Ecommit

What Ecommit does

ECOMMIT (株式会社ECOMMIT) is a privately held Japanese circular-economy platform company founded in 2007 in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima, and now operating with 235 employees (as of October 2025) across 7 self-operated circular centers and 2 sales offices in Japan. It runs an integrated "Circular Value Chain" — rescue (collection), evaluation (123-category manual sorting by trained specialists, including 52 clothing categories), and re-distribution through a network of 100+ vetted domestic and international reuse and recycle partners — supported by a self-developed traceability system that captures item-level flow from collection to final destination and produces reuse/recycle rate and CO2 reduction reporting for corporate and municipal customers. The company reports a ~98% clothing reuse rate and is targeting growth from ~14,000 tonnes handled annually to 45,000 tonnes within three years following its April 2026 Series B (~1.5 billion yen).

The business serves four customer segments: (1) enterprises — apparel brands, retail, commercial facilities, and residences — via a quote-based Apparel Circular Economy Promotion Service and surplus-inventory re-resource service; (2) local governments and wide-area waste unions through a Municipality Resource Circulation Promotion Program, with 60+ cooperation agreements including Osaki Town, Yakushima Town, Kameoka City, Saitama City, Saga City, and Hioki City; (3) individual consumers via the PASSTO sub-brand, which provides free drop-off at 6,000+ collection points (planned to reach 10,000 within one year) and the taku-hai PASSTO home-pickup service; and (4) reuse shops and other retailers with surplus stock. Revenue comes from managed-service fees on B2B contracts plus resale economics on sorted goods routed to downstream partners. Recent strategic emphasis has been on DX/automation of the Tokyo Circular Center (phased from 2027), a capital and business partnership with Mercari, and channel-partner rollouts with Hakuyosha, Mitsui Fudosan Residential, and CHINTAI. Regulatory moat is meaningful: ECOMMIT holds a Secondhand Goods Dealer permit, Industrial Waste Collection and Transport licenses across 24 prefectures, and a General Waste Collection and Transport license in at least one municipality.

Name

Ecommit

Legal name

株式会社ECOMMIT

Website

https://ecommit.jp

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

ECOMMIT is a Japanese circular-economy platform that collects, sorts (into 123 categories), and redistributes used clothing and goods through 7 circular centers and 6,000+ PASSTO collection points, serving enterprises, 60+ municipalities, and consumers with traceability-driven reuse services.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Circular Economy / Resource Circulation Services

NAICS

Solid Waste Collection (562111), Materials Recovery Facilities (56292)

SIC

Sanitary Services (4950), Wholesale-Miscellaneous Nondurable Goods (5190)

akta.pro primary industry

Circular Economy & Waste/Materials Reporting (Zero waste, packaging) (EUAHAJAL)

Keywords

• Circular economy services
• Resource circulation infrastructure
• Clothing recycling services
• Waste collection logistics
• Traceability platform

Headquarters

HQ city

Kagoshima

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices12 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. B2B circular-economy service contracts: Fee-based service programs provided to enterprises (apparel brands, retail, commercial facilities, residences) and local governments, covering collection, sorting, resale-ready productization, inventory management and circular-economy data/reporting. Custom-quoted per engagement (e.g., apparel circular-economy program, municipal resource-circulation program, surplus inventory re-resource solution).
2. Reuse resale of sorted items: Revenue from re-distribution of collected and sorted items (clothing and general goods) through a network of 100+ vetted domestic and international reuse/recycle partners, with 98% of clothing routed to reuse.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

ECOMMIT runs a "Circularity as a Service" platform that collects unwanted clothing and household goods, manually sorts them into 123 categories (52 in clothing) at seven self-operated circular centers across Japan, and re-distributes them through a vetted network of 100+ domestic and international reuse/recycle partners. On top of this core value chain, it offers verticalized programs for apparel brands, municipalities, and surplus-inventory holders, with a self-developed traceability system producing CO2 and reuse-rate reporting dashboards. The consumer-facing layer is the PASSTO brand, combining ~6,000 retail/residential collection boxes with a 宅配PASSTO home-pickup service.

