Gardia

What Gardia does

Gardia株式会社 (Gardia, Inc.) is a Tokyo-based specialty risk guarantee and post-payment services company founded in October 2017 as a subsidiary of FreakOut Holdings, with 90% of shares transferred to Itochu Corporation in December 2019. The company serves Japanese FinTech and RetailTech platforms by underwriting credit, fraud, no-show, and non-return risks in business domains that traditional insurance and credit bureau providers (CIC/JICC) decline to cover, including restaurant reservations, equipment rentals, subscriptions, instant cash-out services, prepaid cards, and travel. Its core product suite comprises the Gardia Risk Guarantee Service (covering no-shows, subscription non-payments, rental non-returns, and instant cash conversion defaults), the GarPay post-payment service enabling 2-month deferred payments with full merchant guarantee, and specialized modules for pre-cancellation coverage and rental/subscription verticals.

The underlying technology is a proprietary credit assessment and fraud detection system developed since 2017 and enhanced through a February 2021 AI/ML partnership with Sothink Corporation. The system is purpose-built for casual, short-term, small-amount credit decisions in emerging business domains and benefits from a data flywheel of credit assessments on 100,000+ users across diverse verticals. Distribution is exclusively B2B via API integration or white-label embedding into partner platforms rather than direct consumer acquisition, with major partners including Tabelog (restaurant reservations), Kanmu's Bundle Card (prepaid), Coiney (POS), Rentio (camera/electronics rental), Smooth (rental initial-cost installments), and CLAS (furniture/appliance subscription).

The business model is transaction-based: Gardia charges guarantee fees as a percentage of monthly transaction volume from partnered merchants, plus credit assessment and collection support fees, while bearing credit and non-payment risk on the receivable. Reported revenue exceeded ¥1B (approximately $7M USD) within the second fiscal year post-launch, and the No-Show guarantee service reached 5,000+ restaurant and service locations within one year of launch. Registered capital is ¥100M (1億円). Note: A separate German healthtech company also named Gardia (AI fall-detection wristbands, Soest-based, €8.5M Series A February 2026) is an independent entity with no ownership relationship to the Japanese company and is not covered by this analysis.

Name

Gardia

Legal name

Gardia株式会社

Website

https://gardia.jp

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Gardia株式会社 is a Tokyo-based FinTech company founded in 2017 that provides risk guarantee and post-payment services to Japanese platform operators in emerging FinTech and RetailTech domains, covering no-shows, rental non-returns, subscription defaults, and deferred-payment credit risk via proprietary credit and fraud detection technology.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Payment Guarantee & Credit Risk Services

NAICS

Insurance Carriers (5241)

SIC

Surety Insurance (6351)

akta.pro primary industry

Risk Scoring, Decisioning & Orchestration (FSAMALAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Merchant Risk, Underwriting & Portfolio Monitoring (FSAMALAH), Guarantor/Co-Signer Consumer Loans (FSAKAOAI), Fraud Prevention, Risk & Chargeback Management (CRAFALAE)

Keywords

• Risk guarantee services
• Post-payment processing
• Credit risk assessment
• Fraud detection services
• Buy now pay later

Headquarters

HQ city

Tokyo

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Guarantee Service Fees: Guarantee fees charged as a percentage of monthly transaction volume from partnered merchants. Gardia bears the risk of user non-payment or non-return of rented items, providing a risk guarantee to the merchant. The company also receives credit assessment and collection support fees.
2. Post-payment Service (ガルペイ / GarPay): Post-payment payment processing service where Gardia guarantees full payment receipt to merchants. Users pay within 2 months (end of following month). Gardia bears all credit risk and non-payment risk while earning transaction fees from merchants.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

Gardia provides risk guarantee and post-payment services for FinTech, RetailTech, and emerging business domains in Japan. The company assesses credit and fraud risk using proprietary algorithms and absorbs payment defaults, no-show cancellations, and non-return losses on behalf of partnered platforms including restaurants, rental services, subscriptions, and payment processors. Its two core offerings are the Gardia Risk Guarantee Service and the Gardia Post-payment Service (ガルペイ/GarPay) with up to 2-month deferred payments.

Product overview

Gardia operates as a dual-product platform combining guarantee services and post-payment solutions. The core offerings include: (1) Gardia Risk Guarantee Service for comprehensive protection against various business risks in FinTech/RetailTech sectors, (2) Gardia Post-payment Service (ガルペイ) for buy-now-pay-later functionality, and (3) No-Show Guarantee Service for restaurant/accommodation cancellation protection. Specialized modules include Pre-cancellation Guarantee for advance cancellation coverage and Rental/Subscription Business Guarantee for equipment rental fraud protection. The company serves over 10 rental/subscription operators and has processed credit data for hundreds of thousands of users.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Gardiaリスク保証サービス: Guarantee service covering comprehensive business risks for FinTech and RetailTech companies
• Gardia後払いサービス (ガルペイ)

Products and services

• Gardia Risk Guarantee Service (リスク保証サービス) Comprehensive B2B risk guarantee service covering various risks for FinTech, RetailTech, and emerging business sector platforms. Protects merchants against no-show cancellations, subscription non-payments, instant cash-conversion defaults, and rental non-returns. Gardia performs credit screening, fraud detection, and assumes the loss while offering collection support.
• Gardia Post-payment Service / GarPay (ガルペイ) Buy-now-pay-later service enabling end users to pay merchants within 2 months (by the end of the following month). Gardia guarantees full payment receipt to the merchant while bearing all credit and fraud risk. First implementation was with Kanmu's Visa prepaid 'Bundle Card' enabling 'Pochitto Charge' deferred payment.
• No-Show Guarantee Service (ノーショー保証サービス) Japan-first guarantee service protecting restaurants, hotels, and salons from losses caused by no-show (unannounced cancellation) customers. Covers both individual and corporate customers with up to 500,000 yen maximum compensation per incident.
• Rental/Subscription Business Guarantee Service (レンタル・サブスク事業者向け保証サービス) Guarantee service designed specifically for rental and subscription businesses covering equipment/appliance/furniture rentals, used smartphone subscriptions, and electric bicycle subscriptions. Performs user credit screening and guarantees against non-payment and non-return fraud, with collection support for delinquent accounts. Deployed with more than 10 rental/subscription operators.

