Monstar Lab Acquires Japanese UI/UX Design Consulting Firm A.C.O.

Deal Overview

Monstar Lab, Inc. (headquartered in Meguro-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO Hiroki Inagawa) acquired A.C.O. Inc. (headquartered in Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director Yoichi Kurashima), a Japanese design consulting firm specializing in UI and UX. The transaction was agreed and publicly announced on April 24, 2018. The acquisition represented a strategic move by Monstar Lab to expand its capabilities in design consulting, positioning the group to capture the growing convergence of design and engineering in digital product development.

This transaction is included here as an example of the prior principal experience of our team. Prior to founding WellBear, our Co-Founder Yuta Sakurai led this deal in his role as the internal M&A lead at Monstar Lab. This is not a WellBear advisory engagement, but rather a representative example of our team's operator-side experience executing domestic M&A in Japan. Sakurai acted end to end as the internal principal: deal structuring, valuation, negotiation, due diligence, contract execution, and closing.

Deal Summary

• Acquirer: Monstar Lab, Inc.
• Target: A.C.O. Inc.
• Location: Target HQ in Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo. Acquirer HQ in Meguro-ku, Tokyo
• Industry: Design Consulting / UI/UX / UX Research
• Structure: Share Acquisition (Subsidiarization)
• Our Team's Involvement: Principal
• Announced: April 24, 2018

About A.C.O.

Founded in December 2000 and headquartered in Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, A.C.O. Inc. is a design consulting firm specializing in UI and UX. At the time of this transaction, the company had built an 18-year track record across global-ready design, content development, design, operations, UX design, and UX research, establishing a firm position within Japan's design industry. In 2017, A.C.O. received a Good Design Award for its design and art direction of the Maternal and Child Health Handbook mobile application, externally validating the quality of its work across digital domains. The company's client base included some of Japan's most prominent enterprises including Recruit, AGC (Asahi Glass), Sunstar, Itoki, Toyota, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, particularly across global website development engagements. A.C.O. also operated A.C.O. Journal, an owned media platform used to share its corporate culture and design thinking, positioning the firm as a thought leader within the Japanese design industry.

About Monstar Lab

Monstar Lab is a Japan-founded digital product development firm built around a distinctive global sourcing model. At the time of this transaction in 2018, the group operated across multiple locations worldwide and employed more than 800 engineers and creatives, delivering web and application development services designed to support clients' digital transformation journeys. The acquisition of Nodes in Denmark in 2017 had recently accelerated the group's European presence, and the firm was actively expanding its global footprint.

Combination

This transaction unified two capabilities that had become inseparable in modern digital product development: engineering capability, in which Monstar Lab was strong, and design consulting capability, which A.C.O. offered in depth.

In today's digital product environment, design and engineering are no longer separable disciplines. A.C.O. had built substantial experience in design consulting and UI/UX for major Japanese enterprises, yet the firm did not maintain engineering resources in-house and had long relied on external vendors for development delivery. Through this acquisition, A.C.O. gained access to Monstar Lab's engineering resource pool of more than 800 professionals, enabling integrated design-to-engineering delivery with both the speed and scale required to meet client expectations.

A.C.O.'s accumulated experience in global website development for major Japanese enterprises also represented a knowledge asset directly relevant to supporting Monstar Lab's clients in their own international expansion efforts. From Monstar Lab's perspective, the acquisition strengthened the group's UI/UX capability, an increasingly critical determinant of successful digital product outcomes, and enhanced the group's overall competitiveness in product development. More broadly, this transaction can be seen as a domestic precursor to the group's later acquisition of Genieology in the UAE in 2022, representing the Japanese chapter of Monstar Lab's design capability expansion strategy.

Continuity

A.C.O. continued to operate under the leadership of Representative Director Yoichi Kurashima, with its brand, organization, client networks, and the A.C.O. Journal owned media platform maintained. The combined organization positioned itself to pursue the next stage of digital product development along two axes: integrated design-and-engineering delivery, and support for clients' global expansion.

"From the very beginning of A.C.O., I have been convinced that the territory of design would expand through digitalization, and I focused on bridging creativity and systems, disciplines that had until then belonged to separate industries. In recent years, I have defined A.C.O.'s role as 'solving the challenges of a digital society through design thinking,' with a commitment to global reach. When I came to understand the development capability and bold global expansion of Monstar Lab, I was convinced that this vision could truly be realized. And above all, Monstar Lab's corporate culture and the character of its people have reawakened the venture spirit within A.C.O. I look forward to building a mutually inspiring relationship with the team."

— Yoichi Kurashima, Representative Director, A.C.O. Inc.

This entry is based on publicly available information (Monstar Lab, Inc. press release dated April 2018). Non-public transaction terms are not disclosed.