June 28, 2022

Gojo completes its first INR 830 million inter-company loans to Group Companies in India through collaboration with Marui Group and Shizuoka Bank

Gojo & Company, Inc. (“Gojo”) is pleased to announce the completion of the INR 830 million inter-company loans to SATYA MicroCapital Ltd. (“SATYA”) and Ananya Finance for Inclusive Growth Pvt. Ltd. (“Ananya”), Gojo’s group companies in India, through Non-Convertible Debentures (NCDs). This initiative was funded by JPY 1 billion bond issuance to MARUI GROUP CO., LTD. (“Marui Group”) and JPY 0.5 billion social loan from Shizuoka Bank, Ltd. (“Shizuoka Bank”). 

Gojo has successfully completed INR 830 million inter-company loans to SATYA and Ananya through NCDs. Gojo has been newly registered as Foreign Portfolio Investor (“FPI”) by Securities and Exchange Board of India. This is an important milestone for Gojo to have opened a channel to direct the debt financing from Japan to the group companies in India. This is the first transaction for Gojo to formulate inter-company loans to group companies in India and Gojo aims to leverage its group scale to optimize funding costs through debt financing in Japan.  

SATYA will provide micro-credit loans to micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises mainly run by women. Ananya plans to expand its retail lending for low-income clients through partnerships with microfinance institutions. 

As announced on March 8 2022, Marui Group has issued two types of Social Bonds; security token bonds (“digital bonds”) for EPOS Card holders, and corporate bonds for individual investors, as part of its “Supportive Investment” initiatives to achieve balancing social contribution and asset formation. Marui Group obtained a Second-Party Opinion on the Social Bonds from Morningstar Sustainalytics, a leading global provider of ESG research, ratings, and data. The Social Bonds use of proceeds will be eligible for the following categories: access to essential services, and socioeconomic advancement and empowerment. Morningstar Sustainalytics confirmed that the use of proceeds aligns with those recognized by the Social Bond Principles 2021 (please refer to the Second-Party Opinion Report). 

The funds received by Marui Group from individual investors through the purchase of the bonds are used for the investments in projects of Gojo and CROWD CREDIT, Inc. Gojo executed a JPY1.0 billion bond agreement with Marui Group.

Message from Taejun Shin, Representative Executive Officer

As a collaboration through “Co-Creation” with Marui Group who has been Gojo’s shareholder since 2019, we are pleased to provide individual investors with the opportunity to join “Supportive investment” balancing social contribution and asset formation.

For inclusive financial service providers in developing countries, high funding cost is one of the major challenges. Gojo continues to work on optimizing funding cost by pursuing global scale and risk diversification, building strong relationships with Japanese financial institutions and individual investors, and diversifying financing methods. 

About Gojo & Company: 

Gojo is a Tokyo-based holding company of inclusive financial service providers. Since 2014, Gojo has invested in nine entities, operating in Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, India, and Tajikistan. Gojo was founded to extend financial inclusion across the globe. Gojo encourages the formalization and growth of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Our long-term goal is to enable the provision of high-quality affordable financial services for 100+ million unserved and underserved people in 50+ countries by 2030. Established in 2014, Gojo is serving more than 1.2 million clients and managing an aggregated AUM of ~USD 651 million with 8,000 employees.

May 2, 2022

Gojo announces investment in MyShubhLife, a digital lending and savings platform focusing on the Next Half Billion in India

Gojo & Company, Inc. (Gojo) is pleased to announce its investment in Bengaluru-based MyShubhLife (a product of Datasigns Technologies Private Limited), the full stack financial services platform. With this fresh investment, MyShubhLife will further increase its footprint with more corporate and large platform partnerships, invest in technology and enlarge its talent pool to offer a seamless, financially inclusive program for the next half billion. MyShubhLife will also grow its NBFC book and increase disbursements through its co-lending partners.

Monish Anand, Founder & CEO of MyShubhLife who is a member of Ashoka Fellow said, “This investment firms up MyShubhLife’s resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic and its capabilities in delivering meaningful financial products to the next half billion through our technology platform, driven by complex data science models and a future-ready credit engine. The investment also gives impetus to MyShubhLife to be future ready for a full stack Digital Bank License. We are excited to work with a visionary social impact-focused investor, passionate about using technology to scale impactful partnerships like Gojo.”

