Dentsu Inc. (Tokyo: 4324; ISIN: JP3551520004; President & CEO: Toshihiro Yamamoto; Head Office: Tokyo; Capital: 74,609.81 million yen) announced today that Dentsu Ventures Global Fund I (hereinafter "Dentsu Ventures"), the Company's corporate venture capital fund, has made an investment in FOLIO Co. Ltd. (Head Office: Tokyo; CEO: Shinichiro Kai; hereinafter "FOLIO Co."), which offers a next-generation online security brokerage service called FOLIO that enables small and theme-based investments. FOLIO Co. is the first independent online brokerage firm dealing with domestic stocks established in ten years.
With its mission to make "investing barrier-free", FOLIO Co. has developed FOLIO, a service that enables anyone to begin asset management with ease and then to have fun continuing it. FOLIO Co. began offering a beta service to the public in November 2017. The service offers a variety of themes, such as Next Generation Material, VR (Virtual Reality), e-sports, Kyoto and Cosplay, and allows investors to easily choose from a lineup of these themes as if they were shopping. Expectations on the growth of FOLIO Co. are high as it is the first online brokerage firm established in ten years and because it is the first service offering theme-based investing in Japan.
As Japan's individual financial assets move from savings to investment, Dentsu Ventures is confident that FOLIO's theme-based investment model and sophisticated UI/UX will, by lowering the investment hurdle, expand the base of individual investors in quantity, as well as promote the establishment of completely new relationships between investors and companies. Based on this investment, the Dentsu Group aims to support the expansion of FOLIO's business through cooperation in such areas as content development that increases "excitement" about the company's marketing and investment activities.
Summary of FOLIO and profiles of FOLIO Co. and Dentsu Ventures are provided below:
Summary of FOLIO, a Next-Generation Investment Service
FOLIO enables individuals to compile a diversified portfolio starting from just 100,000 yen for each theme. Investors can easily invest in multiple companies simply by choosing such themes as Drone or Young Women's Trends, with the portfolio of each theme comprising ten promising companies selected by FOLIO. Furthermore, a diversified selection of individual stocks enables performance with lower risk, which allows the investor to enjoy asset management with a higher level of assuredness.
Profile of FOLIO Co. Ltd.
Name: FOLIO Co. Ltd.
Location: Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo
Date of Establishment: December 2015
Capital:￥2,120,283,436 (including capital reserve) (As of July 2017)
Representative: Shinichiro Kai, CEO of FOLIO Co., Ltd.
Line of Business: First-class financial instruments business, investment management
Profile of Dentsu Ventures
Name: Dentsu Ventures Global Fund I
Total Fund Capital: ￥10 billion
Date of Establishment: April 2015
Period of Operation: Ten-year period from April 2015 until March 2025
Investment Regions: Global investments with a focus on the U.S.A., Europe, Japan and Asia
Investment Stages: Balanced, wide-ranging investments with the focus on seed and early stage investments, but also including mid-stage and later-stage investments
Investment Areas: (1) Areas that can change the marketing and communication business in a broad sense (2) New areas other than the above that have a high potential for innovation
URL: http://dentsu-v.com/
#####
Contacts:
Media-related enquiries: Shusaku Kannan
Managing Director, Corporate Communications Division
Telephone: (813) 6216-8042
E-mail: s.kannan@dentsu.co.jp
Investment-related enquiries: Dentsu Ventures
E-mail: info@dentsu-v.com
