DDR Corporation: Completing Divorce and Inheritance Procedures Anytime, Anywhere. The Innovation of "Smartphone Mediation" Challenging the Privatization and Democratization of Justice

The Concept of "Smartphone Mediation" Born from My Own 10-Month Struggle with Divorce Mediation

Nice to meet you, everyone. My name is Remon Matoba, President and CEO of DDR Corporation. Thank you for having me today.

Our business is a "smartphone mediation platform" that allows users to proceed with divorce and inheritance procedures and discussions anytime, anywhere on their smartphones. We officially launched the service on November 27.

The trigger for starting this business was my own experience with divorce mediation last year. Major legal troubles in life, such as divorce or inheritance, occur only once or twice in a lifetime, and I found myself completely lacking information on where to start. Furthermore, once the mediation process actually began, the next discussion date was scheduled two months out. During the summer, I was told, "The judge is on summer vacation," making it impossible to even schedule a date.

At the time, I wanted to see my children as soon as possible, so I submitted all the necessary documents within two to three days. Yet, I had no choice but to wait for months just for the court's administrative processes to move forward. In the end, it took nearly 10 months to resolve the case, during which I lived in constant anxiety.

I launched this service to solve this extreme inconvenience and frustration with the traditional mediation system.
Real-world mediation at family courts is only held on weekdays during the day (9:00 AM to 5:00 PM), forcing people to take time off work to attend. With smartphone mediation, however, users can proceed with the procedures on weekday evenings after work, or even on weekends and holidays. In addition, it is possible to draft agreements and contracts completely non-face-to-face, without ever meeting the other party. Through this "smartphone mediation," we aim to realize the "privatization" and "democratization" of mediation and target becoming the world's number one ODR (Online Dispute Resolution) platform.

A System of Autonomously Assigning Neutral Lawyers and Fast Filing in Just 30 Minutes

Our mission is to dramatically shorten the periods of anxiety caused by personal legal troubles worldwide, restoring peace of mind to everyone. High stress during mediation significantly reduces work productivity.

Therefore, the DDR platform is designed so that anyone can easily file for mediation by simply selecting options on their smartphone. When filing at a family court, one has to gather four to five types of documents from municipal offices, write their name and address repeatedly, and read through irrelevant fields. On our smartphone app, the entire input process takes just 30 minutes. Irrelevant fields are hidden via a drill-down system, and once name and address details are entered, they never need to be typed again.

Moreover, the discussions are held via Zoom rather than in person. We assign professional, neutral lawyers to act as mediators. Usually, in family courts, ordinary citizens serve as mediators, but we have lawyers structure the compromise points from a legal perspective, guiding users smoothly toward drafting a mutual agreement or contract.

Currently in Japan, approximately 200,000 divorces occur annually, but 90% of them are mutual agreements settled only through verbal promises. As time passes or new partners appear, payments frequently stop, resulting in 80% of single mothers (about 800,000 families) receiving no child support. Approximately 520 billion yen in child support is left unpaid annually, directly feeding the poverty issue among single-parent households.

However, clear data shows that if a solid, written divorce agreement contract is created beforehand, the child support payment rate increases dramatically. We will resolve this issue, creating a safety net to protect women and children.

A Proven 200M JPY Funding Record and Expansion Plan into the Massive 1.4M Annual Inheritance Market

We look at the market for personal disputes (SAM)—including not only divorce but also inheritance (which occurs 1.4 million times annually) and small-claims collections—as a 70 billion yen opportunity, and we aim to secure nearly 10 billion yen in revenue from this domain.

In Japan's judicial system, there is a "20% Justice Issue," where only 20% of people facing legal troubles actually consult or access lawyers and courts. The remaining 80% give up due to four barriers: lack of time, high and non-transparent lawyer fees, travel costs to family courts (including travel costs when the opposing party lives far away), and, above all, heavy psychological burdens. Smartphone mediation breaks down all of these barriers.

This April, we successfully obtained certification from the Ministry of Justice to conduct "private mediation." Currently, only five companies, including us, are certified in this ODR field in Japan, and the market is finally poised for takeoff.

Our team is highly experienced. I previously experienced an IPO as a founding member of the mobile battery sharing company "ChargeSPOT (Inforich Inc.)," and I bring proven expertise in team building, fundraising, and rapid scaling.
For development, we recruited Mr. Ihara, who built high-security platforms for finance and infrastructure at NTT Data Group, to build an infrastructure that highly secures personal data.
For marketing (CMO), we welcomed a professional who successfully established a new lifestyle culture 15 years ago with the housekeeping service "Bears" to drive brand awareness.
Additionally, the former CFO of Inforich who led major M&A deals, along with several lawyers incorporating female perspectives, have joined the team, establishing a robust foundation.

Currently, we have completed a 200 million yen pre-Series A round and are finalizing the remaining allocation towards January. We are also planning a Series A round in October next year.

To elevate smartphone mediation into an everyday utility, we are seeking media opportunities, strategic business alliances, and partnerships with VCs. Thank you very much.

Q&A and Feedback

Mr. Ogawa (Commentator): Thank you, Mr. Matoba. Your personal struggle with divorce mediation is a compelling background story, and I see great significance in creating a product that simplifies mediation on smartphones.

I have invested in over 60 startups through the Japan Startup Support Association, but I have no investment track record in the LegalTech space yet. I understand the market opportunity, but could you explain your "competitive advantage" over the two preceding competitors in detail?

Mr. Matoba: Thank you. Both of the two preceding competitors are founded and operated by practicing lawyers. As a result, their product designs are text-heavy and very difficult to use. We focus heavily on UI/UX, refining our design so that anyone can use it intuitively.

Another clear differentiator is our commitment to branding and marketing. The two preceding competitors launched during the pandemic in 2020, but even after five years, their brand awareness remains at a mere 3%. This is because they run the businesses on the side while continuing their legal practices, without investing capital or resources into marketing. I am committing to this smartphone mediation as my primary business, leveraging my IPO experience. We have already held media launches covered by Nikkei and Fuji TV, and we are executing a strategy to rapidly boost awareness.

Mr. Ogawa: I see. So the difference lies in product usability (UI/UX) and your dedication to marketing for scaling the business.

Now that the service has launched, what is your current traction in terms of user registrations and usage?

Mr. Matoba: Since our launch on November 27, we have registered about 100 users. Of those, about 50 (roughly half) have completed their identity verification to prevent fraudulent registrations. Furthermore, half of those verified users have finished inputting their mediation details, and about 10 are currently waiting for a response after sending invitation links to their spouses.

Mr. Ogawa: I see. It seems you are seeing solid early traction.

Could you explain your revenue model (monetization) in detail?

Mr. Matoba: Yes. For divorce mediation, we set a flat success fee of 180,000 to 240,000 yen, minimizing initial costs.
For our primary target, inheritance (1.4 million cases annually), we charge a 3% success fee based on the agreed inheritance amount rather than a flat package.
Additionally, divorce and inheritance always involve "disposing of real estate (selling homes)" and "restructuring life and non-life insurance." We expect significant revenue streams from referral commissions and referral fees by sending these clients to our partner real estate and insurance companies.

Mr. Ogawa: So you integrate monetization through real estate sales and insurance restructuring. That is a highly logical monetization design.

What is the timeline for your next funding round?

Mr. Matoba: We are closing our pre-Series A round by January and planning our Series A round in October next year.

Mr. Ogawa: Smartphone mediation is a very fresh approach, and it is a wonderful attempt to save the 80% who currently cannot access legal recourse. Strengthen your marketing and keep pushing forward to make it widely known.

Mr. Matoba: Thank you very much. We will do our best.