Sansan, a Japan-based business card management platform backed by corporates CyberAgent, GMO, Japan Post, Nikkei, Nippon Life, Recruit and Salesforce, priced an initial public offering today that could raise approximately $360m.
The shares were priced at ¥4,500 ($41.70), at the top of the offering’s ¥4,000 to ¥4,500 range. The $360m figure includes the over-allotment option, though it is unclear whether the underwriters had already committed to purchasing the additional shares.
The company is set to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Mothers market on June 19, a date agreed last month when the company’s IPO gained regulatory approval. The price values the company at about $1.2bn according to Reuters.
Founded in 2007, Sansan operates a cloud-based platform that uses optical character recognition to digitise and organise business cards. Known as meishi in Japanese, the cards form an integral and ceremonial part of professional interactions such as business meetings and job interviews.
The extracted data can be stored in third-party customer relationship management platforms such as Salesforce and used to generate leads or uncover actionable insights such as job changes. Sansan also operates a professional social network, Eight.
The company secured some $120m in total equity funding pre-IPO. Japan Post Capital, a subsidiary of courier and logistics service Japan Post, co-led its $26.4m series E round with financial services group SBI’s SBI Investment unit, asset manager T. Rowe Price and VC firm DCM Ventures in December 2018.
Salesforce and DCM Ventures had previously contributed to Sansan’s $38m series D round in August 2017 together with Future Creation Fund, a vehicle backed by carmaker Toyota. Investment bank Goldman Sachs subsequently provided $17.6m three months later.
Salesforce Ventures and Nissay Capital, the respective corporate venture capital vehicles for Salesforce and insurance provider Nippon Life, took part in a $16.9m series C round for the company in 2016.
Sansan raised $14m in a 2014 series B round featuring GMO Venture Partners, the corporate venturing division of internet company GMO, as well as media group Nikkei’s Digital Media unit, public-private partnership Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) and Energy & Environment Investment.
Nissay Capital and GMO had already joined forces for a $5m investment in Sansan in 2013, after internet company CyberAgent and human resources services provider Recruit had supplied $500,000 in 2009.
Chihiro Terada, president and CEO of Sansan, will remain the largest shareholder following the IPO, with his stake being diluted from 37.1% to 35.9%. Its other notable shareholders are DCM (6.7% post-IPO), INCJ (5.7%), financial services firm SMBC Trust Bank (5.6%) and investment bank Goldman Sachs (4.3%).
