PNB-INSPiRE Ethical Fund 1 Investment Business Limited Liability Partnership (“PIEF”) has entered into a joint venture agreement with IMURAYA GROUP CO., LTD. (“Imuraya,” 7-1-1, Takachaya, Tsu-city, Mie, Japan, CEO: Takeo Asada) to invest in Imuraya Start-up Planning Corporation (“I-SUP”) which Imuraya is to establish.

With over 120 years of history since its founding in 1896, Imuraya, with its mission of ” Create a smile from its enjoyment ,” has engaged in a variety of businesses in the food sector, mainly focusing on Japanese confectionery azuki bean products, frozen desserts and steamed buns. Imuraya’s current business continues to show constant growth, as it has achieved the highest sales of “Azuki bar” reaching 275 million in 2018. To seek further sustainable growth, we are determined to establish I-SUP by stimulating open-innovation philosophy for generating Imuraya’s new businesses.

I-SUP aims to create business that will form Imuraya’s future pillars, and acts as a business planner and incubator. Within food-related fields, we will leverage the strengths of Imuraya to find business seeds with themes of “Japanese ” and “Health” and commercialize them domestically and globally while providing comprehensive support and management to establish business foundations quickly and steadily.

Imuraya’s business seeds, as the fruit of their entrepreneurial spirit that has not changed since the foundation of the group and the technical capabilities underpinned by their wisdom and experience through their history, are combined with PIEF’s knowledge, experience and networks that have been accumulated through its activities up to the present, which will become a force to develop new business both domestically and globally with a focus on ASEAN.

About Imuraya Start-up Planning Corporation

Headquarters: Tsu-city, Mie
CEO: Yasuki Onishi
Foundation: 1-April-2019 (Planned)
Capital: 100 million JPY (Including capital reverse of 50 million JPY)
Investment Ratio: Imuraya 60%, PIEF 40%

Contact

Shunsuke Ishimoto
PNB Inspire Partners Corporation
+81.3.6892.1133