Product overview

ECOMMIT positions itself as a "Circularity as a Service" platform company, branded as a 循環商社 (circulation trading company). Its offering is a single integrated "Circular Value Chain" platform that connects three internal stages — Rescue (collection), Evaluation (sorting into 123 categories), and Re-distribution (re-marketing through 100+ vetted domestic and overseas partners) — backed by an internally developed traceability system and a reporting dashboard that produces reuse/recycling and CO2 reduction metrics. The customer-facing layer is the PASSTO sub-brand, which includes both physical collection points (boxes, in-store collection) and the takuhaipassto home-pickup sub-product. On top of that core, ECOMMIT sells verticalized service packages: an Apparel Circular Economy Promotion Service for brands, a Municipality Resource Circulation Promotion Program for local governments and clean centers, and a Surplus Inventory Repurposing Service for reuse shops, retailers, and other holders of overstock. A roadmap-stage initiative, the ECOMMIT Tokyo Circular Center DX & Automation program, is the in-house technology backbone intended to scale the entire chain.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• PASSTO (パスト): Resource circulation service ("kake-na-wa shakai wo kanaeru PASSTO") that operates as the consumer-facing collection point for unwanted clothing and household goods; available at commercial facilities, stores, residences, and via a home pickup service (taku-hai PASSTO), with a target of expanding from 6,000 to 10,000 locations within one year. Reports a clothing reuse/recycling rate of approximately 98% and CO2 reduction versus incineration.
• ECOMMIT Tokyo Circular Center

Products and services

• PASSTO (パスト) collection service ECOMMIT's flagship resource-circulation service: free drop-off points for unwanted clothing and miscellaneous goods at commercial facilities, stores, residences and partner locations, with a stated reuse/recycling rate of approximately 98% for clothing and ~6,000 locations nationwide (target 10,000 within one year).
• 宅配PASSTO (Takuhaipassto) home-pickup service Home-collection variant of PASSTO that lets Japanese households hand over unneeded clothing and goods for free via a parcel-style door pickup, operated via the passto.jp online storefront and promoted through partner integrations such as CHINTAI's 'Gakusapo' student-housing service and Mitsui Fudosan Residential's 'Kurashi no Susukatsu' project.
• Apparel Circular Economy Promotion Service B2B service package for apparel brands and manufacturers covering store-level collection, 123-category sorting, productization for resale, inventory management, and circulation-data acquisition — designed to deliver both environmental and economic outcomes for apparel companies transitioning to a circular model.
• Municipality Resource Circulation Promotion Program B2G program for municipalities, clean centers, and wide-area waste unions targeting waste reduction, disposal-cost reduction, higher reuse rates and intra-region circulation, deployed through partnerships and franchise agreements with 60+ municipalities and unions (Osaki Town, Yakushima Town, Kameoka City, Saitama City, Saga City, Hioki City and others).
• Surplus Inventory Repurposing Service B2B service for reuse shops, apparel companies, retailers and other holders of surplus stock that converts unsellable inventory into reusable/recyclable resources with the goal of reducing disposal costs; engagement terms are quoted per case.

Quantifiable outcome

• Annual collection volume of ~12,000 tonnes (2019 actual)
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered flagship and core.

