Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) has approved Kaizen Platform, a US-headquartered smartphone and website marketing software developer backed by several corporate investors, to list on the Mothers Market on December 22.
The company is set to issue about 1.6 million shares, with 751,000 shares reserved for the over-allotment option.
TSE will reveal the initial public offering’s price range on December 3. Bookbuilding will begin on December 7 while pricing is scheduled for December 11. Kaizen Platform’s valuation will stand at roughly ¥16.9bn ($163m) in the offering.
Kaizen Platform was founded in 2013 in the United States and formed a Japan-based regional branch four years later. It provides cloud and video-based advertisement optimisation tools for mobile and web portals.
The company closed a March 2019 round of undisclosed size featuring printing services provider Dai Nippon Printing, after receiving a similarly undisclosed amount from NTT Advertising, a subsidiary of telecommunications firm NTT, two months before.
Marketing firm Denstu, internet company Yahoo Japan and financial services firms SBI Group and Mizuho Bank took part in a $4.6m series C round in 2017 through respective investment vehicles Dentsu Innovation Partners, YJ Capital, SBI Investment and Mizuho Capital.
YJ Capital contributed to an $8m series B round for the company in 2016, investing with game publisher Colopl, as well as Eight Roads Ventures Japan, GMO VenturePartners, Gree Ventures, NTT Docomo Ventures and Saison Ventures, on behalf of financial services and investment group Fidelity International, internet company GMO, digital media firm Gree, mobile network operator NTT Docomo and payment services firm Credit Saison respectively.
Gree Ventures and Eight Roads (then known as Fidelity Growth Partners Asia) had participated in Kaizen Platform’s $4m series B round in 2015, the two having backed a $5m series A round the year before.
Kaizen Platform’s $800,000 seed round took place in 2013 and featured Gree Ventures, GMO VenturePartners and internet company CyberAgent.
Image courtesy of Twitter.
