From the archive
One of Year’s Best Startups Isn’t in Silicon Valley, or China
Original source: www.bloomberg.com
One of the year’s most spectacular startup payoffs isn’t in Silicon Valley or China, it’s in Japan.
Mercari Inc.’s $3.7 billion coming-out party will deliver a 149-times return to early investor United Inc., which engineered a 300 million yen ($2.7 million) round in the flea-market app in 2013. That stake will be worth at least 45 billion yen when Mercari goes public June 19, a mega-windfall that may galvanize the No. 3 economy’s stunted startup scene.