日本語でのプレスリリースはこちら

– Actively invests in hiring more resources for international business expansion as a “global decarbonization management partner” –

Zeroboard, Inc. (Minato-ku, Tokyo, CEO: Michitaka Tokeiji, “the Company”), a developer and provider of “zeroboard”, a cloud service to calculate and visualize GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions, is pleased to announce that the Company has completed raising funds through a third-party allotment of new shares as part of the Series A round, bringing the total amount from the first and second closings to 2.44 billion yen.

In the Series A round, Keyrock Capital Management was the lead investor. In the first closing, in addition to Keyrock Capital Management, existing investors including DNX Ventures and Inclusion Japan, some new investors namely JAFCO Group, DBJ Capital, and Coral Capital have joined, closing with the total of 6 undertakers, resulting a funding with a total amount of 1.98 billion yen.

During the second closing, a total of 12 partners/CVCs have signed a 460 million yen investment agreement, including Nagase & Co., Ltd., Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc., MUFG Bank, Ltd., Iwatani Corporation, Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Sumitomo Corporation, FFG Venture Business Partners, Inc., ORIX Corporation, Mizuho Capital Co., Ltd., SMBC Venture Capital Co., Ltd., Delight Ventures, Inc., and U3 Innovations LLC. The cumulative amount raised since the establishment to date is approximately 2.75 billion yen. The Company also plans the third closing, which would bring the total amount of Series A funding to approximately 2.5 billion yen.

■Latest News on Our Business

In March 2021, we announced the launch of zeroboard, Japan’s first cloud-based service for calculation and visualization of GHG emissions, whose beta version and product version were released in July 2021 and January 2022 respectively. In July of the same year, the Company took the lead in the industry to release the calculation function of carbon footprint (emissions by product and service), the number of companies that had adopted zeroboard reached 2,000 by October. In order to further promote the calculation of supply chain emissions including international emissions, we have also added the Chinese and Spanish versions of the platform.

Understanding emissions is only a starting point for decarbonization management for businesses, and it must bring about concrete initiatives for reduction. In addition to providing our clients with advanced technology-enabled calculation, the Company has actively joined alliances with partners who provide GHG reduction solutions, and reached 100 companies in January this year. Together with our partners, we are building an ecosystem to provide a variety of solutions tailored to the needs of our clients, including energy conservation, renewable energy, and other decarbonization solutions, as well as sustainable finance to support these solutions, thereby supporting corporate decarbonization management.

As our team members have grown to be more than 100 (including outsourced and assigned staffing), we have relocated our headquarters to create a more productive workplace to stimulate innovative ideas. Today on February 15, we started operations at our new office.

■Purpose of Fundraising and Future Development

The funds raised will be used to accelerate the development of “zeroboard” product functions, to hire more professional resources such as customer success specialists to support our clients aside, and to expand internationally with the aim of becoming a global platform.

We are also actively involved in formulating rules and regulations in areas related to decarbonization and the environment, which are changing rapidly on a global scale, while constantly monitoring market trends. In September 2022, our CEO has been selected as a member of the METI’s Study Group on Product Carbon Footprint Calculations and Verification for Supply Chain-Wide Carbon Neutrality. As a front-runner in decarbonization management, we will continue to share our accumulated knowledge with our clients and society, aiming to become a global decarbonization management partner.

■Comments from Participating Investors in the First Closing (in no particular order)

Keyrock Capital Management / Jonathan Shih, Founder & Chief Investment Officer
Keyrock is incredibly excited to partner with Zeroboard, the leading carbon emissions accounting software company in Japan. Climate change is the challenge of our generation, and we are at a critical juncture. The next several years will determine the kind of planet we leave for our children. Zeroboard will be critical to solving this crisis because the first step is measuring the problem. Michi and his team have demonstrated incredible passion, resolve and ingenuity – we have no doubt they are the right people to tackle this mission. Congratulations Zeroboard!

