Japan Private Equity Invests in Traditional Search Fund Haru Yosuke LLC

Japan Private Equity Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, President & CEO Shinichi Hotta, hereinafter "JPE") has invested in Haru Yosuke LLC (Headquarters: Toshima-ku, Tokyo, Representative: Yosuke Haru, hereinafter "Haru Yosuke LLC"), a "traditional search fund," established by "searcher" Yosuke Haru with investment from domestic investors including JPE (a total of 18 corporations and individuals). Haru aims to become the successor CEO for SMEs in Japan struggling with succession issues, taking over their capital and management to realize new growth. This is JPE's fourth investment in a "traditional search fund" in Japan. JPE expects that individuals aspiring to become business leaders will increase, playing active roles as new carriers of business succession, contributing to the survival and development of small and medium-sized enterprises. JPE continues to support such endeavors. Mr. Yosuke Haru, born in 1989 (37 years old), leverages his domestic and international business experience at INPEX and practical experience in his family's mid-sized company to fulfill his mission of finding a company to partner with for new growth and taking on its management. JPE has been continuously investing in and supporting traditional search funds since 2022, with this investment in Mr. Haru being their fourth. Two companies they invested in, "M-Capital (Yoshiya Shimura)" in July 2022 and "Japan Bulls Eye Capital LLC (Eisuke Kobayashi & Mizuho Suzaki)" in September 2023, have already found their "destined company to inherit" and completed their business succession, becoming CEOs and working to improve corporate value. JPE aims to establish an environment and success model where searchers can thrive as new pillars of SME business succession, supporting their journey from "searcher" to "manager" and further to "true leader," thereby rooting a cycle of birth and evolution in Japan.