Uzabase, a Japan-based corporate database and curated news app provider backed by several corporates, was been approved for a flotation on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Thursday.
The company is scheduled to list on TSE Mothers Market on October 21, 2016, and will issue 543,000 shares, with an additional 114,000 reserved for an over-allotment option. It expects to have a market cap of about ¥17.8bn ($175m).
Founded in 2008, Uzabase initially concentrated on an online database for business and industry information called Speeda before launching NewsPicks, a curated news app, in 2013.
Uzabase has not revealed details off its initial funding but its earlier investors include GMO Venture Partners, the strategic investment subsidiary of internet company GMO, and venture capital firms Monex Ventures and Globis Capital Partners.
All three returned for a $4.5m series C round in 2014 led by Itochu Technology Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of trading group Itochu.
The series C round included publisher Kodansha, YJ Capital, a subsidiary of internet company Yahoo Japan, and financial services firms Shinsei Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, the latter two investing through subsidiaries SMBC Venture Capital and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital.
Uzabase co-founders and CEOs Yusuke Umeda and Ryosuke Shino each hold a 28.3% stake, while other notable shareholders are Globis (11.4%), chief operating officer Yusuke Inagaki (9.9%) and financial information provider FISL (4.8%), according to The Bridge, which cited a stock market filing.