Kubell to acquire Atena to strengthen BPaaS offerings for SMEs
TOKYO, JAPAN — Kubell, provider of business chat service “Chatwork,” has announced its decision to acquire all of atena Co. shares, a cloud-based postal service provider.
The acquisition, aimed at integrating Atena into the Kubell group, is designed to expand Kubell’s Business Process as a Service (BPaaS) lineup by adding digital postal services to its existing offerings in accounting and labor management.
Masayoshi Yamamoto, Representative Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Kubell, notes, “With Atena Inc. joining the Kubell Group, we will finally have the environment in place to provide end-to-end services, including accounting, labor relations, general affairs, and even postal services.”
Filling critical gap in back-office digitalization
Kubell has been actively building a BPaaS model that combines technology and human resources to drive digital transformation for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Through services such as “Takushita” (Chatwork Assistant), which handles accounting, administration, and recruitment, and “Chatwork Labor Management,” the company has focused on streamlining back-office tasks.
However, Kubell identified that handling physical mail remained a stubborn analog process for many SMEs, creating a gap in their end-to-end service capabilities.
By acquiring Atena, Kubell addresses this deficiency. Atena operates a cloud-based postal service that includes mail receiving, opening, scanning, PDF conversion, and cloud management, with a proven track record of handling over one million pieces of mail.
This integration allows Kubell to offer a more comprehensive suite of services, moving beyond digital tools to encompass the digitization of physical postal mail, thereby completing a larger portion of the back-office workflow for its SME clients.
“By collaborating with the rapidly growing BPaaS business, we are confident that we can provide services to streamline the entire back office, including offline operations such as postal services, and create an environment where more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can focus on their core business,” said Naoki Shirahige, Co-founder and CEO of atena Inc.
Acquisition expands SME BPaaS, drives DX
The acquisition aligns with Kubell’s medium-term management plan to become the “No. 1 BPaaS company for SMEs” by expanding its service lineup.
Atena’s user base, which consists primarily of professional service firms and SMEs, shows a high affinity with Kubell’s existing core user base, creating an immediate opportunity for cross-market synergy.
Yamamoto states, “We are confident that we will be able to provide value in areas that we have not been able to reach before, and that we will be able to further evolve as an ‘indispensable service’ for SMEs.”
“We will continue to strive to improve customer value and work hard to be chosen by even more customers.”
For Atena, joining the Kubell Group provides a larger platform to scale its long-held mission of bridging analog and digital operations.
This partnership aims to create an environment where more SMEs can focus on their core business by eliminating fragmented analog tasks from their daily operations.
“As a member of the kubell Group, we will continue to take on the challenge of promoting DX (Digital Transformation) for SMEs,” Shirahige concludes.
