Sports Tech Company Euphoria Raises Funding Through Impact Investment from SMBC Venture Capital
Aiming to create social value with the SMBC Group by solving social issues through sports
Sports technology company Euphoria has raised funds through impact investment from SMBC Venture Capital. Impact investment is defined as investment that intentionally creates positive and measurable social and environmental impact alongside financial returns.
Background of this Impact Investment
Euphoria has developed a management system called "ONE TAP SPORTS" for managing athletes' conditioning and training data, providing this service since 2013. For more than 10 years, with the aim of improving performance and preventing injuries, they have supported the health and performance of a wide range of athletes, from Japanese national teams and professional sports teams to university, high school, and younger athletes.
Since 2022, they have also offered "ONE TAP SPORTS for Biz," which applies conditioning visualization and improvement methods used by top athletes, along with sports science research findings, to corporate health management and employee health and safety management. Through this corporate wellness business, they have worked to address "Presenteeism"* - improving productivity by maintaining and enhancing the health of corporate workers.
In this third-party allocation of shares, Euphoria received impact investment funding from SMBCVC. This impact investment will promote initiatives with Euphoria to solve "DE&I/Human Rights" and "Poverty/Inequality" issues - key materiality areas that the SMBC Group has established as part of its pillar of "creating social value." Both companies will monitor the jointly established logic model and impact KPIs.
Initially, they will address urgent issues facing Japan's aging society with declining birthrates, such as increasing burden on the working population, rising medical costs, and extending healthy life expectancy. Specifically, Euphoria will deliver the conditioning improvement methods developed for athletes to corporate employees and the general public, utilizing the power of sports to maintain an aging society in a healthy and sustainable manner.
Furthermore, one of the social issues related to sports is the inequality in children's sports experiences due to declining birthrates and economic/regional disparities. This experiential inequality leads to fewer opportunities for children to develop self-efficacy by discovering their potential, and can have various impacts including reduced exercise habits over long periods, including adulthood. Euphoria will tackle this challenge using sports science and technology.
Euphoria will accelerate efforts to solve social issues and realize a sustainable society together with the SMBC Group, in pursuit of their vision of "A future where everyone's potential can thrive."