Colleagues

What Colleagues does

Colleagues Inc. (株式会社カリーグズ) is a privately held Japanese internet services company founded in July 2015 and headquartered in Tokyo (Meguro-ku). It operates a portfolio of consumer-facing web comparison and aggregation platforms, anchored by Furusato Tax Guide (ふるさと納税ガイド, furu-sato.com), a cross-search service that allows Japanese consumers to compare hometown tax donation programs across municipalities and that publishes ranking articles and tax accountant-reviewed educational content. Adjacent properties include a Point Site comparison service (poikaku.com) for cross-searching point site campaigns, and DEKIRU.AI (dekiru.ai), a media platform that explains AI utilization in business. The company has explicitly divested earlier non-core lines, transferring its influencer marketing service Find Model to Social Wire in May 2018 and spinning off its B2B sales support business as Comrades Incubate Inc. in October 2018.

The underlying technology is comparison and aggregation platform infrastructure, with documented proprietary cross-search functionality across multiple furusato tax donation programs and point site providers; the technology differentiator is described as integration and interoperability rather than proprietary AI/ML. The flagship Furusato Tax Guide scaled from 700,000 annual users at December 2019 to 6.6 million at December 2020 to 8.9 million at December 2023, driven primarily by sustained earned-media coverage across all major Japanese TV networks and consumer/business magazines.

The business model is consumer-facing and free-to-end-user, monetized through two streams: (1) affiliate/referral fees from municipalities and service providers featured on the Furusato Tax Guide platform, and commission from point site campaigns; and (2) advertising revenue from content/media properties including DEKIRU.AI. Go-to-market is product-led growth via organic search and PR-driven earned media, with no enterprise sales motion and no disclosed pricing tiers. The customer base is horizontal, targeting individual Japanese consumers seeking to optimize furusato tax benefits and point site value, with no named enterprise customers or disclosed revenue concentration. The company is founder-led (Representative Director Kanta Fukuta, alongside Directors Keisuke Hida and Junichi Kusumoto), has not disclosed any external funding rounds or institutional investors, and operates with a deliberately lean team under a "small team creating big impact" policy.

Name

Colleagues

Legal name

株式会社カ리그ズ

Website

https://colleagues.co.jp

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Colleagues Inc. (株式会社カリーグズ) is a Tokyo-based private internet services company that operates consumer-facing comparison and aggregation platforms, most notably the Furusato Tax Guide for Japanese hometown tax donations, serving individual Japanese consumers and monetizing via affiliate commissions and advertising.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Consumer Comparison and Aggregation Platforms

NAICS

Web Search Portals and All Other Information Services (51929), Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (519)

SIC

Services-Advertising Agencies (7311)

akta.pro primary industry

Price Comparison, Deals, Cashback & Loyalty Shopping Platforms (BPAMAGAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

Comparison Shopping & Price Discovery Portals (BPAMAAAJ), Affiliate Marketing & Partner Networks (BPAMALAI)

Keywords

• Furusato tax donation comparison
• Point site comparison
• Hometown tax cross-search
• Consumer comparison platform
• Affiliate aggregation service

Headquarters

HQ city

Tokyo

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Affiliate/Referral Revenue: Referral fees from municipalities and service providers featured on the furusato tax donation guide platform, and commission from point site campaigns
2. Advertising Revenue: Revenue from content/media properties including DEKIRU.AI media

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Colleagues Inc. operates consumer-facing web comparison and aggregation platforms, primarily the Furusato Tax Guide for cross-searching Japanese hometown tax donation programs across municipalities, the Point Site comparison service for point site campaigns, and DEKIRU.AI media covering AI utilization in business. The company generates revenue through affiliate commissions from municipalities and service providers featured on these platforms and from advertising on its media properties.

Product overview

Colleagues Inc. operates a portfolio of consumer-focused web services centered around comparison and aggregation platforms. The core offerings include a hometown tax donation guide (Furusato Tax Guide), a point site comparison service (Point Site), and an AI-focused business media platform (DEKIRU.AI). Previously, the company operated an influencer marketing service (Find Model) and a B2B sales support business, both of which were exited—Find Model was transferred to Social Wire in 2018 and the B2B business was spun off as Comrades-Incubate.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Furusato Tax Guide (ふるさと納税ガイド): Cross-search service for tax donation (furusato nozei) sites with ranking articles and tax accountant-verified explanations.
• Point Site (ポイ活 com)
• DEKIRU.AI (デキルエーアイ)

Products and services

• Furusato Tax Guide (ふるさと納税ガイド) A cross-search and comparison platform for Japanese hometown tax donation (furusato nozei) programs, enabling individual consumers to search and compare donation options across municipalities. Publishes ranking articles and tax accountant-reviewed explanatory content to help users maximize tax benefits. Reached 8.9 million annual users by December 2023.
• Point Site (ポイントサイト) A comparison and cross-search service for point site campaigns and offers, providing individual consumers with access to original deals and the most advantageous offers across multiple point platforms.
• DEKIRU.AI (デキルエーアイ) A media platform that explains AI utilization methods for business in an accessible, easy-to-understand manner for Japanese business audiences.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered minor.

• Comrades Inc. (株式会社コムレイズ・インキュベート)minorOthers · 1 October 2018B2B sales support business was spun off in October 2018 and inherited by Comrades Inc., a separate entity providing sales and marketing solutions for startups at various stages
• Socialwire Inc. (ソーシャルワイヤー社)minorOthers · 1 May 2018Find Model influencer marketing service was transferred to Socialwire Inc. in May 2018 as a business divestiture/acquisition transaction

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• SatoFuru (さとふる): Furusato donation platform operated under KDDI/AU group with deeper telecom distribution and municipal partnerships. Directly competes with Furusato Tax Guide in the same hometown tax comparison and donation category.
• Kakaku.com: Japan's largest price comparison and shopping portal operating across many consumer categories. Comparable as a Japanese consumer-facing comparison platform with affiliate/lead-generation economics, though vastly broader in scope than Colleagues.
• Rakuten Furusato (楽天ふるさと納税): Rakuten-operated furusato donation portal leveraging Rakuten's massive marketplace user base and Rakuten Points ecosystem. Overlaps with Colleagues' Furusato Tax Guide on the same consumer use case.

Others

• A8.net: One of Japan's largest affiliate networks operated by ValueCommerce. Comparable as affiliate marketing infrastructure supporting many of the same advertisers and partners that drive revenue on Colleagues' comparison platforms.
• Find Model (Socialwire): Influencer marketing platform originally launched by Colleagues in 2016 and divested to Socialwire in May 2018. Comparable given shared origin and management history, though now operating as a separate entity.

Direct peers

• Moppy (モッピー): Established Japanese point site with broad cashback and offer aggregation. Competes head-to-head with poikaku.com in the point site comparison/cashback category.
• Furunavi (ふるなび): Direct competitor in the Japanese furusato nozei comparison and donation space. Targets the same consumer use case of comparing and selecting hometown tax donation programs across municipalities.
• Hapitas (ハピタス): Major Japanese point site aggregating cashback and promotional offers across many online merchants. Directly comparable to Colleagues' poikaku.com point site comparison service in business model and consumer audience.

Emerging players

• Trivago: Global travel price comparison aggregator using a meta-search and affiliate monetization model. Comparable structurally as a comparison/aggregator business monetized via referrals to suppliers, though in a different vertical.
• Money Forward Comparison: Japanese fintech operating comparison/aggregator services across financial products with a similar content-plus-affiliate monetization model. Comparable as a Japanese content-and-comparison platform monetizing via affiliate leads.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/colleagues2015

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 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 Colleagues