SoftBank Ventures Asia, half a year ago after having led SODAs Series B in Tokyo, is increasing its stake on the Tokyo-based sneaker reseller platform. SoftBank Group's early-stage venture capital arm announced today that it is returning to lead SODAs Series C. It currently stands at $56.4 million.Altos Ventures, JAFCO and KREAM, a South Korean platform for selling sneakers (another SoftBank Ventures Asia portfolio firm), are some of the other investors.SODA launched SNKRDUNK in 2018 and is Japan's biggest sneaker reselling platform with over 2.5 million users monthly. SODA also announced that it had acquired Monokabu, a rival sneaker reselling platform. SODA announced that it has acquired Monokabu, a rival in Japan's sneaker resale market. This makes SODA the market leader.SoftBank Ventures Asia spokeswoman said that the fund chose to invest again in SODA because of the company's rapid growth since its previous funding. SODA's post-money value is currently 24 billion JPY or approximately $218 million USD.SODAs Series C funding will also help to expand into Asian markets. The Philippines and Indonesia are ideal for SNKRDUNK because they both have large e-commerce markets.In January, the company's previous funding, its $22million Series B, was made public. Uchiyama stated that sneakers sales were strong despite the economic impact of the pandemic. He also said that online shopping had increased its adoption.SODA claims that it has reached record sales of $34.7 Million in May 2021. This is an increase of 900% year-overyear. Many sneaker C2C marketplaces like StockX have seen sales rise despite COVID-19.KREAM and SNKRDUNK will collaborate closely to share information about sneaker authentication, inventory management and other operations-related topics with the aim of increasing their share in the Asian sneaker market resell.SoftBank Ventures Asia, in addition to SODA and KREAM, is an investor in China's sneaker trading platform Nice.
