ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Yoshihisa Suzuki, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it has formed a capital and business alliance (hereinafter “the alliance”) with BigRentz Inc. (headquartered in Irvine, California, USA; Scott Cannon, CEO; hereinafter “BigRentz”).

Since its establishment in 2015, BigRentz has built a platform which offers a seamless service that allows users to book, pay, and manage transactions through its website or in-house app for the standby fleets of construction equipment rental suppliers. Currently, BigRentz partners with over 2,500 rental suppliers of all sizes across the United States, and the accumulated number of users has exceeds 25,000 with over 110,000 rental transactions. To meet the challenge for the construction machinery rental industry in North America posed by the shift towards the use of IT and online operations, the Company is utilizing its accumulated big data to develop a range of solutions for construction equipment rental suppliers and users respectively.

Through this alliance, BigRentz will leverage ITOCHU's business know-how and global network for the further expansion of its network and the development and provision of new solutions in order to enhance corporate value.

Under the basic policy of “reinvention of business” set forth in the Medium-Term Management Plan, ITOCHU is making a concerted effort to evolve its business model and enhance the value of the group value chain based on the concept of “market-in,” which develops products in regions close to the customer. This partnership with BigRentz will result in the creation of new value and solutions in the construction equipment business by harnessing Big Data, IoT and the networks of the two companies.