Speaking on the investment, Sanjay Gandhi, Co-founder & Chief Investment Officer of Gojo said “We are delighted to have MyShubhLife as our ninth partner, the first digital lending company in our group. MyShubhLife is one of the very few digital lenders in India who truly reach the underserved/unserved customer segment through its unique partnership driven “Phygital” approach. The underwriting and analytics capability they have built for this segment is second to none and we are happy to work with the team to take the next leap in its growth.”

Gojo was represented by Vertices Partners as its legal advisor. Unitus Capital acted as the financial advisor while Saakshya Law acted as legal advisor to MyShubhLife.

About MyShubhLife

MyShubhLife is a full stack financial services platform that offers products such as small and large-ticket personal Loans, Earned Wage access, Bill Payments, Insurance, SIPs, E-Gold and E-filing taxes to the unbanked segments in the Next Half billion via its Android app that is available in 6 Indian languages.

MyShubhLife had earlier raised around INR 115 crores from marquee Seed and Series A investors like Pravega Ventures, SRI Capital, Saama Capital, BeeNext, Omidyar Network, Flourish Ventures and Patamar Capital.

For more on MyShubhLife, please visit: http://www.myshubhlife.com

Monish Anand and Rahul Sekar, Cofounders / MyShubhLife

About Gojo & Company, Inc

Gojo is a Tokyo-based holding company of inclusive financial service providers. Since 2014, Gojo has invested in nine entities, operating in Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, India, and Tajikistan. Gojo was founded to extend financial inclusion to everyone in the world. Gojo encourages the formalization and growth of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Our long-term goal is to enable the provision of high-quality affordable financial services for 100+ million unserved and underserved people in 50+ countries by 2030. Established in 2014, Gojo is serving more than 1.2 million clients and managing an aggregated AUM of ~USD 651 million with 7,700 employees.

March 3, 2022

Gojo expands to Central Asia, announces investment in Humo, crossing 1 million loan clients

Gojo & Company, Inc. (Gojo) is pleased to announce its first investment in Tajikistan which marks its entry into the Central Asian region. Gojo has invested USD 6 million to acquire a majority stake in Closed Joint Stock Company (CJSC) Microcredit Deposit Organization (MDO) "HUMO" (Humo), one of the fastest growing microcredit deposit organizations in the country. The investment in Humo will be instrumental in increasing access to financial services for clients living in remote regions of the country through continued technological transformation of Humo.

Apart from various lending products, Humo offers deposits and savings accounts, internal and external money transfers, settlement and exchange transactions. More recently, Humo has embarked on the digitization strategy making it one of the most tech forward MDOs in Tajikistan. Humo’s suite of digital products include a multilingual mobile banking app, payment cards, agent banking services, and quick digital loans through its Orzu platform.

Firdavs Mayunusov, General Director of Humo, mentioned, “Gojo is well aligned with Humo’s mission of extending financial inclusion. Gojo not only recognizes the technological advances and innovations that Humo has been introducing over the past years, but also infuses additional capital to take Humo to greater heights within the country and beyond. We are delighted to have a like-minded partner join us in this journey.”

Speaking on the investment, Sanjay Gandhi, Co-founder and Chief Investment Officer of Gojo, said that “We are extremely pleased to have partnered with Humo. It is not only the second largest MDO in the country, but also emerging as one of the best fintech neo-banks in the region. We see Humo as our partner in promoting Gojo’s mission for providing financial inclusion, not only in Tajikistan but across Central Asia as well.”

With this infusion, apart from strengthening its position in Tajikistan, Humo also plans to expand its operations into other Central Asian countries. ABG Legal Advisors acted as the Transaction Legal Advisor and RSM Tajikistan acted as financial advisor to Gojo.

With Humo joining the group, the number of loan clients of Gojo Group Companies has passed 1 million as of December 2021.

Gojo will strive to extend financial inclusion further, to reach the goal of 100 million people by 2030.

About Humo

Closed Joint Stock Company Microfinance Deposit Organization "HUMO" (Humo) is one of the leading microfinance organizations of the Republic of Tajikistan and one of the top 5 financial organizations in terms of loan portfolio among banks and microfinance organizations. Humo provides a wide range of financial services through accessible channels to the population. Positioning itself as a fintech, the organization places a tremendous emphasis on social aspects. To encompass all layers of the population, Humo presents an opportunity to its customers to use the mobile wallet - Humo Online with mobile banking features. MF-Rating assigned to Humo high institutional rating A- and high social rating sA-, indicating reliability, sustainability and social responsibility. 

