Digitizing Japan’s Status Quo with Shinichi Takatori, Founder and CEO of Kyash

Miguel Armaza is joined by Shinichi (Shin) Takatori, Founder and CEO of Kyash, one of the largest fintechs in Japan and a fully licensed digital bank offering digital wallet, mobile payments, and credit card services.

Launched in 2015, Kyash has raised more than $70 million in funding from backers including all three major Japanese megabank groups and venture capital investors including Goodwater Capital, Greenspring Associates, Altos Ventures, Greyhound Capital, Partech and Broadhaven Ventures.

Prior to Kyash, Shin worked at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking and Kurt Salomon Consulting. He is a graduate of Waseda University.

Growing up in Tokyo, Shin was exposed to multiple international cultures from an early age. His parents loved hosting exchange students from around the world and he remembers guests would ask him questions about Japan and the Japanese culture that would lead him to analyze things he had always taken for granted. This upbringing is probably what lead him to embrace diversity of ideas and diverse ways of doing things.

Entrepreneurship in Japan

Mr. Takatori always knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur. His mother’s side of the family has been running a chain of restaurants for over 115 years and he was always fascinated by the idea of bringing joy to customers and making them smile. However, he also recognized he would need some corporate experience to eventually launch his own venture. So, after graduating from Tokyo’s Waseda University, Shin joined Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), one of Japan’s most prestigious banks. He spent five years at SMBC and was struck to learn that banking didn’t look the same around the world and that even SMBC was providing different services in every country they operate in. He then spent two more years at Kurt Salomon as a management consultant covering private equity investors and consumer firms. Armed with years of valuable experience, Shin left Kurt Salomon in 2015 to launch Kyash as he realized several aspects of the Japanese financial industry could be improved.

In a country where entrepreneurship is not as popular or widely accepted as in the US, Shin launched Kyash without a co-founding team. In fact, one of his biggest struggles in the early days was recruiting Japanese talent and virtually all of the first hires were Americans and Australians living in Tokyo. Over time, as Kyash started to develop a positive and interesting reputation, Shin was able to hire local talent and grow the team to the almost 100-person company it is today.

Challenging the Status Quo

Kyash’s mission is to help build an increasingly cashless society by providing financial management services. Surprisingly, over 60% of retail payment transactions in Japan are made in cash and Shin recognizes this is both a challenge and a big opportunity for the company. On one end, the Japanese overwhelmingly prefer cash but on the other end, there is a move to adopt cashless technologies fueled by government policies.

Shinichi Takatori’s journey is a fascinating one and he is a true agent of change in a society with millenary traditions. He is also passionate about inspiring future generations of entrepreneurs and continuing to develop and grow the entrepreneurial environment in Tokyo. While he recognizes culture and tradition are important, he also encourages Japanese founders to embrace diverse ways of doing things and always consider doing things differently and challenging the status quo.