DNX Ventures / Akira Kurabayashi, Managing Partner, Head of Japan
Following the previous Pre-Series A round, we are pleased to once again take part in Zeroboard’s Series A round. With the growing trend of disclosing risk information of climate change, Zeroboard aims to provide solutions that enable clients to increase corporate value through decarbonization. The company is already highly evaluated by many of its clients, and is on the right track to achieve amazing growth as a SaaS provider, with a great team that shares the purpose led by Mr. Tokeiji, who has the best founder-market fit for this business. We look forward to the continued success of Zeroboard.

Inclusion Japan / Yasuhiro Yoshizawa, Director
The ICJ No. 2 Fund was established with investment from MUFG Bank with the aim of creating a movement in Japan to enhance promotion of decarbonization from both finance and data perspectives. Zeroboard won the grand prize in the First ESG Accelerator that was held during our establishment, and has grown beyond our imagination as the core of a grand ecosystem starting from the Fund’s investment, collaboration with MUFG Bank, and the global standard of visualizing carbon emissions that goes beyond. As a “working shareholder,” we will continue to support Zeroboard who has expanded through this capital raising, by focusing on partnerships with major companies so to help Zeroboard grow further.

JAFCO Group / Atsushi Fujii, Partner
We have been looking for opportunities to invest in Zeroboard since its early days in 2021, and we are delighted to finally take part in.
Calculating and visualizing GHGs is only the first step in achieving a decarbonized society. The main issue is how to reduce the carbon, and in order to tackle the issue, in-house efforts alone have limitations. Zeroboard’s service, clients, and partners are structured to look at the business from visualization to reduction, which we believe can be the foundation to support decarbonization management.
Through the process of this round of financing, I had the opportunity to see the sincere, honest, and tenacious character and culture of Mr. Tokeiji and other members at Zeroboard, and we look forward to working together to create a decarbonized society in the future.

DBJ Capital / Shingo Isobe, Senior Investment Manager
We have participated in this investment opportunity for Mr. Tokeiji’s well-established position as an opinion leader in the field of carbon accounting, his ability to form business alliances, products developed as an industry leader to constantly look ahead and provide a benchmark, and his team members with the great potential for international expansion. We are looking forward to Zeroboard’s success and further growth in 2050, when it will form the data foundation for the next generation of decarbonized societies, and we will be there to support you.

Coral Capital / James Riney,　Founding Partner & CEO
As governments and financial institutions around the world have begun to implement incentives, regulatory requirements, and policies to reduce emissions, companies have been increasingly under pressure to provide better reporting and planning on their progress with regards to sustainability. We’ve looked at many of the players riding this wave in Japan, and have confidence that Zeroboard will be the local winner. In addition to their great product, they’ve got an exceptional management team and some of the strongest traction we’ve seen among SaaS companies in Japan. Zeroboard is a rocketship and we are honored to be on board.

■Comments from Michitaka Tokeiji, CEO of Zeroboard

The global megatrend toward net zero is forcing many industries, particularly manufacturing, to reform their industrial structure. As a GHG data platform, Zeroboard is on a mission to underpin corporate decarbonization efforts across supply chain and work with many different partners to turn those efforts into business opportunities. We are very pleased to be blessed with such a strong group of investors supporting us and participating in this grand endeavor. Going forward, we will further accelerate our business toward solving the common human challenge of climate change.

■Overview of Participating Investors in the First Closing

Keyrock Capital Management
Keyrock Capital is an investment advisory firm that manages funds for U.S. foundations, endowments, and family offices. The firm conducts fundamental research analysis, focusing on leading companies in high-growth sectors that are solving major social issues through technology. The investment period goes for a long term through years with crossover investments. With offices in Hong Kong and Tokyo, Keyrock invests in Japan and the Asia-Pacific region. Zeroboard is their second investment for a non-listed domestic company, following Timee, Inc.

DNX Ventures
DNX is a venture capital fund with offices in Tokyo and Silicon Valley that has been investing in B2B startups since 2011, primarily in the Japanese and U.S. markets. DNX has invested in more than 160 startups, mainly in Japan and the U.S., and have led 18 companies to exits, through a total of eight funds totaling approximately U.S. $750M under management. Among B2B startups, the main areas of investment are in cloud SaaS, fintech, deep tech, and sustainability, all in early stages. Following the investment in November 2021, this is the second investment in Zeroboard.