Quantifiable outcome

• 5,000+ restaurant and service locations protected by No Show guarantee within 1 year of launch
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability2 records

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• BeurerminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 5 February 2026Strategic investor and partnership participant in the German healthtech Gardia's Series A. Beurer is a German healthcare device manufacturer, enabling strategic collaboration in the senior care technology market.
• BoschminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 5 February 2026Strategic partner for the German healthtech entity's B2B expansion in care and healthcare sectors. Bosch collaboration supports market entry in the German healthcare device ecosystem.
• サイクループ株式会社 (Cycloop)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 25 July 2023Guarantee service for electric assist bicycle subscription service 'NORUDE'. Covers user non-payment and non-return risks for the eco-friendly mobility subscription platform.
• 株式会社クラス (Class)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 30 March 2022Guarantee service for furniture and appliance subscription service 'CLAS'. Covers user non-payment and non-return risks, with Gardia also handling collection for defaulting users.
• スカパーJSAT株式会社 (Sky Perfect JSAT)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 23 December 2021Guarantee service for smart TV subscription service 'PLUSY'. Gardia covers user non-payment and non-return risks for the television subscription platform.
• 株式会社マネークommunicationズ (Money Communications)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 5 March 2021Partnership for salary advance service 'Prpoke' guarantee. Gardia provides risk guarantee and credit/collection support for MCI's salary advance service, covering employer bankruptcy and payment default risks.
• ソウシンク株式会社 (Sothink)coreTechnology or Integration · 10 February 2021Business partnership for AI and machine learning credit assessment logic development. Sothink provides AI/ML development and verification expertise to further enhance Gardia's proprietary credit and fraud detection algorithms. Sothink also works extensively with the Itochu Group.
• 株式会社スムーズ (Smooth)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 June 2020Guarantee service for rental initial cost installment payment service. Gardia guarantees tenant default risk for the 'smooth' service that enables installment payment of security deposits, key money, and agency fees with zero service fees.
• コイニー株式会社 (Coiney)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 22 May 2019Guarantee and credit assessment service for 'Tsuke-barai' (tab payment) at physical retail stores. Japan's first phone-number-only payment method, powered by Coiney with ZOZO Group.
• 食べログ (Tabelog)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 December 2018No Show guarantee service provided to member restaurants of Japan's largest restaurant search and reservation platform. Large-group reservation guarantees for restaurants using the platform.
• 株式会社カンム (Kanmu)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 17 April 2018Post-payment service (ガルペイ) for Visa prepaid card 'Bundle Card'. Gardia enables the 'Pochitto Charge' feature allowing users to charge now and pay later, with full payment guarantee to the card operator.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Affirm: Affirm is a major US-listed BNPL provider underwriting consumer credit at the point of sale. Comparable to Gardia's GarPay post-payment in deferred payment, merchant integration model, and proprietary credit underwriting, though serving US/Canada with much larger scale.
• Klarna: Klarna is the global BNPL leader offering pay-in-4 and pay-later products across dozens of markets. Comparable to Gardia's BNPL/post-payment business model but at vastly greater scale and broader geographic reach, providing a benchmark for category economics.
• GMO Payment Gateway: GMO Payment Gateway is a major Japanese payment processor serving online merchants. Comparable to Gardia as a Japanese payment-adjacent FinTech serving merchants, though broader in scope (processing, gateway) rather than specializing in risk guarantee and BNPL.
• Stripe (Payments + Radar): Stripe provides global payment processing with built-in fraud prevention (Radar) using ML-based risk scoring. Comparable to Gardia's risk scoring and merchant underwriting at a technology architecture level, though Stripe operates at vastly greater scale and globally.

Direct peers

• Riskified: Riskified provides AI-driven fraud prevention and chargeback guarantee for e-commerce merchants globally. Comparable to Gardia in the merchant risk guarantee and fraud detection proposition, though focused on global e-commerce chargebacks rather than Japanese emerging business verticals.
• Paidy (PayPay Corporation): Paidy was Japan's leading BNPL provider before acquisition by PayPay/Z Holdings. Comparable to Gardia's post-payment service in deferred payment mechanics, Japanese merchant focus, and underwriting of consumer credit risk without card-on-file.
• Net Protections: Net Protections operates Japan's largest BNPL/post-payment service (NP後払い) serving major e-commerce merchants. Directly comparable to Gardia's post-payment (ガルペイ) product in target customer (Japanese merchants), deferred payment mechanics, and assumption of consumer credit/fraud risk.
• Forter: Forter provides real-time fraud prevention and trust decisioning for digital commerce. Comparable to Gardia's proprietary fraud detection and credit assessment capabilities serving merchants needing approval/guarantee decisioning at point of transaction.
• Atone (Net Protections): Atone is a Net Protections subsidiary offering BNPL for offline retailers in Japan. Comparable to Gardia's Coiney/tab-payment guarantee and GarPay post-payment products in the offline BNPL space and merchant risk underwriting.

Regional players

• Lake (旧Kufu): Lake provides BNPL and embedded credit for Japanese consumers including salary advance and card-linked deferred payments. Comparable to Gardia in Japanese BNPL mechanics and credit underwriting for thin-file or casual-credit use cases.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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 Gardia