Ngi Group, one of the most active venture capital firm in Japanese web industry, also known as their successful early investment to the Japan’s largest social network Mixi, declared their downsizing plan in February.
When the rationalization plan [J, pdf] was reported at first by Nikkei Net, it was said that they were asking solicit voluntary retirement to all of their 58 employees and expects 80% of them to leave.
Shortly after the plan disclose, another release [J, pdf] reported that 32 out of 58 people (55%) applied the program to leave at the end of February.
Ngi Group, former Netage Capital, is remembered as an advocate for “The Bit Valley” concept which named Shibuya (which Chinese letters can mean “bitter” and “valley”) and around area as a Japanese Silicon Valley in 1999-2000, has been incubating a lot of web ventures in Japan.
Although Ngi Goupe said that this re-organization will not affect their business operation, it is pity that they had to announce and execute this kind of re-structuring.
See Also:
Tokyo’s Valley of the Netrepreneurs – 1999, 10 years ago!
