Acrove

Acrove Inc. operates as a platform company in the e-commerce and D2C space, initially established as Anoma Inc. in November 2018 by Shunsuke Arai and Yuki Sakuragi. Shunsuke Arai founded the company while he was a law student at Nihon University. His journey began after a stay in Australia, where he noticed the trend of plant-based proteins. This insight led to the creation of his first D2C brand, an pea protein product named anoma, which became the catalyst for the company's formation. In October 2020, the company rebranded from Anoma to Acrove to better reflect its expanded mission. The name "Acrove" combines "Acro," meaning a sharp point, with "Grove," symbolizing an orchard, representing the company's philosophy of using distinctive strengths to cultivate a fruitful business environment for society.

The firm's business model is anchored on two core pillars: the Commerce Transformation (CX) business and the EC Roll-up business. The CX segment focuses on maximizing e-commerce sales for client brands through comprehensive support on major online marketplaces like Amazon, Rakuten, and Yahoo! Shopping. This is achieved by leveraging the company's proprietary business intelligence tool, "ACROVE FORCE" (also referred to as ACROVE INSIGHT), which provides data-driven analysis and insights to inform marketing strategies and operational execution. The company supports over 170 businesses, boasting an average sales growth rate of 300% for its clients. Revenue is generated by providing these BI tools and marketing strategy services to partner companies.

The second pillar, the EC Roll-up business, launched in June 2022, involves acquiring and scaling promising e-commerce brands. Acrove targets businesses facing challenges such as succession issues, or a lack of human, financial, or marketing resources. By integrating these brands into its ecosystem, Acrove applies its operational expertise and data analytics capabilities to enhance their value and expand their market reach. The company has acquired brands across diverse sectors including health foods, baby and kids products, home appliances, and beauty electronics. As of October 2023, Acrove had successfully completed 7 M&A deals since the start of its roll-up business. The company has secured significant funding, raising a total of $76.6 million over three rounds from investors including Nissay Capital, CyberAgent Capital, and Japan Post Capital, to fuel its M&A activities and the development of its data platform.

Keywords: EC platform, D2C support, business intelligence, EC roll-up, M&A, e-commerce consulting, data analytics, brand acquisition, marketing optimization, retail tech