KKR joins $61m round for Japan's Netstars

KKR is investing via its Asia growth technology strategy, for which the firm is raising a dedicated fund. Last week, KKR announced a final close of $15 billion on its fourth flagship pan-regional vehicle.

Netstars was established in 2009 by three IT engineers who wanted to take the best of Japanese and Chinese technology and apply it to digital payment services, international telecom services, and smart phone apps. Initiatives include helping China’s Tencent Holdings expand in Japan through a local version of MobileQQ and the integration of various WeChat Pay.

The company’s primary offering is StarPay, Japan’s leading payments aggregation solution. Using QR code technology, it allows efficient point-of-sale processing for consumers across multiple payment apps. StarPay works with more than 280,000 merchants in Japan and 37 local and foreign payment providers, including PayPay, Line Pay, Alipay, Via, and WeChat Pay.

Netstars will use the new funding to build out the StarPay network, develop new products and services – such as a StarPay mini-app development platform – and expand overseas, according to a statement.

“Led by its experienced management team, the company has developed the settlement infrastructure that is now the go-to solution for customers across Japan. In addition, Netstars is well positioned to advance businesses’ digital transformation and their shift from offline to online, which has become increasingly important during the COVID-19 period,” said Eiji Yatagawa, a partner at KKR.

Yatagawa added that Netstars may end up pursuing an IPO. AVCJ Research’s records indicate the company's first external funding round came in 2018, led by Japan Post Capital. Lun made a commitment of undisclosed size last May. Four months after that, Netstars said that Lun had led a $30 million round, with participation from Line, Itochu Corporation, Japan Post Capital, Sumitomo Corporation, Shinsei Bank, and NTT Group.

Several other Japanese fintech start-ups have attracted substantial private capital, notably Paidy, which closed a $120 million Series D last week, taking its equity and debt funding since inception to $585 million.

Paidy provides secure, real-time credit accounts that allow consumers to shop online and settle a single monthly bill using only a mobile phone number and email address. Its competitors in local mobile payments include Kyash, which closed a $45 million round last year.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Financials
• Technology
• Expansion
• Japan
• Fintech
• Growth capital
• KKR
• SIG
• Lun Partners