Asics Corp. continues to make new investments in start-ups and adjacent segments. Late last month, the Japanese group acquired Race Roster, a Canadian-based platform with a suite of services for the organizers of foot races that will complement its Runkeeper platform, based in Boston, and other digital operations. The purchase price has been given as $28 million.
The acquisition is designed to establish an additional point of contact for the sale of performance running products in North America, especially for women, who account for 54 percent of the runners registered on Race Roster. Performance Running represents 72 percent of sales for Asics in North America, where the brand has started to rise again.
Founded in 2012, with offices in Sarasota, Florida, and London, Ontario, Race Roster provides race organizers with a registration system, a CRM, a fund-raising service, timers, bib assigners and an app to tie things together. In the words of Alex Vander Hoeven, the company’s chief executive, “the idea of integrating an athletic brand with race registration solves many of the challenges faced by race directors.”
Asics is establishing a new subsidiary in Canada, Race Roster North America, to operate the platform. In exchange, Race Roster will join Runkeeper and other platforms run by the Asics Digital Lab in Boston.
Asics is no doubt hoping that the acquisition will consolidate relations between consumers, retailers and partners specializing in the sport of running, while also streamlining marketing and sponsorships for race organizers. For the runners themselves, Race Roster will feed into both the Runkeeper app, which supplies plans for adaptive training, and the OneAsics loyalty program.
Meanwhile, Asics Ventures Corporation, the investment subsidiary of Asics Corp., has acquired a stake and become a limited partner in Dreamers Fund, a venture-capital fund which is said to be “bridging established Japanese corporate investors with early-stage U.S.-based companies.” Dreamers was established last year. Its founders were a company managed by Keisuke Honda, the Japanese football player, and an investment company held by Will Smith, the actor.
Asics has already launched accelerator programs for the acquisition of start-ups in Europe and Japan or collaborative ventures with them. Through Asics Ventures, which dates back to 2016, the company has so far invested in ten start-ups in Japan and elsewhere.
