QUADRAC

About QUADRAC

Established in August 2009 by a team with foundational experience in developing FeliCa, Japan's widely used contactless IC card technology, QUADRAC Co., Ltd. is a technology venture focused on the transportation payments sector. The company is currently spearheaded by President and CEO Masayuki Takada, who brought extensive experience from Sony, where he was involved in the development of the FeliCa OS and other advanced communication and AI technologies. His background in commercializing cutting-edge technology aligns with QUADRAC's mission to reduce the friction in mobility within Japanese society.

QUADRAC operates primarily as a B2B technology provider, offering a sophisticated payment and authentication platform for public transportation operators. Its business model is centered on providing its platform as a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution, enabling transit companies to accept open-loop payments. This allows passengers to use their own contactless credit cards, debit cards, or smartphones for fares, eliminating the need for specific transit cards or pre-purchased tickets. The company serves a growing list of over 100 transport operators across Japan, including major railways and bus lines in regions like Kyushu, Kansai, and Kanto.

The core of QUADRAC's offering is a cloud-based platform composed of the 'Q-CORE' high-performance server and the 'Q-move' service. 'Q-CORE' is a server system engineered to handle the massive volume of real-time transactions characteristic of public transit, processing over a thousand transactions per second without delays. This thin-client architecture significantly reduces the capital investment and operational costs for transit companies that would otherwise need extensive on-premise hardware. The 'Q-move' service leverages this backend to facilitate payments via credit cards and QR codes directly at ticket gates and on buses. The entire system is developed in-house, from server infrastructure to the hardware specifications for card readers, and holds multiple security certifications, including PCI DSS.

The firm has secured significant funding to fuel its expansion, raising a total of $15.8 million over two rounds from investors such as INCJ and SBI Investment. Key milestones include the start of 'Q-CORE' development in 2011, becoming a partner in the VISA Ready Program for Transit in 2018, and launching commercial services with Suica and VISA cards on partner transit systems in 2020.