ITOCHU Announces Strategic Business Investment in Paidy for Strengthening Consumer Finance Business

July 11, 2018

ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Yoshihisa Suzuki, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that with Pocket Card Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Haruo Takagaki, President; hereinafter “Pocket Card”), it will make a strategic investment in Paidy Inc. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Riku Sugie, President & CEO; hereinafter “Paidy”), an online post-pay settlement service operator, through a capital increase via a third-party allocation of new shares, etc., which assumes conversion into an equity method affiliate in the future.

As the domestic e-commerce market is growing steadily, the post-pay settlement market is booming as it meets the needs of users, especially the young, who do not own credit cards or who do not want to use them for online payment out of security concerns. Most notably, Paidy is growing rapidly by its post-pay settlement service that focuses on continuous improvements in usability, in which real-time online settlement is possible. In November 2017, the number of Paidy user accounts exceeded one million, and as of the end of June 2018 that number had reached more than 1.4 million. Paidy is also highly acclaimed by its member stores for its proprietary credit scoring model, which enables them to deal in a wide range of products, resulting in an extensive member store network that includes about 700,000 sites as of the end of June 2018.

ITOCHU promotes business in the consumer-related sector and with venture companies by reinventing business as articulated in the Medium-Term Management Plan “Brand-new Deal 2020.” In the consumer finance sector, ITOCHU made an additional investment in Pocket Card last year as well as an investment in FinTech start-up. It will now convert Paidy, a start-up specializing in online settlement service, into a group company at an early stage. By combining the strength of Paidy, a rising start-up, and the expertise that Pocket Card has cultivated in the payment sector for years, ITOCHU will build advanced, user-friendly, next-generation financial services for consumer payments, income, remittances etc., to meet the needs of both companies and consumers.

Overview of Paidy

Corporate Name Paidy Inc.
Established 2008
Head Office Minato-ku, Tokyo
Representative Riku Sugie
Business Summary Operation of online post-pay settlement service Paidy
URL https://paidy.com/