Prime Partners, Inc.

Dentsu Ventures Investment in Twist Bioscience, a Company Providing High-Throughput DNA Synthesis for Multiple Industries in the United States

3.27 2018

Dentsu Inc. (Tokyo: 4324; ISIN: JP3551520004; President & CEO: Toshihiro Yamamoto; Head Office: Tokyo; Capital: 74,609.81 million yen) and Prime Partners, Inc. (Head Office: Tokyo; General Partner: Daiji Horibe & Katsuyuki Hasegawa) announced today that Dentsu Ventures Global Fund I (hereinafter "Dentsu Ventures"), the Company’s corporate venture capital fund, has made an investment in Cheddar Inc. (Head Office: New York City; CEO: Jonathan Steinberg; hereinafter "Cheddar"), a U.S. digital news network.

Currently, Cheddar owns studios in four U.S. locations where it produces business news content focused on innovative products, services and technologies, and develops services that deliver that content to viewers through a variety of video distributors and social media channels.

Since its establishment in 2016, Cheddar has rapidly acquired viewers through a wide range of distribution channels and achieved extremely high viewer engagement.

Going forward, Dentsu Ventures will support Cheddar’s cultivation of a new media ecosystem and its business growth through the further expansion of distribution channels and the promotion of collaborations with client companies.

About Cheddar Inc., and Dentsu Ventures

Profile of Cheddar Inc.

Company Name: Cheddar Inc.

Location: New York City, New York (USA)

Date of Establishment: January 6, 2016

Representative: Jonathan Steinberg
Founder, Chief Executive Officer & Board Member

Line of Business: News network management

URL: https://news.cheddar.com/

Profile of Dentsu Ventures

Name: Dentsu Ventures Global Fund I

Total Fund Capital: Ten billion yen

Date of Establishment: April 2015

Period of Operation: Slated for 10-year period, through March 2025

Investment Regions: Global investments with a focus on the U.S., Europe Japan and Asia

Investment Stages: Balanced, wide-ranging investments with the focus on seed and early stage investments, but also including mid-stage and later-stage investments

Investment Areas: (1) Areas that can change the marketing and communication business in a broad sense

(2) New areas other than the above that have a high potential for innovation

URL: http://dentsu-v.com/