ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Yoshihisa Suzuki, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that ITOCHU has invested in and become a strategic business partner with NestEgg, Inc. (headquartered in Chuo-ku, Tokyo; Eihito Tamura, President & CEO, “NestEgg”) which operates finbee, an automatic saving service that operates interlocked with bank accounts and is the first of the services in this category in Japan.

Developed under the concept of “Easier Saving with More Fun,” finbee is an automatic saving service provided through a mobile phone application to support saving in a manner matching the lifestyle of customers. The service operates interlocked with the bank account of the user, allowing the user to readily use auto saving by setting the purpose of saving, the amount to be saved, and the rules for saving. It offers unique functions such as Step-count Saving, a function for saving in accordance with the user’s step count, and Shared Saving, a function for collaborative saving among the user’s family members and friends, offering customers with new saving experiences.

finbee began its service in December 2016, and has already established agreements for interlocking with 11 banks through read and write API for individuals, with interlocked operations with more banks than any of the other services in this industry in Japan (as of the end October 2019). In addition, this service has received support mainly from millennials, and the cumulative total amount of the savings through this service exceeded 5 billion yen in July 2019. Moving forward, through expansion of cooperation with companies offering diverse services for individuals, NestEgg is planning to offer services with more added value for the saving service users.

ITOCHU has become NestEgg’s first strategic business partner with the aim of jointly developing business. Going forward, ITOCHU will establish and expand a cycle for “Saving with More Fun, Use, and Experience” and support the growing of finbee’s user base by jointly developing business partners for finbee, by making use of the network of the ITOCHU Corporation Group.
In addition, in the future, with a view toward building partnerships with financial institutions, ITOCHU will examine the future of financial products jointly with NestEgg, and is aiming at offering financial products in new forms that are triggers for full asset management by individual investors and for the purchasing of more financial products for individuals, such as loans.

ITOCHU includes “Reinvented Business” in its “Brand-new Deal 2020” medium-term management plan and is committed to the evolution of business models. With Pocket Card Co., Ltd., ITOCHU’s consolidated subsidiary, at its core in the financial field, ITOCHU is aiming to expand its financial services and take on new banking functionality through its collaborations with fintech and venture companies. Going forward, ITOCHU is determined to expand its financial businesses further by combining the ITOCHU network, which has strengths in the consumer-related sector, with banking functions and services.