Trends