Japan mobile banking player Kyash gets $41m Series C
Altos Ventures, Goodwater Capital, Greyhound Capital, and StepStone Group are part of an investor group that has committed JPY 4.9bn (USD 41m) in Series D funding to Tokyo-based mobile banking start-up Kyash.
Other participants in the round include Hong Kong-based Yitu Capital, Japan Post Investment Corporation, SMBC Venture Capital, Sumitomo Mitsui Marine Capital, AG Capital, Jafco, and W Ventures. There was also a contribution from Block, the payments giant formerly known as Square.
Kyash has now raised approximately JPY 12.8bn to date. Its Series C closed on USD 45m in April 2020 with Greenspring and Goodwater taking the lead. Greenspring was acquired by StepStone last year. Goodwater also led a USD 14m Series B in 2019 alongside Mitsubishi UFJ Capital.
Kyash, which will use the new funding for recruitment, business development, and service upgrades, was established in 2015. Its primary offering is a mobile banking app that facilitates online and offline payments, remittances, and ATM withdrawals, as well as debit and credit card management.
The company hopes to benefit from government policies – such as payment subsidies – intended to make 40% of all transactions in Japan cashless by 2025. At the same time, it is building a full-stack mobile banking business, which includes issuing pre-paid Visa cards.
Shinichi Takatori, Kyash’s founder and CEO, said in a statement that it is difficult to build a sustainable business on payments alone. To this end, the company will continue to pursue expansion through alliances and collaborations.
Takuma Baba, a managing director at Japan Post Investment Corporation, added that the rise of challenger banks is an irreversible theme in financial services. “Kyash's user-first and mobile-first ideas and designs are expected to evolve as a core service that unbundles traditional financial institutions and re-bundles them using technology,” he said.
The best-funded start-up in Japan’s payments space was Paidy, which allows shoppers to pay for online purchases in monthly instalments. The company agreed to a USD 2.7bn acquisition by PayPal last September.
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