Japan-headquartered, multicorporate-backed camera surveillance technology provider Safie floated on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Mothers Market in an initial public offering late last month.
The IPO involved Safie issuing about 3.3 million new shares priced at ¥2,430 ($21.80) each last Wednesday, before they reached ¥3,700 ($33.20) later in the week, helping the company lift its market capitalisation to roughly $1.6bn.
Founded in 2014, Safie has built a cloud-integrated closed-circuit television (CCTV) platform that helps enterprise and private customers record high-resolution videos which can be accessed on electronic devices including smartphones.
The company had received funding from NTT Docomo Ventures, a vehicle for mobile network operator NTT Docomo, in November 2019. It came in the wake of an investment of similarly undisclosed size by real estate developer Mitsui Fudosan’s 31Ventures subsidiary a few days before.
Financial services firm Senshu Ikeda Bank’s Innovation Fund 25 unit and security system producer Secom had provided an undisclosed amount for Safie in October 2019, a deal which followed $9.1m a month earlier from Canon Marketing Japan, a subsidiary of imaging technology producer Canon.
Canon Marketing Japan had already backed a $8.6m round for the company in 2017 alongside financial services provider Orix, electric utility Kansai Electric Power, IT services firm NEC – through its NEC Capital Solutions unit – and mobile device distributor T-Gaia Corporation.
Electronics manufacturer Sony’s Sony Network Communications (So-net) unit was also an earlier investor in the company.
SMBC Nikko Securities, Mizuho Securities, Tokai Tokyo Securities, Nomura Securities, SBI Securities, Daiwa Securities, Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities, Rakuten Securities, Ichiyoshi Securities and Marusan Securities were principal underwriters for the offering.
