Page 65 - Forbes - Asia (March 2020)
P. 65
Reception
area (left) at
Base office
entrance
(right).
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AI to judge a borrower’s creditworthiness from 30 UNDER
its sales data, then buys its receivables at a dis-
count. If the merchant doesn’t get paid, neither
does Yell. “Lending is bustling, but we need more
time to validate our model,” says Tsuruoka, 30. Setting up on Base is free; the site charges a fee 30 •
Online lending and an IPO are just the latest based on sales, which rose over 60% last year to A
in a busy few years for Tsuruoka since earning almost ¥66 billion, with the average shop selling SIA
a slot in the inaugural 30 Under 30 Asia list in roughly ¥140,000 a month. Sole proprietorships
2016. Base, which Tsuruoka set up in 2012 and selling fashion merchandise account for a ma- AL
still runs as CEO, now offers everything from jority of merchants. Base posted a ¥459 million
doughnuts to designer hoodies. With 136 em- loss for 2019 on ¥3.8 billion in revenue. Daiwa UMNI
ployees, the company is expanding its products Securities, Base’s lead underwriter, in October
and services, and wants to go global. Since list- projected that Base would turn a profit in 2021,
ing, Base’s stock has climbed nearly 28%, making earning ¥1.5 billion on ¥7.9 billion in revenue.
Tsuruoka’s roughly 15% stake worth ¥4.9 billion. Tsuruoka added fintech early in Base’s growth.
The inspiration for Base came from Tsuruoka’s In 2014, he introduced a settlement service, Base
mother, who wanted to sell online from her small Easy Payment, that charges merchants 6.6% of any
women’s apparel shop, but found Amazon and transaction, plus ¥40. The next year Base started
similar sites difficult to use. “I thought it would offering a payment service to other e-commerce
be good to have online shops for people, like my sites and in 2016 developed a cashless payment
mother, who weren’t that adept on the inter- system. “The users were really small-scale busi-
net,” he says. So instead of returning that fall to nesses,” says Tsuruoka, whose merchants couldn’t
resume studying for his information technolo- afford payment systems designed for larger com-
gy degree at Tokyo University of Technology, he panies. “Just because you were a sole proprietor
started the service in November 2012. your payment system was different from big com-
Base enables sellers to quickly set up an online panies, and had significantly higher fees.”
shop, including a payment system. A month af- Yell Bank helps small business owners get the
ter launching, Tsuruoka had signed 10,000 shops financing that’s long been difficult to get in Ja-
to the site, helped by word of mouth and Twitter. pan. While traditional Japanese banks do offer
With no business experience, he sought advice accounts receivable financing, they often require
from Japanese crowdfunding site Campfire’s CEO owners to personally guarantee repayment, a sig-
Yuta Tsuruoka in Kazuma Ieiri and one of his investors, Jakarta- and nificant hurdle. “He’s looking ahead to what its
Base’s office in Tokyo. Tokyo-based VC firm East Ventures’ cofounder merchants will need, such as the new loan ser-
The inspiration for
Base came from the Taiga Matsuyama—Tsuruoka had once interned at vice,” says Matsuyama. “He’s not just another EC
difficulty of Tsuruoka’s site operator. He really loves his users.”
mother in setting up Campfire. “I basically had no knowledge of how to
an online shop. raise funds or to value companies,” says Tsuruoka. Base has rolled out other services, such as
Ieiri and Matsuyama gave him more than low-cost shipping. Shoppers outside Japan can
pointers: when Base in January 2013 raised ¥30 now use its app and, if there’s enough demand,
million in seed capital, both invested, with East Tsuruoka says he will open the site to overseas
Ventures providing ¥20 million. Ieiri now sits on merchants.
Base’s board. “Tsuruoka struck me as someone One loyal customer is Tsuruoka, who estimates
who would push until the end to get results,” says he spends at least a few hundred dollars a month
Matsuyama. “His idea was really great because I on the site and buys most of his clothes through
knew that the time would come for small stores Base. His most recent purchase? A new black
to have their own (e-commerce) sites, rather hoodie from a video blogger’s shop to complement
than being on a large marketplace.” his signature look—a black T-shirt and goatee.
MAR CH 2020 F ORBES A SIA
