Founder of Japan’s first startup unicorn will speak at TIA Tokyo 2016

A year-long trip across 23 countries would be an extensive journey for many. But for Shintaro Yamada, it only sparked off the start of a longer voyage ahead – one with Mercari.

The peer-to-peer marketplace raised US$75 million in March this year to take its valuation over US$1 billion, making it Japan’s first pre-IPO unicorn. How did Mercari become such a successful, sticky product that is now profitable? Yamada joins us at Tech in Asia Tokyo 2016 to clue us in. Yamada displayed a keen inclination towards entrepreneurship even from a young age. While still enrolled at the prestigious Waseda University, he took on an internship to develop an auction site for a young Rakuten. He eventually scratched the itch to strike out on his own with gaming studio, Unoh, before selling it to Zygna in 2010.

After the acquisition, Yamada traveled around the world for a year. That wasn’t the end of it though; inspired by his experiences from Bolivia to India, he wanted to create something universally useful anywhere in the world. The following year, he founded Mercari, an app for users to sell their second-hand items.

Now three years old, Mercari is host to transactions worth a total of US$88 million every month, and the app has over ten million downloads. That phenomenal success is further validated by the who’s who of Japan’s investment community that have backed the company: Mitsui & Co., Development Bank of Japan, Japan Co-Invest, Globis Capital Partners, World Innovation Lab, and Global Brain.

Its next play? America.

Join serial entrepreneur Shintaro Yamada as he makes a first appearance at Tech in Asia Tokyo. Get ready for an insightful session on how to make products people love and keep coming back to.

He will be joined by Jeff Jordan (Andreessen Horowitz), Tomoko Namba (DeNA), Taavet Hinrikus (TransferWise), Allison Baum (Fresco Capital), Natalie Shiori Fleming (Payoneer Japan), Dave McClure (500 Startups), Steve Leonard (IDA Singapore) and other incredible world-class speakers.

Get your tickets today to secure a seat to Japan’s most exciting tech conference yet. Passes are now going at 15 percent off, only until July 29 with the code .