Bizmates buys school-network startup With The World for $1.4M
What's the deal? Tokyo-listed BizmatesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has acquired With The WorldDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a Kobe-based startup running online international-exchange programs for schools, making it a wholly owned subsidiary. The company bought a 90.7% voting stake for cash on October 16, 2026, with the remaining shares to follow via a share swap on October 30. The total equity value was set at US$1.66M (roughly $1.4 million).
What does each do? Bizmates, listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Growth market, runs business-focused online English lessons and global recruitment services. With The World, founded in 2018, connects Japanese schools with overseas peers for English-language lessons on the Sustainable Development Goals and other social issues.
Why now? Japan's push to equip every student with a learning device and its emphasis on inquiry-based study are shifting school demand from language drills toward problem-solving. Bizmates says the deal lets it tap that market, broadening from corporate training into next-generation education.
What's the endgame? With The World brings a network of more than 500 schools across 67 countries, adoption at 189 Japanese schools and local governments, and contracts with the Ministry of Education and Ministry of the Environment. Bizmates values that reach and public-sector credibility over the target's small financials — US$1.45M in revenue and US$61.5K in net profit for the year to March 2026.
What could go wrong? The value rests heavily on founder Shunta Igarashi and the network he built. To guard against key-person flight, Bizmates attached a three-year lock-up to the swapped shares and asked Igarashi to stay on as a director for at least three years. Integration also matters more given that Bizmates has reported weaker first-half earnings.
The signal: This is Bizmates' second acquisition in months, after taking a 78% stake in corporate-training and DE&I firm Hipster GateDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → in June. "Following Hipster Gate, we are expanding our challenge into next-generation learning with With The World," chief executive officer Nobuaki Suzuki said. The modest price signals a strategic bet — building a group that supports learners from childhood to working life — rather than an immediate financial play.
Read more: prtimes.jp
Image credit: USAG-Humphreys