For more on Humo, please visit: https://www.humo.tj/en/ 

The Humo team / Humo

About Gojo

Gojo is a Tokyo-based holding company of inclusive financial service providers.  Since 2014, Gojo has invested in eight entities, operating in Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, India, and Tajikistan. Gojo was founded to extend financial inclusion to everyone in the world. Gojo encourages the formalization and growth of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Our long-term goal is to enable the provision of high-quality affordable financial services for 100+ million unserved and underserved people in 50+ countries by 2030. Established in 2014, Gojo is serving more than 1million clients and managing the aggregated AUM of USD 516 million with 7,000+ employees.

February 22, 2022

Gojo to raise debt funds through online platform “Funds”

Gojo & Company, Inc. (Gojo) is pleased to announce the launch of debt fund “Gojo & Company Microfinance Fund” on the online platform “Funds” aiming for up to JPY 200 million borrowing as its initial attempt on the platform operated by Funds which allows retail investors to invest in debt funds from as small as one Japanese Yen. Gojo intends to raise up to a few billion Japanese yen through the platform in the coming fiscal year.

Optimizing funding costs is essential to achieve Gojo’s long-term goal "Enable provision of high-quality affordable financial services for 100+ million unserved and underserved people in 50+ countries by 2030.”

Gojo, among other inclusive financial service providers in developing countries, has unique access to Japanese investors as a holding company established in the country. Taking this advantage, Gojo aims to achieve competitive funding costs lower than the borrowing rates from local financial institutions or depositors while providing attractive returns to Japanese investors.

Gojo has track record of borrowings from Japanese lenders since 2017. In parallel with strengthening relationships with Japanese financial institutions, Gojo plans to offer several debt funds on Funds’ online platform totaling a few billion yen by the end of fiscal 2022.

About Funds

Funds provides an online platform that allows individual investors to make debt investments in various companies from 1 JPY. To date, 16,655 funds have been offered by 50 companies, mainly listed companies, and there has been no delay in distribution or defaults. (as of December 31, 2021).

Company Name: Funds, Inc.
Address:  Tokyo, Japan
Representative Director:  Yuichiro Fujita
Establishment: November 1, 2016
Capital: 483,000,000 JPY
Type II Financial Instruments Business
Registration Number: Director-General of the Kanto Local Finance Bureau (Kinsho) No. 3103
Member of Type II Financial Instruments Dealers Association

About us

Gojo is a Tokyo-based holding company of eight inclusive financial service providers operating in Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, India, and Tajikistan. Gojo was founded to extend financial inclusion to everyone in the world, beginning with developing countries. Gojo encourages the formalization and growth of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises. Our long-term goal is to enable the provision of high-quality affordable financial services for 100+ million unserved and underserved people in 50+ countries by 2030. Established in 2014, Gojo is serving more than 1million clients and managing the aggregated AUM of USD 516 million with 6,800+ employees.

Vision: Create a world where everyone can determine their future
Mission: Extend financial inclusion to everyone
Long-term Goal: Enable provision of high-quality affordable financial services for 100+ million unserved and underserved people in 50+ countries by 2030
Address: Tokyo, Japan
Founder & CEO: Taejun Shin
Establishment: July 4, 2014
Inquiries: info@gojo.co
Website: https://gojo.co

February 16, 2022

Milena Nikolova joins Gojo as Outside Director, and Arnaud Ventura appointed as Executive Officer

Gojo & Company, Inc. (Gojo) is pleased to announce that Milena Nikolova, co-founder and Managing Partner of Therion Advisers and Venture Partner at Aera VC, has joined Gojo board as a new Outside Director.

Milena has over 20 years of finance experience spanning investment banking, wealth management, venture capital investing, and startup advisory. She is a strong believer that directing capital for impact can be a powerful force for good without compromising financial returns. 

Milena is a Founding Partner of Therion Advisers, a startup advisory and investment firm, as well as Venture Partner and Director at Aera VC, a global venture capital firm investing in radical solutions to climate change. Milena is also a Venture Partner in Antler, a global early-stage VC that enables the founding of about 200 startups per year.

Prior to that, as Executive Director at UBS Investment Bank in London, she advised leading European banks and insurance companies on mergers, acquisitions, and IPO transactions totaling over $10bn in deal value. In wealth management in Singapore, she worked with ultra-high net worth individuals on financial assets allocation, wealth planning, or corporate structuring. 

