enechain raised 1.6 billion yen in Series A round

enechain Corporation (“enechain,” HQ: Tokyo, CEO: Ryo Nozawa, hereinafter called the “company”), a Tokyo-based energy start-up, announced today that the company has raised 1.6 billion yen capital through a Series A round third-party share issuance underwritten by DCM Ventures (lead investor) and Minerva Growth Partners. In addition to the equity finance, the company has also borrowed loans from banks, raising total 2 billion yen.

We plan to use the funds raised to expand our hiring and organization, and to accelerate the development and user adoption of our core product, eSquare. Specifically, over the next three years, we plan to triple the number of employees to 150, mainly software engineers and corporate personnel. We will also aggressively invest to accelerate user acquisition, aiming to increase liquidity on eSquare by more than 10 times.

We believe that the revitalization of trading in the wholesale electricity hedging marketplace will stabilize the profitability of both power generators and retailers and contribute to stable electricity retailing on more competitive terms to end users.

Finally, we would also like to announce that the company had the shareholders' meeting on December 30, 2021 and has appointed Mr. Osuke Honda of DCM Ventures as an independent director. Mr. Honda has executed a number of investments as General Partner and Japan Representative, and has been involved in the management of three companies as an outside director: freee K.K. and Sansan Inc., both of which were listed on the TSE Mothers market in 2019 , and VisasQ Inc., which was listed on the same market in 2020. We will incorporate Mr. Honda's experience and global knowledge into our management to develop products and expand our business.