welzo Invests in SECAI MARCHE to Accelerate Agricultural Expansion Across Southeast Asia

welzo, its subsidiary JAHT, and SECAI MARCHE sign a three-party Memorandum of Understanding to launch a strategic business alliance

FUKUOKA, Japan, May 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- welzo Co. Ltd. (Headquarters: Hakata-ku, Fukuoka; President and CEO: Yoshifumi Kanao; hereinafter "welzo"), an innovation company dedicated to creating value in everyday life, today announced that it has made a strategic equity investment in SECAI MARCHE Inc. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Co-CEOs: Shusaku Hayakawa and Ami Sugiyama; hereinafter "SECAI MARCHE"), a fresh-food e-commerce platform operating across Southeast Asia. Concurrently, welzo, its wholly owned subsidiary JAHT Co., Ltd. (hereinafter "JAHT"), and SECAI MARCHE have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish a three-party business alliance.

Background and Purpose of the Investment

Founded more than a century ago, welzo provides highly specialized B2B solutions across agriculture, livestock and fisheries, the food industry, horticulture, floriculture, and the living-environment sectors. Operating from 24 locations across Japan, the company has built an integrated value chain that spans the entire supply chain — from cultivation at the source to delivery at the point of consumption.

Since 2019, SECAI MARCHE has operated a B2B fresh-food e-commerce platform that directly connects restaurants and retailers across Southeast Asia with producers worldwide. Headquartered in Malaysia and Singapore, the company has developed a proprietary cold-chain and logistics network, and currently handles more than 4,000 agricultural products.

welzo's investment reflects strong alignment with SECAI MARCHE's direct-to-producer distribution model in Southeast Asia and its use of a proprietary cold chain and digital technologies to deliver fresh produce at scale.

Overview of the Business Alliance

The MOU has been signed among three parties: welzo; its subsidiary JAHT Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Osaka; President and CEO: Takahiro Sumiyoshi); and SECAI MARCHE.

The welzo Group and SECAI MARCHE share a common vision of "building a distribution system that connects producers and consumers directly." By combining the agricultural solution capabilities that the welzo Group has cultivated over more than 100 years — including JAHT's agricultural production know-how and technical guidance — with SECAI MARCHE's sales channels and logistics infrastructure across Asia, the three parties will drive new value creation, including improved agricultural productivity and sustainability in Southeast Asia and expanded international distribution of Japanese and global agricultural, livestock, and marine products. Following the outcomes of joint Proof-of-Concept (PoC) initiatives, the parties aim to conclude a formal business alliance agreement to support full-scale commercial deployment.

Scope of the MOU

Under the MOU, the three parties will prioritize the following initiatives:

• PoC for agricultural solutions and input sales: By combining the expertise and networks of the three companies, the parties will work to raise agricultural productivity in Southeast Asia and commercialize sustainable agricultural business models.
• PoC for agricultural, livestock, and marine product supply: Leveraging welzo's supply capabilities and SECAI MARCHE's e-commerce and logistics networks, the parties will validate the feasibility of a high-quality food-supply system that includes Japanese agricultural, livestock, and marine products.

Comments from the Leadership

Yoshifumi Kanao   President and CEO, welzo Co. Ltd.

Since our founding, welzo has supported Japan's food and agriculture sectors through the supply of agricultural inputs and horticultural products. At the same time, Japanese agriculture today faces pressing structural challenges — a shrinking domestic market and a growing need to expand exports — making the development of new distribution systems a strategic imperative.

Our partnership with SECAI MARCHE, which operates a robust direct-from-farm platform across Southeast Asia, enables us to combine welzo's deep operational expertise on the production side with SECAI MARCHE's innovative digital logistics network.

Through this capital and business alliance, we intend to bring our production technologies and agricultural inputs to the world, accelerate Japan's shift toward a more proactive, export-oriented agriculture, and contribute to a sustainable future for farming as well as to the creation of a global food infrastructure.

Shusaku Hayakawa & Ami Sugiyama   Co-CEOs, SECAI MARCHE Inc.

SECAI MARCHE was founded with the mission of creating a future in which people around the world can enjoy food of the highest quality, by transforming the inefficient distribution structures that stand between producers and consumers.

The deep on-the-ground agricultural expertise and the producer networks that welzo has built over its long history align precisely with the value we aim to deliver in Asian markets.

With this investment as a starting point, we will work together to create a distribution flow in which agricultural products from around the world reach Asian dining tables at their true value.

Company Profiles

welzo Co. Ltd.

JAHT Co., Ltd.

SECAI MARCHE Inc.

SOURCE welzo Co. Ltd.