Milena also devotes considerable time to charitable causes and is a partner/founder in several NGOs. She has 3 children and is an adventurer who loves outdoor sports and salsa dancing. She is a CFA charterholder and has an MSc degree in International Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics.

Milena states, “Gojo is a special, highly purpose-driven organization. It is run with sustainable profitability in mind, but large-scale social impact is at the core of all decision making. Their long term goal of enabling high-quality affordable financial services for 100+ million unserved and underserved people is very aligned with my personal values and it is my immense pleasure to contribute to their journey.”

Here is a short video message from Milena herself.

As of today, Gojo has no capital relationship with any of the Venture Capital firms which relate to Milena.

Gojo extends a warm welcome to Milena and looks forward to accelerating financial inclusion further!

Arnaud Ventura appointed as Executive Officer

Gojo is happy to announce that Arnaud Ventura, Managing Partner, is officially appointed as Executive Officer. Arnaud Ventura joined Gojo as Managing Partner in March 2021 to further accelerate Gojo’s fundraising, digitalization, investment, and geographic expansion strategy into Africa and beyond. Prior to Gojo, Arnaud founded and led two of the foremost European financial inclusion groups active in Micro & SME digital finance. In his newly added role, Gojo expects Arnaud to further contribute to the acceleration of the group's growth, achieving the mission of extending financial inclusion to all.

About us

Gojo is a Tokyo-based holding company of eight inclusive financial service providers operating in Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, India, and Tajikistan. Gojo was founded to extend financial inclusion to everyone in the world, beginning with developing countries. Gojo encourages the formalization and growth of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises. Our long-term goal is to enable the provision of high-quality affordable financial services for 100+ million unserved and underserved people in 50+ countries by 2030. Established in 2014, Gojo is serving more than 1million clients and managing the aggregated AUM of USD 516 million with 6,800+ employees.

Vision: Create a world where everyone can determine their future
Mission: Extend financial inclusion to everyone
Long-term Goal: Enable provision of high-quality affordable financial services for 100+ million unserved and underserved people in 50+ countries by 2030
Address: Tokyo, Japan
Founder & CEO: Taejun Shin
Establishment: July 4, 2014
Inquiries: info@gojo.co
Website: https://gojo.co

August 19, 2021

Gojo issues a private placement bond through online platform “Siiibo”

Gojo & Company, Inc. (Gojo) is pleased to announce the issuance of a 1st Series Unsecured Corporate Bond (Ranking pari passu among bonds and private placement with restrictions on splits) (hereinafter, “private placement bond”) on the online investment platform operated by Siiibo Securities (Siiibo).

Gojo has successfully raised debt financing from Japanese individual investors in the form of a private bond placement through Siiibo, an online securities company specialized in corporate bonds. The solicitation for investment into this private bond was open only for a small number of investors registered with an online investment platform “Siiibo”, operated by Siiibo Securities. 

The fund raised will be used as working capital for the group companies’ business expansion, or inter-company loans to group companies. 

For inclusive financial service providers in developing countries, high funding cost is one of the major challenges. Gojo continues to work on optimizing funding cost by pursuing global scale and risk diversification, building strong relationships with Japanese financial institutions and individual investors, and diversifying financing methods. 

About Siiibo Securities:

Siiibo Securities is a Tokyo-based independent online securities company specialized in corporate bonds. Driven by the mission to create free, transparent and impartial direct finance, their aim has been to unleash the potential of private placement bonds since their establishment in 2019. They provide an online investment platform and offer financial advisory services for business customers.

Company Name: Siiibo Securities Co., Ltd.
Location: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Establishment: January 11, 2019
Capital: 434 million yen
Website: https://siiibo.com
Founder & CEO: Kazuki Komura

About Gojo & Company: 

Gojo was founded to extend financial inclusion to everyone in the world, beginning with developing countries. Gojo encourages the formalization and growth of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises. Our long-term goal is to enable the provision of high-quality affordable financial services for 100+ million unserved and underserved people in 50+ countries by 2030. Six years since our establishment, we work in Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and India with USD 353 million gross loan portfolio, 5,000+ employees, serving more than 716,000 clients.

