Hello, thank you for watching this video. This is the first quarter results for Raksul Inc. From this time on, we've decided to go from simultaneous translation to pre-recorded presentation, so if you have any questions, please email us at ir@raksul.com, so this is our first quarter results. Revenues were up 31% in the quarter, gross profit was up 38% in the quarter. EBITDA for the quarter has reached 1.5 billion JPY, which is a record. Same for operating profit at 1.36 and net income at 0.8 billion JPY. We've seen steady organic growth across businesses, as well as contribution from continuous M&A. We saw cost efficiencies, as well as cost synergies kicking in earlier than we expected, which has led us to higher than expected EBITDA of 1.5 billion JPY. From this quarter onwards, we've changed the way we report segments.
Procurement platform business, which we previously used to call Raksul business, we saw a revenue growth of 29.8%. Gross profit is up 41% year over year. In marketing platform business, which we used to call Novasell, we've seen revenue growth of 57.9%. Gross profit is up 27.6%. There is a recovery in the ad agency business, as well as we saw a sequential growth in SaaS and SME businesses. We have three points in terms of corporate actions. In terms of progress in M&A, we have disclosed two deals so far within this year. And today, we're happy to share that we plan to acquire all shares of All Market Inc., which is an independent web advertising company, which will be part of a marketing platform business going forward.
We have also completed one undisclosed M&A in the printing and solutions business, which will be part of the procurement platform. And in terms of the progress on the new businesses that we announced back in September, within the financial finance business, we have established Raksul Bank Inc., 100% subsidiary of Raksul. And in the marketing platform business, we continue to see good progress in terms of development. And lastly, in terms of capital policy, back at the end of November 2024, we have redeemed all of JPY 5 billion of convertible bonds issued in 2019. And also, we have announced that we plan to acquire JPY 700 million worth of treasury stock, given where the share prices are at the moment. And here, we'll be reviewing some of the strategic highlights that we have announced in September.
We would like to talk about the domains that we're focused on and what assures Raksul's continuous growth, and as well as the financial policies that we've mentioned. What 2025 means to us is continuation of 2024 and also represents an evolution from 2024. Back until 2024, our focus was about sustaining quality growth. Also, as part of a new strategy, we have announced that continuous M&A and creation of synergy will be a critical part of our growth. In 2025, these two hold true. We will continue to pursue sustainable quality growth, as well as continuously executing M&A deals in the vicinity and trying to create synergy among companies that we acquire. In addition to these two points, we're going to be developing businesses in-house based on the longer-term strategy of the platform.
So we'll be seeing both inorganic as well as organic growth that is in line with the medium to longer-term growth of the company. This is going to be the long-term focus of our businesses. The triangle represents transaction, finance, and software. Transaction is basically the e-commerce business, which is the founding part of our business, including the printing e-commerce. In addition to this large existing business, we'll be developing software as well as the finance part, which we'll refer to later, trying to create a better platform value, both driving revenue and profit growth, as well as value to our customers. The foundation of this is our core competencies, which include our customer base, accumulating data, as well as growing GMV from the transaction business. This is what we see as a longer-term service expansion.
Transaction will be focused on additional customizable products, as well as expansion into non-custom items within our B2B e-commerce platform. Within software, we'll be starting with marketing, as well as trying to increase customer touchpoints, including businesses like Peraichi, a website builder. Within finance, as we announced in September, our partnership with SBI Sumishin Net Bank will be trying to launch an online bank for small and medium businesses here in Japan, so within transaction, we're going to be expanding into additional product categories within the customizable e-commerce that we're already focused on, so we've started from printing, but in addition to that, we've already launched novelty cardboard boxes, apparel uniforms, and we've acquired a business stamps business, but we'll be expanding into other realms, which goes into everyday offices and stores that has customizable elements to it.
We'll be also experimenting on non-custom areas, including perishable goods, store supplies that go into our customers' everyday needs. Within finance, as announced in September, we continue to develop our banking product towards the launch in calendar year 2025. Within software, we're developing a marketing platform that serves our small business customers. A lot of small businesses that work with Raksul buy a lot of marketing products through us. There's a lot of data accumulation, whether it's the client database and also creatives that go to our platform. We'll be accumulating these within our platform, and we'll make it easier for the next transactions to happen. Going into our strength, what assures our continued growth is, one, the expanding total addressable market.
Not only the SME market in Japan large, but also the digitized part of this market is growing very strongly, as you can see in the middle of this chart. And we also have a very strong presence in some of the critical areas like printing e-commerce, packaging materials, and business stamps. And we are also very well recognized among small businesses in Japan. The vast majority of our revenues today come from small businesses, and 81% of small businesses in Japan recognize Raksul, and the majority of them recognize us as a helpful platform.
