ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it has concluded a capital and business alliance with SIGMAXYZ Inc. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Ryuichi Tomimura, Representative Director and President; hereinafter “SIGMAXYZ”).

In recent years, in response to rapid changes in the social environment such as the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for facilitating large-scale changes that redefine corporate business models using digital technologies is rising. For this reason, it is crucial to swiftly develop viable on-site digital transformation (hereinafter “DX”) measures that examine fundamental business management issues of companies, in addition to partial optimization measures such as investment in IT systems. Against this background, the significance and need for consulting that serves as entry points for DX are growing and the consulting market in Japan is expected to surpass 1 trillion yen in 2024, compared to approximately 780 billion yen in 2020.

SIGMAXYZ is a leading professional consulting firm in Japan established in 2008. Focusing on supporting corporate DX as the theme of its business, it is working to enhance value for a wide range of industries and enterprises, mainly through the development of business strategies, M&A, business transformation, organizational transformation, the use of digital technologies and cloud solutions, project management, new business development, the promotion of cooperation among businesses, business investment and the establishment of joint ventures.

As a result of the alliance, ITOCHU will promote the adoption of DX in numerous industries, by utilizing the national and international networks of the ITOCHU Group and SIGMAXYZ’s expertise.
ITOCHU will also collaborate with ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Ichiro Tsuge, President & CEO), a company that has been demonstrating strength in developing and operating systems and applications, BELLSYSTEM24 Holdings Inc. (headquartered in Chuo-ku, Tokyo; Shunsuke Noda, President & Representative Director), which excels in the provision of services aiming at customer success through BPO^*1, and ITOCHU group companies offering diverse DX solutions, aiming to create higher added value in driving the expansion of existing businesses and the creation of new businesses, all the way from planning to implementation.

The DX-related initiatives that ITOCHU has been advancing include the acquisition of WingArc1st Inc., a company that operates a data management business, in December 2019 as an equity method company, the establishment of a business partnership in March 2020 with AKQA Corp, a company that seeks to leverage its strengths in the digital consulting business, a capital and business tie-up in November 2020 with BrainPad Inc., a company that provides data-leveraged DX support services, and the establishment of GI Cloud, Inc., a company that develops cloud applications, in March 2021. Through this capital and business alliance with SIGMAXYZ, ITOCHU will contribute to the realization of sustainable digital society based on the market/consumer oriented approach to solve issues for the market and our customers.