Vision: Create a world where everyone can determine their future
Mission: Extend financial inclusion to everyone
Long-term Goal: Enable provision of high-quality affordable financial services for 100+ million unserved and underserved people in 50+ countries by 2030
Address: Tokyo, Japan
Founder & CEO: Taejun Shin
Establishment: July 4, 2014
Inquiries: info@gojo.co
Website: https://gojo.co/

July 9, 2021

Gojo publishes its 2020 Impact Report

Gojo is excited to share our 2020 Impact Report

This year’s report focuses particularly on sharing Gojo and our partners’ responses to Covid-19, as well as our clients’ experience of the pandemic. In addition, we share key indicators, as well as updates on our impact measurement and research and innovation efforts. We have also added a new section on Gojo’s corporate governance to this year’s report, to provide visibility into the structures which help to ensure accountability for achieving our mission and goal of providing high-quality financial services to underserved and unserved people.

Although some of the impact research we had hoped to launch in 2020 was delayed due to the pandemic, we nonetheless managed to make progress on our savings and small digital loan initiatives, as well as the development of Gojo’s own Digital Field Application. We hope to be able to report on our upcoming field research projects and the continuing progress of our technology initiatives next year.

We hope you enjoy our impact report, and welcome any feedback on it.

About Gojo & Company

Gojo was founded to extend financial inclusion to everyone in the world, beginning with developing countries. Gojo encourages the formalization and growth of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises. Our long-term goal is to enable the provision of high-quality affordable financial services for 100+ million unserved and underserved people in 50+ countries by 2030. Seven years since our establishment, we work in Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and India with USD 376 million gross loan portfolio, 5,000+ employees, serving more than 730,000 clients.

March 11, 2021

Arnaud Ventura joins Gojo as Managing Partner

Gojo & Company, Inc. (Gojo) is pleased to announce that Mr. Arnaud Ventura, Founder and CEO of Baobab Group until end of 2019, has joined Gojo as Managing Partner.

Before joining Gojo, Arnaud founded and led two of the foremost European financial inclusion groups active in Micro & SME digital finance.

Between 1998 and 2008, Arnaud co-founded and led PlaNet Finance with the support of Jacques Attali (Chairman) and Muhammad Yunus (Chairman Advisory Board). It was one of the most successful European financial inclusion groups, providing mainly advisory services in the sector and operating in more than 30 markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America. 

In 2008, Arnaud then went on to found Baobab (formerly MicroCred), the leading Micro & SME digital bank in Africa & China. In 2019 alone, Baobab lent $1 billion to 1 million clients, generating around $200 million total revenues and more than $40 million pre-tax profit.

Since he left Baobab in December 2019, Arnaud has served as an advisor to Gojo and we have built trusting relationships. Arnaud will support the organization and development of Gojo by establishing an optimal group governance system, supporting the digital strategy of the group and fundraising activities, as well as leading Gojo’s initial entry to Africa. With over 20 years of entrepreneurial experience in microfinance and a global network, Arnaud is expected to further accelerate Gojo’s fundraising, digitalization, investment, and geographic expansion strategy immediately into Africa and beyond. 

Arnaud is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. He also co-founded the French China Foundation, the leading network of Young Leaders between France and China, and Share Africa, a platform to promote Africa's innovation and creativity. Arnaud graduated from EFREI, Paris, in Computer Science, and La Sorbonne in Philosophy. He speaks French, English and Spanish fluently and loves reading history & philosophy. He loves skiing and hiking in the mountains (particularly in the south of France), and has 2 young boys.

Arnaud states, “Since advising Taejun Shin, Founder & CEO, and Gojo’s team for more than 1 year, I have been impressed by the quality of the team and the ambition of the company. I am happy to be able to support its development and transform Gojo’s vision into reality in the coming years”. 

Gojo extends a warm welcome to Arnaud and looks forward to extending financial inclusion further!

About Gojo & Company

Gojo was founded to extend financial inclusion to everyone in the world beginning with the developing countries. Gojo encourages the formalization and growth of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises. Our long-term goal is to enable the provision of high-quality affordable financial services for 100+ million unserved and underserved people in 50+ countries by 2030. Six years since our establishment, we work in Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and India with USD 310 million gross loan portfolio, 5,000+ employees, serving more than 627,000 clients.

December 17, 2020

Completion of USD 68 million Series D financing

Gojo to accelerate investments to fuel further digitalization and social impact of group companies as it successfully completes the final close of its Series D financing

Gojo & Company, Inc. (“Gojo”) is pleased to announce the successful final close of its Series D financing of USD 26 million. Gojo has raised a total of USD 68 million in Series D, with cumulative paid-in capital since our establishment in July 2014 now reaching USD 140 million. 

