ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President & COO; hereinafter "ITOCHU") has formed a capital and business alliance with EVERING Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Chuo-ku, Tokyo; Takeshi Kawada, President & CEO; hereinafter "the EVERING company"), a manufacturer and distributor of EVERING, a SmartRing backed by Visa payment.

In recent years, contactless payment devices have been becoming increasingly popular worldwide. The NFC payment device market was nearly 2 trillion yen in 2020 and is growing at an annual average growth rate of 19.5%. It is projected to reach nearly 8.5 trillion yen by 2028. ^*1
In Japan, cashless payments are increasing year by year because of an increase in smartphone-based QR code payments and in demand for contactless transactions during the COVID pandemic. Means of payment are diversifying to suit consumers’ lifestyles and include traditional credit card payment, QR code or barcode payment, touch and pay, smartwatch payment, and other methods. In particular, means of payment using wearable devices which users can pay simply and easily such as smartwatches are expected to continue to increase in popularity.

EVERING is Japan’s first prepaid SmartRing^*2 backed by Visa payment. It was launched initial sales in Japan in May 2021 before being made available to the public in October of the same year. If you have an EVERING and you are at a shop that offers contactless Visa payment function, you can speedily complete contactless payment from the charged amount on your EVERING without bothering to take out your wallet or smartphone. In March 2022, EVERING was linked to SmartLock devices enabling users to lock or unlock doors by EVERING their EVERING over the reader. This increases the applications for EVERING and the situations where it can be used. The EVERING company has a vision which it calls “less is smart,” and aims to minimize inconvenience and hassles in life. In addition to facilitating payment and unlocking doors, the company seeks to improve and expand EVERING's functions, thereby connecting all flows of life using only a ring. In this way, the company pursues convenience for society.

ITOCHU has a broad business portfolio in the retail finance sector, centering on Pocket Card Co., Ltd., an operator of a credit card and postpay businesses. It thus provides services to meet consumers' financing needs. Beyond supporting distribution of EVERING, the capital and business alliance with the EVERING company will also help to enhance the company’s corporate value by adding insurance and other functions to EVERING and by, through the improvement and expansion of the terms of service, leveraging the resources of ITOCHU as a general trading company which also encompasses the ITOCHU Group companies.
Going forward, ITOCHU and the ITOCHU Group will continue to build next-generation financing services in response to the needs of customers who are involved with a payment and asset management and aim to provide such services to companies and consumers.