Company Overview

1. History

Veru Inc. <7048> was founded in 1991 by three members of Nissan Motor Co <7201> overseas business division, originally focusing on marketing related to automobiles. At that time, foreign automobile manufacturers were exploring expansion in Japan, and the company undertook surveys such as conducting events at the Tokyo Motor Show in response to orders from overseas. The company initially expanded its business diversely instead of focusing on a single business, and among these businesses, the online golf reservation (GORA) business started in 2000 experienced rapid growth, leading to the sale of this business to Rakuten (now Rakuten Group) <4755> and using the proceeds from the sale as the basis to start the current business from 2004. In the travel industry, sales of lodging and airline tickets had already shifted online, but the online booking of travel experiences had not progressed. Additionally, there were numerous offline local experience tours and activities, and considering that these could leverage the scale advantage of e-commerce, it was determined that starting from scratch was necessary.

Initially in 2004 when the business started, there was no expertise in the travel industry or connections with activity companies. In the same year, the company acquired a business that primarily sold activities offline in Australia, Bali, and Hawaii. The current President and CEO, Wataru Futagi, the 4th president since the founding, took over management in order to respond to the accelerating evolution of technology, prepare for IPO, and aim for further growth.

However, at the beginning of the business, there was no global online market and the local business companies themselves did not have direct online booking contact with customers. Moreover, there were many barriers between travelers and businesses, such as cultural differences, language differences, differences in values, and time zone differences, necessitating a reassessment of the business. Therefore, after redefining how customers could participate in local experience tours online, the management resources were concentrated. The business was then expanded to not only beach resorts but also to Asia, Europe, America, and beyond.

As part of the global expansion, an English website was launched in 2012 to start inbound tourism business to Japan. The company also strengthened its system development structure, initiated hiring engineers domestically, established a development base in Malaysia, and completely internalized the system company. In 2015, a Chinese website (Traditional & Simplified Chinese) was launched, in 2016 acquired all shares of City Discovery SAS, and in 2017 established a Korean website through a business partnership with Korean 12CM Inc. Currently, management resources are selectively concentrated on the Japanese market, and multilingual expansion is on hold.

In December 2020, due to the anticipated synergy between the companies, Veru Inc. <7048> entered into a capital and business alliance with OpenDoor <3926>, which operates travel-related businesses such as the travel comparison site "Travelco". In December 2021, its subsidiary Linktivity Co., Ltd. conducted a third-party allotment of new shares to NTT West Japan Corp. and formed a capital and business alliance. Moreover, fundraising through the exercise of subscription rights was carried out, raising 955 million yen by the end of December 2022. Despite the challenging business environment due to the pandemic, the company has actively pursued both offensive and defensive strategies in anticipation of the post-pandemic period, aiming for sustained growth beyond the fiscal year ending December 2024 by promoting funding and cooperation, further expanding the business for Japanese tourists in overseas activities and ticket platform sectors.

(Written by FISCO Guest Analyst Yoichiro Shimizu)