Coconala, a Japan-based professional services marketplace that counts corporates Adways, Opt and Voyage Group among its backers, has been approved to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), it announced yesterday.
The initial public offering is scheduled to take place on the Mothers Market on March 19 and Coconala will issue some 11 million shares, with 1.8 million more allocated for the overallotment scheme.
Founded in 2012 as WelSelf, Coconala has developed a customer-to-customer (C2C) portal where members can offer their talent, expertise and knowledge in a certain field.
More than 1.8 million users are registered on the platform and have jointly conducted some 4.8 million transactions in more than 200 service categories, the company said. It had secured $11.1m from investment and financial services group Fidelity in mid-2019.
The company had raised $4.4m from Nissay Capital, Voyage Ventures and SMBC Venture Capital – respective vehicles for insurance firm Nippon Life, internet company Voyage Group and financial services firm Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation – and investment firm Jafco four years before.
Nissay Capital had previously led a $1.5m round for Coconala in 2013, participating with marketing technology providers Opt and Adways as well as private investor Tetsurō Yoshimatsu.
Jafco owns the largest stake (15.3%) in Coconala, followed by company CEO Akiyuki Minami (13.1%) and co-founder and director Satoshi Shimmyo (11.7%), Nissay Capital (11.4% across Fund V and VI) and Fidelity (9.7% combined from multiple funds).
Other Coconala shareholders include Mistletoe Japan (7%), ImproVista (4.2%), Coconala chief operating officer Ayumu Suzuki (3.8%), Coconala employee Mei Sawayama (2.7%), Energy & Environment Investment (2.3%) and DBJ Capital (2.3%).
