Rakuten Group, Inc. (hereinafter “Rakuten”) announces that today Rakuten and Gurunavi, Inc. (hereinafter “Gurunavi”) signed a memorandum of understanding regarding revision of the contract on strengthening the capital and business alliance agreed on May 22, 2019. Before this agreement, Rakuten and Gurunavi entered into a capital and business alliance agreement on July 30, 2018.
- Purpose and Reasons for the Revision of the Capital and Business Alliance
Rakuten and Gurunavi signed a capital and business alliance agreement in July 2018, whereby Rakuten acquired 4,677,600 shares (9.61% of the total number of issued shares) of Gurunavi in August 2018. Also, integration of Rakuten member IDs and Gurunavi member IDs started from October 2018, and we have promoted our business alliance mainly in the field of online reservations on Gurumavi, making it possible to earn Rakuten Super Points for Gurunavi's online reservations.
In addition, after Rakuten acquired an additional 2,339,700 shares (4.81% of the total number of issued shares) of Gurunavi in May 2019, we strengthened the alliance through collaboration between “Rakuten Realtime Takeout”, a takeout support service for restaurants which Rakuten started amidst the Coronavirus crisis, and the Gurunavi website, etc, from July 2020. Due to these initiatives, Rakuten is improving the convenience of services through the ability of Gurunavi to attract customers and huge network of restaurants. In addition, by utilizing the “Rakuten Ecosystem” to increase touch points with users and enhance the value provided, Gurunavi is accelerating the expansion of number of Gurunavi users and online reservations, aiming for improvement in the ability to send customers to member restaurants.
In order to further strengthen future collaboration and aim for further growth, in July 2021, Rakuten transferred “Rakuten Delivery” and “Rakuten Realtime Takeout” to Gurunavi. Even after the succession, we have been expanding and deepening collaboration between the two companies by continuing to link Rakuten and Gurunavi member IDs and points.
Rakuten and Gurunavi will continue to strengthen cross-use promotion of eat-in reservations, delivery, and takeout, for both users and restaurants. In the future, Gurunavi will build a third-party marketplace service in deliveries through the development of a delivery network, etc, to support restaurants that do not provide their own delivery services. We aim to realize early entry, enhance the competitiveness of services, and build new revenue sources for restaurants. In order to promote these initiatives, we implemented the revision of the capital and business alliance at this time. Rakuten will further increase the value of the provision of services to Rakuten members, aiming to expand the “Rakuten Ecosystem”, and Gurunavi will expand and strengthen support for restaurants.
Rakuten agreed to underwrite Gurunavi’s common shares (2,257,300 shares) by a way of third-party allotment on August 25, 2021. Payment is planned to be on October 4, 2021.
- Contents of the memorandum of understanding regarding revision of the capital and business alliance
Rakuten and Gurunavi agreed to revise the contents of the business alliance based on the capital and business alliance agreement before the revision, to the terms as below, based on the memorandum of understanding regarding the revision of the capital and business alliance.
(1) Collaboration aiming to expand Gurunavi's online reservations and improve Gurunavi’s brand value, such as linking member IDs, granting “Rakuten Super Points” for Gurunavi's online reservations, and improve the convenience of the Gurunavi website utilizing the know-how of Gurunavi and Rakuten, etc.
(2) Coordination of sales activities for users and restaurants of the services operated by Rakuten and Gurunavi.
(3) Creation of synergies in new business areas (food delivery business, etc).