Tag: softbank

Singapore – Southeast Asian used car marketplace Carro is expanding its presence into Japan via a partnership with Japanese multinational conglomerate SoftBank. Through the partnership, Carro Japan aims to introduce its full suite of services, such as subscription-based services and car leasing in the local market.

The market expansion follows a local increase in demand for used cars and subscription-based services, resulting from the backdrop of rising prices of new vehicles and a growing need for car ownership. And yet, there has been difficulty of accurately assessing a used car’s valuation due to the inconsistent and lack of credible evaluation criteria.

With Carro’s Japan entry, it aims as well to support existing car dealers with leasing services and provide a highly competitive subscription-based service. In addition, Carro’s AI technology will be incorporated to accurately predict the valuation of used cars based on their history and data.

Meanwhile, SoftBank’s key role in Carro Japan will be to tailor services for the Japanese market, including marketing, sales, and collaboration with partner companies.

Aaron Tan, CEO and co-founder at Carro, said, “Japan is one of the leading automotive markets and most digitally-savvy countries in Asia. Our entry into Japan is the next natural step in growing our regional presence and helping traditional dealers expand their market reach across the country using our AI-technology-backed capabilities.”

With Carro’s entry into Japan, corporate clients can apply for the subscription-based service by stating their requirements for a used car via Carro Japan’s website, including vehicle size, mileage, non-smoking or smoking options, and more. A list of suitable used cars available for hire will be automatically generated for consideration

Tan added, “Over the next few years, we plan to capitalise on the growth of the used car market. We’ll start by providing car subscription services with SoftBank as a first step, and eventually plan to work with thousands of dealerships across Japan to play an active role in offering consumers a hassle-free buying and selling experience.”

Singapore – Digital experience (DX) analytics company Contentsquare has recently concluded its Series E funding totalling to US$500m, which will be used by the company to augment its leadership in Europe and the US as well as supporting expansion into new markets across Asia.

Said investment round was led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, who now joins existing investors such as Eurazeo, Bpifrance, KKR, Canaan, Highland Europe, and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock — most of whom also participated in this round. 

In addition to the investment, Contentsquare will take advantage of SoftBank’s depth of expertise in scaling companies and networks in Asia, which will be strengthened by the recent appointment of Michel Combes, president of SoftBank Group International, as part of Contentsquare’s board of directors.

The newly secured funding will also support Contentsquare’s rapid growth and geographic expansion, merger and acquisition activities, as well as go-to-market strategies.

This latest round comes one year after Contentsquare’s US$190m Series D raise, bringing the total funding to date to US$810m and valuing Contentsquare at US$2.8b.

“Innovation is in Contentsquare’s DNA and today’s investment is a result of the tremendous hard work of our passionate and ambitious team. Our growth has been accelerated by the world’s shift towards digital, and our technology answers many of the digital transformation challenges brands face today,” said Jonathan Cherki, CEO and founder at Contentsquare.

Contentsquare’s momentum last year has been defined by several milestones, including exponential growth globally, with a compound annual recurring revenue growth rate of 121% over the past four years; product launches such as ‘Contentsquare Merchandising’, ‘Contentsquare Insights’ and ‘Find & Fix’; and massive team expansion to APAC with teams in Singapore, Tokyo, Melbourne and Sydney.

“By democratizing access to actionable customer insights, Contentsquare empowers businesses in every sector to build better digital experiences for everyone. We’re excited to partner with Contentsquare on its journey as one of the global leaders in UX optimization,” Yanni Pipilis, managing partner for SoftBank Investment Advisers, commented.

Singapore – Data and artificial intelligence (AI) company ADA has announced that it has received a new strategic investment from Japanese multinational conglomerate SoftBank, amounting to US$60m in funding.

ADA aims that with this investment, they can continue on the development of AI models, with primary focus on precision targeting for the marketing industry; invest in content analytics and automation of content creation; and also create data platforms to deliver consumer insights, predict consumer mindset, and help business decisioning.

The strategic investment will entitle SoftBank to a 23.07% shareholding of ADA, establishing ADA’s valuation at US$260m.

“The post-COVID-19 norm is a ‘digital-first’ economy, which ADA has been successfully building towards. We are very excited to welcome SoftBank Corp. as a valuable partner in our next phase of growth. The capital and business alliance with SoftBank Corp. will further propel ADA’s analytics, data, and AI digital marketing solutions for the benefit of our customers across the region,” according to Srinivas Gattamneni, CEO at ADA.

Meanwhile, Daichi Nozaki, vice president and head of the enterprise business unit’s global business division at SoftBank believes that their investment in ADA will help reshape the digital marketing and data landscape in the Asia-Pacific region.

“This move is part of our ‘Beyond Carrier’ growth strategy as we seek to expand beyond the traditional telecommunications business; and by combining our diversified solutions and technologies with ADA’s expertise in the area of analytics, data, and AI digital marketing, we expect we can both generate significant synergies,” Nozaki said.

ADA has recently been expanding its data and AI-oriented services across Asia Pacific, such as launching its martech service, an end-to-end e-commerce service, and its partnership with Insider for data-led enterprise marketing endeavors.

“We welcome the investments by SoftBank Corp., which brings tremendous growth opportunities for ADA. It also marks a significant milestone, especially with Southeast Asia’s digital market poised to potentially become one of the world’s top five digital economies. The investment from SoftBank Corp. is recognition of ADA as the vehicle to capture the ensuing growth,” Mohd Khairil Abdullah, chairman at ADA, concluded.

Tokyo, Japan –  Medallia, a global customer experience solutions provider has extended its partnership with Japan’s top telecommunications service Softbank.

Last year, SoftBank deployed Medallia’s Experience Cloud Platform across its 3,000 retail shops. The new partnership which will see the collaboration extend for another three years will have Medallia assisting to include more customer touchpoints across its retail channels.

The cooperation is in line with SoftBank’s plan to further improve its customer experience for the 46 million users subscribed to their fixed-line, mobile, and ISP services.

SoftBank has integrated Medallia’s platform across every touchpoint such as when signing up for a new contract, mobile device upgrade, and updating of customer information

Fumiya Takasu, SoftBank’s vice president for consumer sales unit and sales strategy division said, “The scalability, system stability and management support for Medallia’s Customer Experience Platform were key factors in our decision to implement it through our retail business.”

“We have recorded improvements in customer satisfaction since using the platform and now plan to expand it to other segments of our business to further enhance the customer experience.” Fumiya added.

Meanwhile, Gavin Selkirk, APAC vice president and general manager at Medallia commented, “As a forward thinking, customer focused business, SoftBank has committed to driving positive experiences for its customers and we at Medallia are delighted to help support them in that endeavor,”

“We have built a strong partnership with the SoftBank team and look forward to building on that as our platforms are integrated further into the business.” he added.