In addition to follow-on investments from existing shareholders, The Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company, Limited, MARUI GROUP Co., and ASTMAX Fund Management Co., Ltd. as the General Partner of TUS (Tokyo University of Science) Capital Ⅰ L.P., Gojo welcomes RICOH LEASING COMPANY, LTD., Beyond Next Ventures Inc., GMO VenturePartners, Inc., and several newly joined institutional and individual investors in this final close. 

We see the follow-on investments from existing shareholders and investments from these distinguished new investors as indications of their confidence in Gojo’s ability to achieve double bottom line returns, seeking both financial sustainability and positive social impact through financial inclusion. As a business whose core vision is to enable people in poverty to overcome barriers to better futures, Gojo is committed to delivering positive impact on the following Sustainable Development Goals: Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere; Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth; and Goal 10: Reduced inequality. 

Gojo’s group companies have shown quick recovery from COVID-19 impact and are now en route back to growth. The funds raised will mainly be used to further their growth and digitalization , to explore future expansion opportunities in new markets in Asia and Africa, and to engage in further impact measurement activities to evaluate the outcomes of our operations in clients’ lives. 

Nomination of Ms. Royanne Doi as new independent director to strengthen group governance 

Gojo is happy to announce the nomination of Ms. Royanne Doi, former Corporate Chief Ethics Officer of Prudential Financial Inc., and former Advisor for Global Legal, Ethics & Compliance to Yamaha Corporation as independent director of the board. Ms. Doi will officially be appointed as a board member subject to an Extraordinary Shareholders Meeting resolution in early 2021. 

Ms. Doi states “I am honored to serve on Gojo’s Board as an independent director. My first touch point with microfinance banking was in 2010. I made a contribution to the capital of a fledgling microfinance bank, which was focused on unbanked women and farmers in India." Ms. Doi brings extensive practical experience in law, global business ethics, and international compliance. She is expected to facilitate the process of instilling and safeguarding Gojo’s mission, vision, and core values within Gojo’s group companies, including by:

  1. Facilitating learning on ethics & compliance best practices among Gojo’s group companies, and
  2. Helping Gojo’s board better manage integrity/misconduct risks with high standards of corporate governance in the international arena.

Gojo is working to establish an optimal group governance system through implementation of more advanced internal control systems and enhancement of compliance. Ms. Doi’s appointment as independent director is expected to further accelerate the strengthening of internal audit and corporate governance that will enable the sustainable growth of Gojo Group. 

Prior to Yamaha, Ms. Doi held senior legal positions with major global financial institutions. At one point,  she managed 200+ staff around the world, with business experience in North and South America, Asia and Europe. During her tenure as a global ethics officer, Prudential Financial received Ethisphere’s designation as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies for the first time in 2015, and multiple times thereafter. 

Ms. Doi has an undergraduate degree in Philosophy, from Washington University in St. Louis, graduating Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa. She earned her Juris Doctorate from UCLA School of Law. She is married to her law school sweetheart and has lived in Japan since 1994.  

Recovery from impact of COVID-19 and acceleration of growth initiatives 

The immediate health impact of COVID-19 on our clients and employees and on our group companies’ operations remains low, even though the microfinance sector has had to adapt to lockdowns in an increased number of the areas where we operate. We are complying with government regulations for COVID-19 in all the affected countries and communicating with our clients very closely. As lockdowns have gradually been lifted in all areas, collection efficiency has broadly improved to the pre-COVID-19 level across four operating countries. New loan disbursement has been cautiously resumed and liquidity of the group companies continues to remain strong. The microfinance sector, whose end-clients are engaged in essential businesses such as agriculture, rearing livestock, and neighborhood grocery services, has shown resilience over the past two decades. 

We will accelerate the implementation of non-touch-based technology by promoting cashless operations and expanding loan automation for SMEs to microfinance clients, in order to be ahead of the curve once the macro environment recovers. As an example, Satya MicroCapital, our group company in India, has substantially strengthened digitalization of its operations, including cashless disbursement and collections utilizing fingerprint and mobile payments, called “SatyaPay.” Gojo’s technology team is also working on expanding our own Digital Field Application (DFA) which has been first implemented in MAXIMA, our group company in Cambodia. These initiatives will be optimized and deployed across the group companies. 

