Woodstock raises a total of JPY 750 million from Japanese and US investors

Woodstock has raised approximately JPY 500 million from Japanese and US venture capital firms and angel investors, led by Delight Ventures, to further grow its SNS-style investment app woodstock.club, which allows investment in US stocks starting from JPY 1,000 for Generation Z. This brings the total funds raised to 750 million yen.

Additionally, Woodstock is launching a full renewal of their app. In addition to the SNS functions such as portfolio sharing and timeline interaction, Woodstock has newly introduced a matching live trade feature, which allows users to discover stocks in a similar way to a matching app.

Lead investor: Delight Ventures

Other new investors: Sony Innovation Fund / Shizen Capital / Indicator / Moonbase / Plug and Play

Follow-on investments from existing investors: Coral Capital / Incubate Fund / Kindred Ventures

Purpose of fundraising

While financial anxiety for the future is growing among young people who will lead the next generation, opportunities to acquire proper knowledge about asset formation and stock investment in Japan are still limited, lagging far behind Europe and the United States.

Amid the “shift from savings to investment” advocated by the Kishida administration and the accelerating yen depreciation, there is a growing need to actively manage and invest one’s assets in the unstable economic situation.

However, many investment beginners, especially among the younger generation, hesitate to start investing, citing a lack of knowledge or funds.

Woodstock has launched and operated a social investment app to provide an experience where users can invest even with a small amount of money by properly utilizing the power of social networking, sharing stock information and portfolios with other users instead of investing alone.

Since its launch, the app has been used by many people, mainly Generation Z experiencing investment for the first time, with approximately 75% of account openers being under 39 years old and more than 70% being investment beginners, making it an ideal app for beginners to start investing.

With this funding round, Woodstock will strive to develop more innovative and user-friendly apps, while accelerating our securities business expansion, including handling new financial products and strengthening recruitment activities, to support the investment activities and asset formation of young people.

Background of the UI renewal

Since its service launch in 2023, woodstock.club has expanded its functions along with the increase in the number of users. However, as mentioned above, the majority of users are experiencing investment for the first time through this app, and they are looking for an investment experience that is easy and intuitive to start.

With this in mind, Woodstock decided to renew the app to make it simpler. For the renewal, Woodstock conducted interviews with users to directly hear their voices, allowing for a deep understanding of their requests and concerns about the app. Additionally, the screen design was optimized based on user behavior data analysis.

Features of the new screen design

• Simple and intuitive tab layout
  The new screen design streamlines the main tabs to three: “Portfolio,” “Timeline,” and “Search,” resulting in a simpler and more intuitive layout. This allows for more intuitive and quicker asset management and information gathering.
• Addition of the matching live trade feature
  The live trade feature, which shows what other users are trading in real-time on the platform, now provides a richer experience. Users can operate intuitively by swiping, similar to a matching app experience.
• Improved discovery experience
  Woodstock introduced a new search function that allows users to browse lists of all stocks, news, user rankings, and more, enhancing the discovery experience. This enables users to access desired information more quickly.

Matching live trade feature

Woodstock has been committed to making it easier for beginners to start investing through a social investment experience, such as allowing users to buy and sell US stocks and ETFs starting from JPY 1,000, and share their stock and ETF portfolios with other users.

Now, with the launch of the new live trade matching function, the app provides an even more enriched social experience. This function allows users to discover stocks that other investors are currently buying and selling, in an intuitive way similar to a matching app, and make investment decisions with just a swipe. Users can see which stocks have been bought and sold over the past week, in a story-like format similar to social media apps, swiping right to buy, left to pass, and up to add to their watchlist.

Woodstock has also implemented a trivia feature that utilizes AI to provide fun facts about a stock when the user taps on its card. These functions can help solve the common problem faced by many beginner investors: not knowing which stocks to buy. Experience investing together with others, instead of alone, and learn through the social experience.

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