Marketo Expands Globally With New Subsidiary in Japan

TOKYO and SAN MATEO, Calif., March 25, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Marketo Inc. MKTO, the leading provider of marketing software, today announced a major expansion of its global operations with the opening a new subsidiary in Tokyo, Japan. The creation of Marketo KK will enable corporations throughout Japan and North Asia to more easily advance their digital marketing strategies by using technology to engage customers differently to form deep, long-lasting customer relationships.

Marketo KK is a joint venture between Marketo, as the majority shareholder, Dentsu eMarketing One Inc, and SunBridge Corporation. Dentsu eMarketing One delivers strategic digital marketing consulting services to Dentsu Group clients worldwide. SunBridge is a Japan/US venture capital and professional services firm responsible for the Japan joint ventures of Salesforce.com, Concur, Kyriba and Silkroad Technologies and whose founders also launched Oracle Japan. The new subsidiary was announced by Marketo Chairman & CEO Phil Fernandez, Dentsu eMarketing One Inc. President & CEO Kaoru Nagahama, and SunBridge Corporation founder & CEO Allen Miner at a press conference in Tokyo today.

Marketo also announced the immediate availability of the Japanese language version of its digital marketing platform, which will initially be made available through distribution and services partnerships with Dentsu eMarketing One and OGIS-RI. Marketo KK will announce additional distribution and service partnerships together with direct purchase options at a company launch event to be announced shortly. This event will include the introduction of the company's Representative Director and President, product demonstrations, partner programs, and instructional case studies showing how customers can leverage its cloud-based marketing platform to more effectively customers across multiple channels. Additional information, including event registration, can be found at www.marketo.co.jp.

Today's announcement comes less than a year after Marketo's successful initial public offering, successive quarters of rapid growth and award-winning product innovation. The opening up of the Japanese market is the third major international expansion by Marketo. In 2011 Marketo opened operations in Europe and in 2012 it established its presence in Australia. Its entry into Japan and the significant co-investments being made by Dentsu eMarketing One and SunBridge reflect a surge of interest for highly advanced and affordable marketing automation solutions in Japan.

"Much the same way we have been pulled into other markets, we are experiencing tremendous interest from prospective customers and partners in the Japan market, and we feel the time is right to join forces with some of the marketing leaders of Japan to enable customers to better leverage technology to create customer engagements and relationships," said Phil Fernandez, CEO of Marketo. "We are thrilled by the confidence shown by both SunBridge and Dentsu eMarketing One in co-investing with us in this market opportunity."

Allen Miner, founder and CEO of SunBridge added, "We are extremely excited to partner with Phil and his team on the launch and growth of Marketo Japan. We have high confidence in Marketo's potential to repeat the success of Oracle and Salesforce.com in establishing strong brand and market leadership in this market.'

"I am excited about the market potential for advanced and affordable marketing management solutions that bring the benefits of digital marketing capabilities, cloud computing, and multi-channel customer engagement in an integrated way that's beneficial for companies and their customers," said Kaoru Nagahama, president & CEO of Dentsu eMarketing One. "Marketo's strengths in these areas is unmatched, and Dentsu eMarketing One looks forward to partnering closely with Marketo to bring the benefits of their platform to our clients."

About Dentsu eMarketing One:

Dentsu eMarketing One is a strategic marketing consulting company providing marketing solutions that helps clients remain competitive across the entire spectrum of traditional and digital marketing channels through it's corporate philosophy of discovering new ways to sell. eMarketing One has gathered digital marketing expertise across the entire set of Dentsu Group companies, assembling the capabilities required to be a trusted partner to clients facing transformative changes in their customer engagement strategies. Dentsu eMarketing One's business solutions are founded on a basis of practical business concepts across all fields of marketing, backed by a robust set of frameworks and services that unify the planning and implementation of multi-channel marketing innovation. For more information, please visit www.dentsu-em1.co.jp

About SunBridge:

SunBridge Corporation is an international venture capital and professional services firm. SunBridge offers globalization support for both Japanese and US technology companies; is a premier value added reseller of leading international enterprise software products; and offers a range of custom development and consulting services. SunBridge's principals share a rich heritage of having founded Oracle Japan and held senior executive positions with IBM Japan and other leading enterprise software companies. SunBridge has successfully co-founded Salesforce.com Japan, Concur Japan CNQR, Kyriba Japan and Silkroad Technologies Japan. SunBridge has invested over $100m in more than 65 portfolio companies, resulting in eight successful IPOs and several major acquisition exits generating over $38 Billion in current market capitalization. SunBridge offices are located in Tokyo, Osaka, Silicon Valley, Charlotte and Cleveland. More information is available at www.sunbridge.com/sunbridge_corp/ and www.sunbridgepartners.com.

About Marketo:

Marketo provides the leading cloud-based marketing software platform for companies of all sizes to build and sustain engaging customer relationships. Spanning today's digital, social, mobile and offline channels, the Marketo® solution includes a complete suite of applications that help organizations acquire new customers more efficiently, maximize customer loyalty and lifetime value, improve sales effectiveness, and provide analytical insight into marketing's contribution to revenue growth. Marketo's applications are known for their breakthrough ease-of-use, and are complemented by the Marketing Nation™, a thriving network of more than 200 LaunchPoint™ ecosystem partners and over 40,000 marketers who share and learn from each other to grow their collective marketing expertise.  The result for modern marketers is unprecedented agility and superior results.

Headquartered in San Mateo, CA, USA with offices in Europe, Australia, and Japan, Marketo serves as a strategic marketing partner to more than 3,000 large enterprises and fast-growing small companies across a wide variety of industries. For more information, visit www.marketo.com.

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