Düssel­dorf / Colo­gne — Japan’s Soft­Bank Corp. has taken a signi­fi­cant stake in Colo­gne-based IoT service provi­der 1NCE GmbH. The compa­nies simul­ta­neously signed an exclu­sive distri­bu­tion agree­ment for the Asia-Paci­fic (APAC) region. Soft­Bank will exclu­si­vely distri­bute 1NCE in 19 markets in the APAC region, inclu­ding Austra­lia, Japan, Malay­sia and Singa­pore. 1NCE will also open sales and tech­ni­cal offices in Singa­pore and Tokyo.

Soft­Bank Corp., head­quar­te­red in Tokyo, is a leading Japa­nese provi­der of tele­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons and infor­ma­tion tech­no­lo­gies. In fiscal 2021/2022, Soft­Bank posted sales of 5.7 tril­lion yen.

Foun­ded in 2017 by Alex­an­der P. Sator and Deut­sche Tele­kom AG, 1NCE, head­quar­te­red in Colo­gne, Germany, specia­li­zes in IoT connec­ti­vity via a flat rate and offers mobile connec­ti­vity and soft­ware services in coope­ra­tion with network opera­tors in more than 110 count­ries to date.

The Herbert Smith Freeh­ills team led by Dr. Sönke Becker recently advi­sed Soft­Bank Robo­tics Group Corp. on the sale of its French subsi­diary to United Robo­tics Group.

Advi­sors to Soft­Bank Corp.: Herbert Smith Freeh­ills, Düsseldorf
Dr. Sönke Becker (Lead), Lena von Richt­ho­fen (Coun­sel, both Corpo­rate), Dr. Marius Boewe (Regu­la­tory), Moritz Kunz (Labor Law, Frank­furt), Dr. Marcel Nuys (Anti­trust), Joseph Fisher (Corpo­rate, Tokyo); Asso­cia­tes: Marjel Dema, Dr. Niko­laus Moench, Janis Rentrop (all Corpo­rate), Kris­tin Kattwin­kel (Regu­la­tory), Dr. Simone Zieg­ler (Labor Law, Frank­furt), Juliana Penz-Evren (Anti­trust, Brussels), Naoko Adachi (Tokyo), Jarry Tay (Kuala Lumpur, both Corporate)