Castee Co., Ltd. Castee raises over 400 million yen in Series A, total followers of registered creators exceeds 300 million, and expansion into Asia begins in 2025

Castee Co., Ltd. press release (2024.11.06) Castee Co., Ltd. Castee raises over 400 million yen in Series A, total followers of registered creators exceeds 300 million, and expansion into Asia begins in 2025 Castee Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director and CEO: Shintaro Otake), which handles social collaboration services, is the first company underwritten by Nissay Capital, Venture Labo Investment, Mizuho Capital, Shochiku Ventures, and HAKUHODO DY FUTURE DESIGN FUND. Through a three-party allotment, we raised approximately 400 million yen in the Series A round. With this latest procurement, the total amount raised will be approximately 650 million yen.
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Total number of followers of registered creators exceeds 300 million, BtoC collaboration grows 1 year and 4 months since the launch of Japan’s first* social collaboration service “Castee”, the total number of followers of registered creators has exceeded 300 million. In addition, as the number of users increases, we are working with various companies on the “Castee Challenge”, a performance-based collaborative video marketing that uses collaborative videos for corporate SNS marketing. In our initiatives with major companies such as beverage manufacturers, mobile phone manufacturers, and fast fashion brands, we have had a wide range of creators from the middle to micro levels participate, with an average follower count of 200,000 and an average achievement rate of the target number of views of 100. The result was over %. Videos produced through collaboration have found new ways to appeal, and their high quality and engagement have led to their secondary use in advertising, and many effective examples have been created that leverage the strengths of the collaboration platform. In addition, it is being used in a wide range of products through various collaboration formats, such as sampling, participating in events, and posting videos using digital content such as apps and songs. *Survey: In-house research (June 2023 Desk Research)  Survey target: As a “collaboration matching service on SNS” in Japan
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/119298/17/119298-17-0ddd4008f64677c85d626a455cad4385-3900×2600.png Future developments With the funds raised this time, we will promote the development of new businesses centered on the
collaboration platform “Castee” such as creator training programs and SNS marketing optimization services using proprietary algorithms, as well as expand into Asia by 2025. We are planning to establish a corporation. In addition, by working closely with investors, we will strengthen the formation of a C2C collaboration culture and
collaboration not only with creators and companies but also with IP and content. Underwriter for third-party allotment capital increase Nissay Capital Venture Lab Investment Mizuho Capital Shochiku Ventures HAKUHODO DY FUTURE DESIGN FUND Investor comments Nissay Capital Co., Ltd. Investment
Department Capitalist Mr. Yumasa Ito
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/119298/17/119298-17-99b1a0aa19774fcd0e8e4aba06aa31fc-342×343.png We are very happy to have the opportunity to invest in this round. With the rapid increase in the number of individual creators, the creator economy is experiencing rapid growth. On the other hand, we believe that infrastructure, such as monetization mechanisms and standardization of operations, is still in the developing stage. We believe that Castee, with its extensive network and sophisticated operational capabilities, can become a new infrastructure for the utilization of creators. Every time I heard about Mr. Otake’s business concept and the steady progress of the business, my desire to work with him grew stronger, so I decided to invest this time. As Nissay Capital, we will do our best to support the company’s future challenges. Venture Labo Investment Co.,
Ltd. Director Yuki Yamanaka
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/119298/17/119298-17-67eec0c2d24067d631ad142167bf7590-342×343.jpg I truly sympathized with President Otake’s quick
decision-making and strong passion to “make this business a success.” We also deeply sympathized with Castee’s vision of “creating a society that shines a light on many talents and is fair and full of opportunities through our collaboration,” so we invested in the company. I have high hopes for President Otake’s new challenges and further growth for Castee. Mizuho Capital Co., Ltd. Investment Department 1 Investment
Manager Mr. Yu Aoki
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/119298/17/119298-17-86f011a110c6131ca46f622f9e6ce6e7-342×343.jpg Mizuho Capital has had a long relationship with Representative Otake since he first started his business, and we are very happy to have the opportunity to officially work with him on this even bigger challenge. As we enter the era of 100 million influencers, we are confident that “Castee” will play a role as a core service and become Asia’s largest PR platform. The Mizuho Group will do our best to support Castee in realizing his mission. Shochiku Ventures Co., Ltd. President Takahiro Inoue
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/119298/17/119298-17-2889578065228eba19e3a5b75c08040f-342×343.jpg Mr. Castee participated in the accelerator program held by our company last year, and after the demonstration experiment, he became convinced that “Castee” is a platform that brings out and expands the potential of Japanese IP content to the world. Through this
investment, we will build a stronger partnership and work together to advance initiatives that will amaze the world. HAKUHODO DY FUTURE DESIGN FUND Partner Keita Yamashita Image
URL: https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/119298/17/119298-17-1a86e7d67fe16134e29fb953654f7358-334×333.jpg We feel there is great potential in Castee’s concept of creating a platform where influencers and various types of content collaborate, and we have decided to support this project through investment from the CVC Fund. We hope to empower influencers and creators and create new marketing opportunities never seen before. Castee Co., Ltd. CEO Shintaro Otake Comments
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/119298/17/119298-17-edbe6bac4cb38268979133e62f44c171-222×223.jpg At this time, we have decided to share our aspirations with our most reassuring shareholders. Castee is a new entertainment platform that has never existed before, and we plan to develop various services within Castee in the future. This is not limited to Japan, but we have decided to take on the challenge of expanding to Asia next year. We will continue to pursue new forms of entertainment, discover and develop creators, IP, and content from various genres, and more, so please look forward to it! Social collaboration service “Castee” Castee is a service that allows anyone to easily and easily implement “collaboration,” which is a popular content format on SNS. You can complete your own creator page in as few as 3 steps and start recruiting partners for collaboration projects. By simply using Castee as your point of contact for collaboration requests, you can check the list of applicants’ SNS information and request information such as “I want to do this kind of collaboration”, so the communication leading up to the collaboration will be smooth. For collaborations that require money, you can use Castee’s payment function, so you can communicate safely and securely. This service is perfect for creators and influencers who want to increase their followers through collaboration, create content that everyone will talk about, and take on new monetization challenges. The collaboration, which was carried out as a test project during service development, has resulted in content that has more than 10 times the number of views on TikTok than usual. Service site : https://castee.com/ Performance-based collaborative video marketing “Castee Challenge” “Castee Challenge” is a new service that uses collaborative videos for corporate SNS marketing. Unlike traditional influencer marketing, creators take the lead in creating collaborative videos that leverage their
individuality and content production capabilities, achieving SNS marketing that gains positive recognition from fans. Due to the performance-based billing system, which is based on the number of views rather than the number of followers, there are also challenges in influencer marketing, such as “I don’t know if it will produce results, but if I ask an influencer with a large number of followers, the budget will be high.” We are compatible. Service site : https://biz.castee.com/ Company profile Company name
  : Castee Co., Ltd. (pronunciation: Castee) Representative: Shintaro Otake, Representative Director and CEO Address: 2-18-19 the Folks 5F, Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Established: March 14, 2022 Capital: 668,437,580 yen (including capital reserves) Business content: Social collaboration service business URL  : https://castee.com