ITOCHU Announces Investment in CAMPFIRE, Inc.
April 10, 2019
ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Yoshihisa Suzuki, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it had agreed to partially underwrite new shares issued through a third-party allotment by CAMPFIRE, Inc. (headquartered in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Kazuma Ieiri, hereinafter “CAMPFIRE”). Leveraging CAMPFIRE’s crowd funding “CAMPFIRE,” ITOCHU aims to create synergies between the crowd funding and its existing fashion brand business.
CAMPFIRE began operation of the purchase-type crowd funding “CAMPFIRE” in 2011. Under its mission “Democratize financing,” it has called a community in which people are connected and support each other at individual and regional levels the “small economic circle,” and has provided support for various challenges. The CAMPFIRE has grown into one of the largest crowd funding sources in Japan, with a cumulative amount in circulation exceeding 10 billion yen in February 2019.
Through this investment in CAMPFIRE, ITOCHU will help the company expand its business further and also accelerate the next generation of ITOCHU’s brand business by actively using the “CAMPFIRE” platform for various purposes, such as launching new products under existing brands and forecasting demand for overseas brands with no stores yet in Japan. In the medium to long term, by combining its experience, know-how and network with CAMPFIRE’s, ITOCHU will develop not only its fashion field but also its non-resources field ― one of its strengths. In the future, it seeks to maximize collaborative synergies with a view to expanding its operations overseas.
CAMPFIRE's Website
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