The problem
Japan’s small shopkeepers watched e-commerce grow from the sidelines: hiring someone to build a store cost money they didn’t have, and the tools assumed skills they didn’t possess.
How it works
BASE’s hosted builder asks for three fields and produces a working storefront. Around it sit the money rails: PAY.JP for online card payments, the PAY ID buyer app, YELL BANK advances against future sales, and want.jp for cross-border selling — so a hobby seller can graduate to a real business without switching platforms.
Pain points
Zero technical skills, zero budget, no way to accept cards online, and no collateral for a bank loan when stock needs funding.
Business model
Stores are free; BASE earns a cut of transactions plus payment-processing and financing income, betting that group GMV scale — about ¥500B a year after E-Store joined in 2025 — compounds take-rate revenue.
Challenges
Monetising free users without triggering churn, sustaining growth after the pandemic pull-forward faded, and holding off global builders and domestic mall giants courting the same sellers.
Funding
- Raised: Listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers market, October 2019 (terms not re-verified; omitted).
- Valuation: MISSING.
Latest — August 2026
On 28 August 2026 BASE announced a capital and business alliance with SBI Holdings aimed at new customer value and business opportunities, alongside continued BASE Apps expansion such as the consignment-selling partner app launched earlier that month (company press room).