We will continue to pursue digital transformation of traditional microfinance services while achieving the best possible combination of technology and human touch. Keeping a client-centric approach, we will continue to provide more convenient financial services to our clients in Asia, Africa, and the rest of the world. 

Comments from existing investors:

Masahisa Aoki, Director and Senior Executive Officer, General Manager, Co-Creative Investment Department, President and Director, D2C & Co. Inc. 

MARUI GROUP, Co., LTD. 

"Gojo is an irreplaceable partner for us to achieve cross-border financial inclusion, which MARUI GROUP aims to achieve by 2050. Our beliefs in Gojo have remained unchanged since our first investment in June 2019 but it grows stronger through exponential business growth, persistent efforts under the impact of COVID-19 and strengthening of the team. We made an additional investment to build a stronger partnership from the perspective of “Co-creation”. We have strong empathy with Gojo’s mission “to extend financial inclusion to everyone”. We would like to realize financial inclusion through a combination of the passion of the team and financial technology."

Kazuyuki Shigemoto, Executive Officer / Chief General Manager, Investment

The Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company, Limited

“We made an additional investment in Gojo as an “Impact Investment” to aim both earning investment income and creating social impact with having sympathy with Taejun Shin, CEO, and his vision “to create the Private Sector World Bank”. Since our last investment, Gojo has achieved steady growth. We expect Gojo to continue contributing to the improvement of people’s Quality of Lives by expanding financial access in developing countries.

Kentaro Obata, Managing Executive Officer 

ASTMAX Fund Management Co., Ltd. as the General Partner of TUS (Tokyo University of Science) Capital Ⅰ L.P.

“ASTMAX manages a university-originated venture capital fund mainly invested by the Tokyo University of Science as we aim to increase our asset value through the investment to contribute to our society. We made our first investment in Gojo in August 2019 driven by our sympathy towards Taejun Shin, CEO, and the team’s passion and capabilities to achieve their vision, “A world where everyone can determine their own future.” With continued expectations, we were pleased to make an additional investment in this round.” 

Comments from new investors:

Tokuharu Nakamura, Representative Director, President and Chief Executive Officer

RICOH LEASING COMPANY, LTD.

“We are investing and supporting business fields that have a positive impact on social issues, and we are investing as part of this. We expect Gojo’s further growth with maximizing both economic and social values as Gojo to achieve their vision, “A world where everyone can determine their own future.”” 

Tsuyoshi Ito, CEO / MANAGING PARTNER

Beyond Next Ventures Inc.

Beyond Next Ventures supports start-ups that strive for transformation of society utilizing technology with vision to create a world in which everyone can challenge. As an entrepreneur who founded the company in a similar financial field around the same time, I strongly empathize with Gojo’s grand vision “to create the Private Sector World Bank” and respect Taejun Shin, CEO who is making it happen in the world. We believe that his vision will materialize in the near future devising Gojo’s technology and group strategy.”  

Ryu Muramatsu, Director, Founding Partner

GMO VenturePartners, Inc. 

“An attempt called Gojo, an attempt to empower microfinance through scale. Moreover, Gojo’s essence as “a global social experiment from Japan,” solving poverty and revolutionizing peoples’ lives by delivering the greatest mobility of capital in human history to people around the world who really need but marginalized by utilizing the power of Japan’s capital markets and financial technology. As GMO Global Fintech Fund, our goal is to connect Fintech in Japan and the world. We are honored to participate in such an attempt as GMO Global Fintech Fund.”

A Cambodian lady who now runs a weaving factory with several employees. / Taejun Shin

About Gojo & Company

Gojo was founded to extend financial inclusion to everyone in the world beginning with the developing countries. Gojo encourages the formalization and growth of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises. Our long-term goal is to enable the provision of high-quality affordable financial services for 100+ million unserved and underserved people in 50+ countries by 2030. Six years since our establishment, we work in Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and India with USD 288 million gross loan portfolio, 4,800+ employees, serving more than 600,000 clients.

September 15, 2020

Completion of USD 19 million additional close of Series D financing from international institutional investors

Successful completion of first-ever fundraising from international institutional investors as Gojo accelerates digital transformation 

Gojo & Company, Inc. (“Gojo”) is pleased to announce the successful additional close of its ongoing Series D financing of USD 19 million as of September 14, 2020. Gojo has successfully globalized its investor base by welcoming two international institutional investors as its investors for the first time. 

