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Welcome to the one hundred thirty-first edition of the Japan FinTech Observer.
We tried to have the publication of our weekly report co-incide with quarter-end (at least that is this week’s excuse), and follow the first two trading days of the spun-out Sony Financial. After an indicative price on Friday of around 150 yen, which set the permissible trading range for Monday, the stock reached a high of 206 yen during the morning session, and has been fallen ever since, closing Tuesday at 164 yen. If you need a life insurance company (because that’s what Sony Financial mostly is) to balance your portfolio, here is an opportunity. We will stick to our report from 2021, aptly titled “Sony Financial: free of activists, void of strategy.”
Orion Breweries, Okinawa’s favorite beer, was brought to market by Carlyle last week, and has fared much better. Check out the chart!
Lastly, the Japan FinTech Observer has reached 14,000+ subscribers on the LinkedIn platform alone (add a few thousands more for Medium, Substack and our own website). We always appreciate your spending time with us, thank you! As a brief reminder, if you would like to receive individual news stories instantly, as we publish them, please do subscribe over at fintechobserver.com.
Here is what we are going to cover this week:
Venture Capital & Private Markets: GMO Venture Partners have invested in Crossmint alongside Circle and other investors; FormX has completed a seed round funding of 130 million yen in total, with Genesia Ventures as the lead investor; ASUENE has completed an equity transfer of a 49% stake in ASUENE America Holdings to the Fund Corporation for the Overseas Development of Japan’s ICT and Postal Services (JICT)Insurance: Tokio Marine Holdings (TMHD) has initiated a strategic collaboration with OpenAI; Softbank-backed Ethos has filed for an IPO in the USBanking: SBI Sumishin Net Bank becomes “d NEOBANK” after aquisition by NTT DOCOMO; Seven Bank is entering into a capital and business alliance with ITOCHU, and deploying its ATMs in FamilyMarts across the country; CIC, a designated credit information agency, will resume on October 9; SC Ventures by Standard Chartered Bank, together with Fujitsu, are set to join forces to incubate a quantum computing development platformPayments: Digital Garage has launched global services for “AppPay,” Japan’s №1 off-app billing platformCapital Markets: Japan Exchange Group has upgraded its consolidated earnings forecast; the Tokyo Stock Exchange has selected 20 companies as the 2025 Supported Companies of the TSE Asia Startup Hub;Asset Management: Morgan Stanley expressed the view that the Japanese wealth management business is a growth area that can increase the profitability and earnings stability of financial institutions; Heiwa Real Estate will open FinGATE SAPPORO in IKEUCHI LAB, the first FinGATE facility in SapporoDigital Assets: SBI Securities, Shinsei Trust & Banking, Tokio Marine Asset Management, and BOOSTRY have jointly developed Japan’s first public offering scheme for security tokens of specified beneficial interest-issuing trusts that realize PE investment; SBI Digital Markets has successfully launched its first tranche of luxury wine structured notes in Korea and Thailand; Nonagon Capital has launched support services for major domestic companies to begin validator operationsThe Last Word: Increasing Global Economic Profit
AloJapan.com