SoftBank Ventures Asia leads $56.4 funding in Japanese startup SODA
SODA CEO Yuta Uchiyama.
July 29, 2021
SoftBank Ventures Asia, the early-stage venture capital arm of the SoftBank Group, has led the $56.4-million Series C funding in SODA, a Japanese e-commerce startup that also runs SNKRDUNK, the country’s top online sneaker marketplace.
The round was also participated by KREAM, a Korean sneaker reselling platform also backed by SoftBank Ventures Asia, and venture capitalists Altos Ventures and JAFCO. The Series C funding round is SoftBank Ventures Asia’s second investment in SODA.
In January, SoftBank Ventures Asia also led the $22-million Series B financing round in the Japanese sneaker sales platform, marking its first investment in Japan. To date, SODA’s total funding stands at $81.4 million.
SoftBank Ventures Asia leads $22m funding in sneaker marketplace SODA
Photo by Hermes Rivera on Unsplash. Premium
Japanese sneaker sales platform SODA has landed a $22-million Series B financing round led by SoftBank Ventures Asia, bringing the total investment in the firm to $25 million.
Continue reading this story with a subscription to DealStreetAsia.
Contact us for corporate subscriptions at subs@dealstreetasia.com.
Sign up for our newsletter - The Daily Brief Opt out of receiving The Daily Brief in your inbox everyday
REGISTER stories left placeholder You have one free story left this month. You have stories left placeholder free stories left this month.
Tokyo-based SODA, which runs Japan’s largest sneaker resell platform, lands $22 million led by SoftBank Ventures Asia
Tokyo-based SODA, which runs sneaker reselling platform SNKRDUNK, has raised a $22 million Series B led by SoftBank Ventures Asia. Investors also included basepartners, Colopl Next, THE GUILD and other strategic partners. Part of the funding will be used to expand into other Asian countries. Most of SNKRDUNK’s transactions are within Japan now, but it plans to become a cross-border marketplace.
Along with SODA’s $3 million Series A last year, this brings the startup’s total funding to $25 million.
While the COVID-19 pandemic was initially expected to put a damper on the sneaker resell market, C2C marketplaces have actually seen their business increase. For example, StockX, one of the biggest sneaker resell platforms in the world (which hit a valuation of $2.8 billion after its recent Series E), said May and June 2020 were its biggest months for sales ever.