Japan's VC-backed Chatwork files for IPO

According to the prospectus the company plans to sell 7.9 million shares on the high-growth and emerging stocks section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The total includes 600,000 fresh shares and an offer for sale by several existing shareholders, including 1.8 million shares from Jafco, 1.1 million from GMO Venture Partners, and 400,000 held by SMBC Venture Capital. All of the VC backers will retain partial stakes following the listing.

Chatwork, launched in 2011, provides a range of services to enterprise customers through its namesake platform such as chat, voice and video conferencing, task management, and file sharing. It claims to offer a simple and intuitive user interface suitable for a wide range of industries and user types regardless of IT literacy, along with high-quality encryption and security features. The software is available as a browser app, as well as for smart phones and tablets.

The company had 225,000 corporate clients worldwide as of June 2019, with more than 642,000 daily active users. Of its users, 364,000 are subscribers to Chatwork’s paid plans. These come in several tiers and offer features on top of the company’s free service such as group video calls, unlimited group membership, and expanded cloud storage.

For the year ended December 2018, Chatwork reported JPY1.3 billion ($12.2 billion) in revenue, up from JPY968 million the year before. Over the same period the net loss shrank from JPY233 million to JPY111 million.

Chatwork raised $12.5 million in a 2016 Series B round from GMO, Jafco, and SMBC. GMO also provided the company with $2.5 million in Series A funding in 2015.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Technology
• Support services
• IPO
• Japan
• JAFCO
• SMBC Venture Capital
• GMO Ventures
• TMT
• professional services