Toshiba Tec Corporation (HQ: Tokyo; President and CEO: Hironobu Nishikori; Toshiba Tec), Digital Garage, Inc. (HQ: Tokyo; Representative Director, President Executive Officer and Group CEO: Kaoru Hayashi; DG) and DG group company Kakaku.com, Inc. (HQ: Tokyo; Representative Director, President and Executive Officer: Shonosuke Hata; Kakaku.com) sign a Letter of Intent (LOI) to provide strategic support for Kakaku.com's “Tabelog Order.”

In recent years, the food service and restaurant industry has faced significant changes in the business environment. Consumers are changing as their purchasing attitudes and needs are diversifying. Furthermore, with the global outbreak of COVID-19 infections, lifestyles are becoming more established with the latest digital technologies, integrating real and cyber services and purchase behavior. On the other hand, while making full use of the customer information and sales record obtained from POS (Point of Sales) system, making investments in POS surrounding areas is crucial for the retail business in response to the demand to incorporate consumer needs and behavior, changes in the business environment such as COVID-19 infection countermeasures, and a variety of the latest service applications satisfying diversified operation, organization and process (E-Commerce, mobile, attendance, payroll, ordering, inventory, and data analysis). The “IT Introduction Subsidy 2022” promoted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is an administrative measure to solve the situation that food service operators are facing. The agreement between the three companies is an effort from the private sector to provide Japan’s leading optimal solution for the food service industry.

Toshiba Tec has been focusing on developing data solutions based on the global retail platform “ELERA” while making maximum use of its solid customer base as a leading POS system company with the world's No.1 market share.

DG Financial Technology, Inc. (HQ: Tokyo; Representative Director, President, Co-COO: Hiroshi Shino; DGFT), a subsidiary of DG, has been providing a variety of payment methods for more than 20 years under a highly available and secure system infrastructure and operating system. DGFT has grown to become one of Japan's leading Payment Service Providers, with an annual transaction volume of approximately 3.6 trillion yen, 720 million payment transactions, and over 700,000 member stores in the last fiscal year.

Kakaku.com operates one of Japan's most extensive restaurant search and reservation sites, “Tabelog,” with approximately 830,000 stores listed and 87.63 million monthly users. In addition, the in-store mobile ordering service “Tabelog Order” will provide customers with a more comfortable dining experience and improve operational efficiency at restaurants. The service has been selected as a project to be subsidized by the “IT Introduction Subsidy 2022,” which aims to promote DX.

The three companies will collaborate their strengths and accumulated know-how to support DX promotion in the food, beverage, and retail industries and contribute to the development of a sustainable society.

About Toshiba Tec

Toshiba Tec Corporation supports workstyle reform in various workplaces, such as retail industries and offices, by keeping with customer centric approach on a global scale under its corporate philosophy - “Create with You” - Keeping our customers in mind all the time and everywhere -. The world is now faced with social issues, like waste loss, increase in carbon dioxide, labor shortage and workstyle reform. The Toshiba Tec Group aims to become “A global top solutions partner” through co-creation of new values and solutions to resolve social issues with its customers and partners while leveraging its globally developed sales and service networks.

About DG

Digital Garage's corporate purpose is “Designing “New Context” for a sustainable society with technology.” Digital Garage operates a payment business that provides one of the largest comprehensive payment platforms in Japan, a marketing business that leverages data to deliver solutions that integrate real and cyberspace, and an investment and development business that discovers and supports promising startups from around the world.

About Kakaku.com

Based on its mission “LIFE with - To Become a part of people's daily lives -“ Kakaku.com, Inc. operates a wide range of user-oriented internet services, such as the shopping support site Kakaku.com, the restaurant discovery and reservation site Tabelog or the comprehensive search site for job classifieds Kyujin Box, all of which seek to enrich people's daily lives.