project44 announces expansion in Japan
Opens new office in Tokyo; appoints general manager, director of solutions engineering and regional marketing director.
Following the announcement of a $420-million investment earlier this year, project44 has announced its expansion into the Japanese market.
Headquartered in Chicago, project44's expansion directly into Japan will generate additional opportunities to serve Japanese brands, providing additional supply chain visibility.
About the development, Jett McCandless, founder and CEO of project44, said, "As we continue our international expansion, Japan was a priority. Japan is a crossroads for transcontinental trade. With our ocean insights, we already have insight into Japanese shipping operations, and it was only natural to expand our presence in the country."
Amping up Japan's Supply Chain Visibility
Throughout 2021, project44 cemented its position as one of the top companies in supply chain visibility with global port-to-door coverage across all modes of transportation. The company now generates more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and tracks more than 1 billion packages annually.
The $420-million investment positions project44 to accelerate its mission to help leading brands optimise the movement of products across supply chains, delivering better resilience, sustainability and value for their customers. Investors and customers of project44 have stated that the expansion is a good move.
Hiroshi Etani, a senior managing executive officer, at Yamato Transport Co., Ltd., Japan's largest delivery company said, "We evaluated the business potential and future potential of project44 and decided to invest, in addition to becoming a customer. In the future, while using the services of project44, which will be further expanded, we will deepen our knowledge of supply chain visibility and provide further value to our customers with it."
Founder and general partner at Sozo Ventures, Koichiro Nakamura, remarked, "According to project44's month-on-month shipment delay data, average delays from China to major Japanese ports increased by 105% to 3.7 days in January 2022 compared to 1.8 days in December 2021. With companies facing more operational challenges, and with project44's ability to power the world's supply chain with its global network, we believe project44's expansion into Japan was a natural next step and are excited to see them grow their solutions in the market."
Leadership in Japan
Project44 recently appointed Yuji Kuwahara as the general manager and vice president, sales, Japan. Kuwahara was previously a vice president at Coupa Software and Llamasoft.
He has also previously participated in the Japanese launch for foreign IT solutions start-up companies, where he led the sales teams, grew their local organisations, and established the companies' brand in the Japanese market. He brings his strong track record of success expanding brands into the region to the role.
Kaoru Matsuda has joined the project44 team as the director of solutions engineering. Matsuda will be responsible for building out the Japanese engineering team, expanding the ability for project44 to monitor supply chain movements across the country and connecting Japan to project44's international carrier network.
Project44 has also hired Kazumi Mihashi to be the director of marketing for the APAC region. Mihashi previously served as the Japan and Search Engine Advertising (SEA) marketing manager for Llamasoft, Inc. Mihashi will pave the way for project44's landing in markets across Japan as well as Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
Launch of Tokyo Office
To build its presence in Japan, project44 opened a Tokyo office in February 2022. Located in the Hibiya area, the office sets the stage for continued expansion in the region. The company plans to triple the size of the Tokyo office in 2022, hiring more than a dozen employees this year.
Project44 will attend major trades shows in Japan later this year including the Manufacturing, Construction, Logistic Innovation Week to be held this spring and Logis-Tech Tokyo in September.
As the supply chain connective tissue, project44 operates the world's most trusted end-to-end visibility platform that tracks more than 1 billion shipments annually for over 1,000 of the leading brands, including top companies in manufacturing, automotive, retail, life sciences, food and beverage, as well as oil, chemical and gas.