Inclusion Japan
Inclusion Japan is a venture capital firm that manages ICJ No. 2 Fund, specializing in ESG (Environmental, social, and corporate governance) investment with a focus on decarbonization, particularly through collaboration between major companies and new ventures. This is the second investment in Zeroboard, following the ESG Accelerator hosted by MUFG and ICJ in September 2021.

JAFCO Group
Since its founding in 1973, JAFCO Group has always worked with leading-edge entrepreneurs. The total commitments of its investment funds in Japan and overseas have exceeded \1 trillion and the cumulative number of portfolio IPOs to date has reached over 1,000. In addition to venture investment, JAFCO Group also carries out buyout investment and commit to the creations of innovative technologies and services worldwide. As entrepreneurs’ closest partner in bringing their visions to life, JAFCO provides support in areas of HR, marketing/ sales, and back office operations, in addition to providing financing.

DBJ Capital
DBJ Capital Co., Ltd. is a 100% subsidiary of the Development Bank of Japan Inc., engaging in venture capital business. While keeping the basic focus in new ventures at their seed/early stage, DBJ Capital also actively engages in additional investments at middle or later stage as a government-affiliated venture capital firm. The firm has invested in WealthNavi, Coconara, and others.

Coral Capital
Coral Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in top entrepreneurs in all industries from nuclear fusion to SaaS, in seed through later stage. The firm has approximately 35 billion yen under management, having invested in over 100 startups to date, including SmartHR, Kakehashi, Graffer, Kyoto Fusioneering, Kaminashi, and Hacomono.

* The investors summary and comments for the participants of second closing will be available later.

■About zeroboard

The platform, zeroboard, is a one-stop solution developed to calculate, disclose, and reduce GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions as a decarbonization management partner. It supports corporate decarbonization management by calculating and visualizing GHG emissions from corporate activities and supply chains on the cloud and providing GHG reduction solutions tailored to the challenges.

• Calculation and visualization of domestic and international supply chain emissions (Scope 1-3 (*1)), emissions by product and service (carbon footprint)
• Collection and monitoring functions by suppliers’ actual performance data
• Multi-languages supported (Japanese, English, Thai, Chinese, Spanish)
• Reliability-certified system validated by a third-party organization (according to ISO 14064-3 (*2))
• Calculation available in compliance with items to be disclosed on various quantitative reports (i.e. Act on Promotion of Global Warming Countermeasures, CDP, TCFD, etc.)
• Provides a variety of reduction support in line with clients’ decarbonization challenges and needs, including sustainable finance, renewable energy and energy efficiency, decarbonization solutions, raw material procurement, and human resources

(*1)        Categories of emissions established in the GHG Protocol, the international standard for calculating and reporting GHG emissions (Scope 1: Direct GHG emissions from the company’s own business activities, Scope 2: Indirect GHG emissions from the use of electricity, heat, and steam supplied by other sources, Scope 3: Supply chain GHG emissions related to business activities other than above)

(*2)        Specifications and guidance for validation and verification of GHG-related claims established by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

■Company Overview

Company Name ：Zeroboard Inc.（https://zeroboard.jp/）
Address ：10F Sumitomo Fudosan Mita Twin Building West, 3-5-27 Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo
(Relocated in February 2023)
Representative ：Michitaka Tokeiji, CEO
Established ：August 24, 2021
Business Description：Development and supply of “zeroboard,” a cloud service for calculating and visualizing greenhousegas emissions / Consulting on electric power and environmental value / Branding and promotional support

■We are hiring

The Company has grown to the scale with more than 100 employees in our second year of operation. We are looking for team members who can closely work with us to develop our services for a decarbonized society. A variety of positions are available including business operation, engineering, and corporate relations. Would you like to work with us in our new office? If you are interested in our business, products and the team, please feel free to contact us.

■Webinars for Corporate Clients

We host monthly webinars for businesses working on decarbonization management. Sign up to learn about the latest trends in domestic and international decarbonization and how zeroboard can help you. For more information, visit the Event page of our website.

■Contact us

Zeroboard Inc.
Introducing zeroboard (Business Headquarters) :info@zeroboard.jp
Employment (HR) :recruit@zeroboard.jp
Press Interviews (PR) :pr@zeroboard.jp