AnyMind Group, a Singapore-founded, Japan-based business-process-as-a-service (BPaaS) company, has agreed to acquire Japanese beauty and personal care distributor Sun Smile for an undisclosed amount.
In a statement, AnyMind said the deal is its 13th acquisition overall and seventh in Japan, and is aimed at strengthening its support for enterprises by linking social marketing, e-commerce operations, and nationwide offline distribution through an AI-powered model.
Founded in 1997, Sun Smile operates across manufacturing, distribution, and wholesale in cosmetics and beauty, developing its own brands, helping overseas brands enter Japan, and distributing products nationwide through a network of partner retailers.
“By joining AnyMind Group, we believe we can combine our cultivated strengths in distribution and planning with AnyMind’s capabilities in social marketing, e-commerce, and AI utilisation to offer brand companies even more advanced support than before,” said Sun Smile CEO Tokuya Tanaka.
AnyMind stated that integrating Sun Smile would enable cross-selling between the two businesses.
It gives Sun Smile’s supported brands access to AnyMind’s marketing, creator commerce, and e-commerce tools, while providing AnyMind’s customers, including those outside Japan, access to Sun Smile’s offline distribution network, per the announcement.
“Sun Smile’s nationwide distribution network and experience in brand building are a powerful complement to our BPaaS model,” said Kosuke Sogo, CEO and co-founder of AnyMind Group.
AnyMind said beauty shoppers in Asia-Pacific increasingly discover products on social media, buy online, and still complete purchases in physical stores, a shift it said has been reinforced by social commerce platforms such as TikTok Shop.
AnyMind Group was founded in Singapore in 2016 and is now headquartered in Tokyo. It was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Growth Market last year. It claims to have over 1,500 staff across 22 offices in 15 markets.
It has presence in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mainland China, Japan, India, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia.
In April, the company agreed to acquire Vietnamese social and live commerce agency Vibula, marking its first acquisition in Vietnam. Vibula, founded in Ho Chi Minh in 2021, provides social commerce marketing, e-commerce store management, campaign management, and a multi-channel influencer network to brands.
