Mesh, the leading crypto payments network, today announced additional investments from PayPal Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Uphold, Mirana Ventures (venture partner for ByBit), SBI Investment, Overlook Ventures, Kingsway Capital, Moderne Ventures and CE-Ventures, bringing total capital funding to more than $130 million. This support positions the company to accelerate its impact
Welcome to the one hundred twenty-fourth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. The TOPIX reached a record high on August 8, 2025, hitting 3038.84 points during the regular session and closing at 3024.21. This was the first time TOPIX has broken 3000 points in its history. It closed
Digital Garage's (DG) first-quarter results for the fiscal year ending March 2026 present a stark dichotomy that requires careful dissection. The headline figure—a consolidated pre-tax loss of ¥1.3 billion—paints a misleading picture of the company's health, triggering a market sell-off. This loss was
Introduction Mercari is committed to achieving the mid-term policy announced in FY2024.6, which aims for double-digit CAGR growth in revenue and a CAGR of at least 25% in core operating profit in FY2027.6. These targets remain unchanged. Following Mercari's basic policy to essentially aim for top-line
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation announce the development and deployment of an "AI-CEO" at Sumitomo Mitsui Bank as part of their efforts to establish their brand as an "AI-leading Financial Institution." Background and Objectives As AI technology has shown remarkable development in
Resona currently holds 12.42% of Digital Garage's shares (ratio to total voting rights as of March 31, 2025), acquired through third-party allocation and market purchases, and Digital Garage positions Resona as a strategic partner for Digital Garage's medium- to long-term growth. By acquiring 8,520,
AEON Financial Services has submitted an amended securities report and other documents for the fiscal year ending February 2025 to the Director-General of the Kanto Regional Financial Bureau on July 31, 2025, and has also corrected its financial results summary, as detailed below. As announced on July 9, 2025, regarding
Takeshi Ueno, Chief Economist at the NLI Research Institute, published an update to his interest rate outlook this past week. The report analyzes the recent surge in Japan's long-term interest rates (10-year JGB yield) and provides a forecast for the coming 18 months. The key argument is that
The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) has announced its approval of a commitment plan submitted by Visa Worldwide. The plan resolves an investigation into Visa's business practices, which the JFTC suspected were in violation of Japan's Antimonopoly Act. This decision concludes the matter without a formal
LY Corporation's revenue for the cumulative consolidated first quarter of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026 amounted to 489.6 billion yen (up 5.7% year on year), representing the highest cumulative consolidated first quarter revenue to date. This was due to an increased revenue in the
A Japanese superconducting quantum computer, fully designed and built with homegrown components and software, went live at The University of Osaka’s Center for Quantum Information and Quantum Biology (QIQB). This achievement signifies Japan’s technological prowess in quantum computing, demonstrating the nation’s capacity to design, manufacture, and integrate
GREE Ventures has established the GREE LP Fund JP 2, Limited Partnership (“JP2”), its second fund of funds (FoF) focused on Japanese venture capital. JP2 completed its first close at ¥4.4 billion, with a target final fund size of ¥6 billion. Overview of JP2 GREE Ventures aims to accelerate
venture capital
TERASS has completed a Series C round totaling 3.1 billion yen (2 billion yen in third-party allotment capital increase, 1.1 billion yen in existing shareholder stock transfer) with 10 companies as underwriters, including Norinchukin Capital, Mizuho Capital, Boost Capital, and Z Venture Capital. The cumulative fundraising amount since
banking
Cathay United Bank has received approval from the Financial Supervisory Commission (the "FSC") to establish a branch in Tokyo and a sub-branch in Fukuoka City, enabling the Bank to provide Taiwanese companies with cross-border financial services and expand its presence in the Asian market. This marks the Bank&
blockchain
AltX Research has launched the first Japan Smart Chain (JSC) testnet and an early preview of the Mizuhiki Suite; a modular trust and compliance layer built for invited web3 developers. JSC is a Japan-sovereign, Ethereum-compatible Layer 1 blockchain validated by domestic industry leaders. As a “compliance-first” chain, it embeds blacklist
cryptocurrency exchange
Coincheck Group reported a mixed first quarter for fiscal year 2026, characterized by a challenging crypto market that impacted trading revenues, but underscored by significant strategic progress and strong underlying growth in its user base and assets. First, we did not make any money. Gary Simanson, CEO Coincheck Group Total
banking
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) reported a Profit Attributable to Owners of Parent (Net Income) of ¥546.0 billion for the first quarter of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026 (Q1 FY25). While this figure represents a modest 1.8% year-over-year (YoY) decline on a reported basis, a more
bitcoin
Bakkt Holdings has entered into a share purchase agreement with RIZAP Group to acquire approximately 30% of the outstanding shares of MarushoHotta (MHT), a Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed company (TSE: 8105). The acquisition would make Bakkt the largest shareholder of MHT. As part of the transaction, Phillip Lord, President of Bakkt
lending
Mumbai-based digital lending startup Zype has raised Rs 90 crore ($10.2 million) in a fresh funding round led by Japanese venture capital firm Unleash Capital Partners. Existing investor Xponentia Capital also participated in the round. This round comes after the 2022-founded startup raised its first major institutional round of
lending
Debt collections is the backbone of lending, however collections today are run by collection agencies who care very little about the borrower and mostly care about their commissions. With a vision to build India’s best collections company, DPDzero has announced raising $7million in Series-A funding led by GMO VenturePartners
Weekly
Welcome to the one hundred twenty-third edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. Earnings season is in full swing, and there were plenty of announcements last week, so we would just like to draw your attention to the Japan Fair Trade Commission's guidelines for smartphone apps - coming into
banking
Mizuho Financial Group has delivered a nuanced set of results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 (ending June 30, 2025), characterized by a stark divergence between its core business segments and a surprisingly bullish revision to its full-year guidance. While Profit Attributable to Owners of Parent posted a
artificial intelligence
NTT Data Corporation has concluded a sales agent agreement with Lazarus AI, which provides multimodal LLM products available in closed network environments, particularly to the life insurance industry, and property insurance industry, and is also a participant in Plug and Play Japan's Summer 2025 InsurTech Batch. Starting in
artificial intelligence
Salesforce Japan announced that The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ has selected the autonomous AI agent "Agentforce for Financial Services" specialized for the financial industry. This case represents Japan's first implementation of Agentforce for Financial Services. The Agentforce for Financial Services selected by Mitsubishi UFJ Bank this