Welcoming international institutional investors with strong expertise in the tech space

TGVest Capital, Baillie Gifford, Future Venture Capital (CVC of East Japan Bank), and several individual investors joined as Gojo investors in this financing round. 

TGVest Capital is an Asia-based technology-focused private equity fund specializing in buyout and growth capital investments in companies. Baillie Gifford is an independent investment partnership based in Scotland, UK, with USD 324 billion of assets under management (as at 30 June 2020).  Gojo will drive further digital transformation at our group companies’ operations as we gain further confidence in our capabilities through investments from international investors having extensive investment experience in the tech space. 

We will continue to work towards the final close of the Series D financing. The newly raised funds will be mainly used for further growth and digitalization of its existing group companies in Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and India apart from future expansion to new markets in Asia and Africa.

Comments from international investors:

TGVest Capital DC Cheng, Chairman
"As a growth capital private equity fund, we are always interested in innovative businesses disrupting an industry with tech-enabled applications. Gojo represents a milestone in our quest to strengthen our Asian presence and ESG practice, and a truly remarkable one. Gojo’s mission to extend financial inclusion in less developed countries and its innovative approach to overcome long-existing industry bottlenecks have resonated with us from the beginning. We consider Gojo a pioneer in redefining the microfinance landscape and we believe its unique business model and tremendous growth potential make it an invaluable addition to our portfolio."

Baillie Gifford Praveen Kumar, Investment Manager (Japanese Equities)
“As long-term growth investors, we look for fast growing and disruptive young businesses addressing a large growth opportunity and employing a unique or genuinely differentiated business model. Gojo ticks all of these boxes and hence we decided to make an investment. We also like Gojo’s vision of improving financial access across some of the world’s poorest nations through microfinance and other forms of affordable lending. It is quite rare to come across a commercial enterprise like Gojo whose sole raison d'être is the upliftment of the poor and we wish the management team at Gojo all the success in their future endeavours.”

Comments from Taejun Shin, Founder and CEO of Gojo:

Under the travel restriction due to the impact of COVID-19, we had active discussions with TGVest and Baillie Gifford through a series of video conferences and in-depth due diligence processes. We believe the investments from sophisticated international institutional investors such as TGVest and Baillie Gifford indicates their trust in Gojo and confidence in Gojo’s growth potential. Despite the adverse economic environments, we have made many progress in our services with our technology team. We will keep working to extend financial service to the world.” 

Accelerating digital transformation

Syam Nair, having previously worked at Visa and Mastercard in technology and digital leadership positions across the Asia Pacific region, joined as Gojo’s Chief Technology Officer in February to lead group’s digital transformation initiatives and technology team build-out. Gojo initiated digital transformation programs within all group companies to leverage digital technologies and business models enabling us to provide more convenient financial services to our clients. 

Gojo launched the pilot of Digital Field Application (“DFA”) which was co-developed with MAXIMA, our group company in Cambodia aiming to accelerate digitalization and also reduce lead time in serving financial products to clients. The entire loan process, from registration to approval, was reduced to 40 minutes from what took days before. Gojo aims to deploy DFA that consists of a brand-new Android application that runs on tablets and sophisticated backend services in the group companies. An R&D team was newly formed to innovate and conceptualize new products for microfinance and their clients. The team is in the product ideation stage for many innovative concepts including digital savings and others. 

Impact Measurement and Social Performance Management (SPM)

During the COVID-19 outbreak, Gojo shared SPM practices to be followed by group companies for client protection, such as rescheduling of loans and extending moratoriums on the collection of principal and interest. 

Gojo released its first impact report in July, which reviews Gojo’s activities since the establishment. Gojo’s impact measurement team has also been planning the research design and operating model for a financial diaries project, which will give us insight into how clients use loans and manage their money. As a client-centric financial service provider, we strive to deliver better financial products and services to the clients so that we can support their goals. 

About Gojo & Company

Gojo was founded to extend financial inclusion to everyone in the world beginning with the developing countries. Gojo encourages the formalization and growth of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises. Our long-term goal is to enable the provision of high-quality affordable financial services for 100+ million unserved and underserved people in 50+ countries by 2030. Six years since our establishment, we work in Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and India with USD 260 million gross loan portfolio, 3,400+ employees, serving more than 570,000 clients.

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