• Hakuyosha Co., Ltd. (株式会社白洋舍)flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 22 April 2026Full-scale partnership to expand PASSTO clothing-collection boxes to approximately 50 Hakuyosha dry-cleaning stores in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The two are also trialing an integrated circular model in which collected clothing is cleaned by Hakuyosha and then re-sold, with the goal of unifying collection and re-distribution under a single value-add flow.
• Mitsui Fudosan Residential Co., Ltd. (三井不動産レジデンシャル)coreGTM or Marketing Partner · 17 April 2026Partner in Mitsui Fudosan Residential's 'Kurashi no Susukatsu Circular Action' project at Toyosu, using ECOMMIT's PASSTO service. The partnership broadens the accepted item categories (contact-lens cases, 'oshi-katsu' goods, appliance cables, shoes, etc.) on top of clothing and general goods, with the goal of promoting a 'no-waste lifestyle' from the home.
• CHINTAI CorporationcoreGTM or Marketing Partner · 16 April 2026Integration between CHINTAI's 'Gakusapo' student-housing support service and 宅配PASSTO (home-pickup). Targets students at the start of a new life/lease cycle, providing a free, convenient channel to dispose of unwanted items in a 'no-waste' way.
• Hioki City, Kagoshima Prefecture (鹿児島県日置市)flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 14 April 2026Enterprise location agreement (企業立地協定) with Hioki City, under which ECOMMIT will relocate its Kagoshima HQ functions to the new 'Nekomanomori' complex in Hioki in spring 2027, building on a July 2024 cooperation agreement that installed ~30 PASSTO collection points across the city (≈20,387.34 kg of clothing/goods collected from launch through March 2026).
• Municipal partners (60+ agreements: Osaki Town, Yakushima Town, Kameoka City, Saitama City, Saga City and others)coreOthers60+ cooperation agreements and transactions with local governments and wide-area waste unions, including Osaki Town, Yakushima Town, Kameoka City, Saitama City, and Saga City, running collection demonstrations at clean centers and other municipal sites.

Scale indicators13 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Treasure Factory Co., Ltd. Reuse and recycling retailer operating buying-only and hybrid-mode secondhand stores for clothing, furniture and household goods in Japan. Comparable to ECOMMIT in that it monetizes unwanted household items through reuse channels and competes for downstream supply.
• JEPLAN, Inc. Japanese circular-economy company operating the BRING clothing-recycling brand and recycling technology for polyester. Direct comparable to ECOMMIT because it targets the same apparel/textile circular-economy opportunity with collection, sorting and resale channels, and competes for the same Japanese apparel-brand and municipal customers.
• ReNet Japan Group, Inc. Operates a nationwide network of clothing-recycling stores (Comicolle, etc.) and reverse-logistics services for apparel brands. Direct competitor in the Japanese clothing-collection and reuse value chain that ECOMMIT also serves via PASSTO and B2B apparel programs.

Regional players

• Right-on Co., Ltd. Japanese apparel retailer that operates its own in-store clothing-collection / take-back programs. Adjacent participant in the same apparel-circular-economy value chain whose take-back initiatives can be either a customer of or a competitor to ECOMMIT's apparel circular-economy services in Japan.

Broad incumbents

• Bookoff Corporation Holdings: Operates Japan's largest chain of used-book and reuse retail stores (BOOKOFF), with collection and resale infrastructure for secondhand goods. Established incumbent whose reuse model and nationwide store footprint overlap with ECOMMIT's mission of routing still-usable items away from disposal.
• Geo Holdings Corporation (2nd STREET): Operates 2nd STREET, Japan's largest reuse retail chain for clothing, furniture and miscellaneous goods, with its own nationwide collection infrastructure. Broader incumbent in the secondhand/circular retail space where ECOMMIT's sorted inventory is ultimately re-distributed.
• Dowa Holdings Co., Ltd. Diversified Japanese waste-management and recycling group with operations across metal, electronic and environmental recycling. Larger incumbent operating in adjacent waste-management and recycling verticals whose scale and permits pose a competitive threat to ECOMMIT's regulated service offerings.
• Matsuda Sangyo Co., Ltd. Japanese recycling and environmental-services group operating in metal, precious-metal, food and other recycling verticals. Larger incumbent with comparable downstream sorting and resale capabilities that competes in adjacent parts of ECOMMIT's reuse/recycle value chain.
• Sankyo Co., Ltd. (Sankyo Frontier): Japanese waste-management and recycling services company with collection, sorting and processing capabilities nationwide. Broad incumbent in regulated waste logistics that competes for the same industrial- and general-waste collection contracts that drive ECOMMIT's municipal business.

Others

• Mercari, Inc. Japan's leading C2C marketplace and ECOMMIT's Series B lead investor with a capital-and-business partnership on resource circulation. Strategic partner and adjacent marketplace rather than direct competitor, but its scale and user base give it leverage over the demand side of ECOMMIT's re-distribution flow.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/watch?v=fTLsn0IRxwI
• Instagraminstagram.com/passto.jp
• Xx.com/ECOMMIT_JP

Compliance4 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors21 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Ecommit