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Tokyo—January 6, 2016—Hakuhodo Inc. (Minato-ku, Tokyo; Hirokazu Toda, President & CEO), Japan’s second largest advertising company, has invested in Globis Fund V, a fund created by GLOBIS Capital Partners (Minato-ku, Tokyo; Yoshito Hori, Partner).

Investment in venture companies has been robust for some time. Globis Fund V’s investment strategy centers on IT companies working in mobile, communications and other Net-related areas, and non-IT sector companies that use IT. The Fund follows a plan focused on the financial technology (fintech) domain, where software is used to offer financial services; and the healthcare and IT-enabled education domains.

Hakuhodo’s investment will be made through Hakuhodo Technology Business Center (HTBC), a unit established to support the development of digital business by technology-using companies. Through its involvement in the Fund, HTBC will obtain up-to-the-minute technology knowledge, which it will use to accelerate the development and provision of solutions to challenges faced by Hakuhodo’s clients.

This is the third such investment by Hakuhodo Technology Business Center, following investments in funds organized by Scrum Ventures and Itochu Technology Ventures.

About Hakuhodo Technology Business Center
A unit comprised of business producers, UI/UX designers, programmers, data scientists, system engineers, strategic planners and other specialists. It offers sei-katsu-sha*1 insight-based solutions in the technology domain, as well as solutions at the crossroads of technology and creativity and technology and marketing.

Established: December 10, 2015
General Manager: Shinobu Uchida
Staff: 36 (when established)

*1 Sei-katsu-sha are more than simply consumers, just as people’s lives and lifestyles include more than just shopping. Hakuhodo introduced this term in the 1980s to emphasize its commitment to a comprehensive, 360-degree perspective on consumers’ lives.

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