ITOCHU Announces Strengthening of Capital Tie-up with Paidy Inc.

April 9, 2020

ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Yoshihisa Suzuki, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it has again underwritten new shares issued through a third-party allotment by Paidy Inc. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Riku Sugie, President & CEO; hereinafter “Paidy”), which offers an online Buy Now Pay Later service, and strengthened its capital tie-up with Paidy. Since forming a capital and business tie-up with Paidy in July 2016, ITOCHU gradually acquired additional shares in Paidy and this latest acquisition of additional shares increases ITOCHU’s stake in Paidy up to around 25%.

With mobile payments becoming more popular in Japan and non-financial firms entering the Japanese financial service sector, supported by government policies such as the “Cashless Vision” policy, the mobile payment market in Japan has entered a period of great change. Meanwhile, new financial services focused on convenience and consumer experience that reflect changing consumer needs and behavior in a digital society are emerging one after another.
Paidy is a Buy Now Pay Later service offering a superior consumer experience. Paidy does not require pre-registration and payment is made using just a mobile phone number and email address. The service meets the needs of users who do not have or do not want to use credit cards and it currently has more than 3 million users, mostly young consumers, and the network of stores that accept Paidy payment is also gradually expanding. Paidy, which continues to grow by addressing fraud and other issues surrounding ecommerce and the payment business, has established itself as a front runner among Japanese FinTech startups.

ITOCHU aims to enhance value in life and consumption-related value chains under its Medium-Term Management Plan “Brand-new Deal 2020” and, in the retail finance sector, with Pocket Card Co., Ltd. as the core player, ITOCHU is expanding its business portfolio through capital participation in Paidy and other FinTech startups.
Paidy, with its user base of mostly young consumers, and ITOCHU, with its diverse financial service capabilities and retail-related businesses, mutually complement each other. ITOCHU has strengthened cooperation with Paidy through joint sales to large affiliate partner stores, support for adoption of Paidy among ITOCHU Group companies, and reinforcement of its operation structure. By strengthening their capital tie-up further, ITOCHU aims to further increase cooperation with Paidy. Both companies will jointly pursue advancement into the offline payment market, development of new services, and global expansion to offer financial services with a superior consumer experience.

Overview of Paidy

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