The third strength is the technological platform. We have a common infrastructure and capabilities that serves all parts of the businesses. Our current focus and focus going forward will be common user ID, payment, and transaction. The strength number four is our track record and the future M&As.
So far, we have announced two deals for fiscal 2025. In fiscal 2024, we have executed six new consolidations. This is what outlines our unique growth model, involving both the platform of Raksul as well as the roll-up M&A model. The advantages of the platform model are listed here. Being a platform allows us to grow based on our user base and also a common technological platform. Being a roll-up company here in Japan allows us to access many acquisition opportunities and create cost synergies with companies that we purchase. Raksul's original unique model combines the strength of both the platform and the roll-up model, which allows us to grow the revenue and realize cost synergies with companies we acquire.
The difficulty of achieving this model is the requirement of having both the aspects of the platform model and the roll-up model, but we are confident that we satisfy all prerequisites in both cases. This slide highlights the growth of the companies that we have acquired in 2024. The year before our acquisition, we have indexed the EBITDA as 100. If the EBITDA the year before is 100, the year we have acquired, we have increased EBITDA by 32%. And in terms of simplified ROIC trend for the companies that we have acquired in year one, roughly speaking, the companies that we acquired yielded a 13% return on invested capital based on the price of the acquisition.
Through revenue growth, as well as cost synergies, we'll be increasing this return on invested capital to 20.1% in 2025, basically being an accretive or neutral to an accretive to Raksul's overall return on invested capital. Now, moving on to the financial highlights for the first quarter. We have continuously been achieving quality growth since we started to talk about quality growth in 2022.
So far, since going public, we have seen a revenue CAGR of 27.7%, gross profit growth of 34%, and EBITDA of 62% up till this day. We plan to continue delivering this profitable growth going forward as well. Looking at the gross profit margin growth, as well as the gross profit growth, where you can see that we are achieving both of them with a good balance at the same time. We have seen a 30s in both numbers.
First quarter 2025, we saw a 38% gross profit growth, while achieving for the first time 30+ % EBITDA margin over gross profit. This is the financial highlights of Q1, as well as the outlook for the second quarter. Let me explain this in a little bit detail. The revenue was JPY 14.7 billion, up 31% in first quarter. Gross profit was JPY 5.06 billion, up 38% versus the previous year. EBITDA was JPY 1.53 billion, up 63% versus the previous year. The Non-GAAP operating to net income is, as you can see below, operating profit up 64%.
Net income is down 46%, but this is due to a one-time gain through an asset sale the previous year. The first quarter result basically highlights a steady revenue growth, as well as improvement in gross profit margin through productivity improvements, as well as contribution from newly consolidated companies.
While growing EBITDA revenue, we have seen steady growth in EBITDA margin. As I mentioned earlier, we've seen for the first time EBITDA margin exceeding 30% for the quarter. In terms of the coming quarter, second quarter, we're expecting roughly similar trends in terms of revenue growth. Within the procurement platform, we'll be expecting roughly 20% growth in revenue.
Now that Hankoya.com acquisition has lapped a year, so addition, a contribution from new consolidation will be low single digits. So roughly similar organic growth rates, as well as a smaller contribution from new acquisition. Marketing platform, we're expecting around flat year over year, but this is within the normal volatility of the business.
In terms of EBITDA for the second quarter, we're expecting a slight decline from JPY 1.53 billion, but this is mainly due to one-time expenses, as well as some investments going into the new business initiatives that we talked about back in September. Here, I would like to highlight the segment changes that we have done from the first quarter. As we explained to you in Q4, we have relocated Peraichi into the former Novasell business. So the Novasell business is now called the marketing platform business, and it is now a business that focuses on marketing for small to large businesses. Raksul business, as we previously used to call it, is now renamed as a procurement platform business as we expand into other brands within e-commerce.
And when I explained earlier about our focus domains, transaction, software, and finance, transaction refers to much of the procurement platform business, as well as the ad agency business within marketing platform. Software domain mainly today refers to the SaaS business within marketing and also the SME platform within the marketing business. The finance to be created will be in the other section once it launches. This is the progress, our progress versus the four-year guidance in the mid at the low end.
We're already at 24% in terms of revenue as well as gross profit, and also 27.8% versus the four-year guidance in terms of EBITDA. We're on a very good track versus the four-year guidance. As you can see, compared to the trends of the past three years, we're well ahead in terms of our first quarter results. This is the trends in our revenue.
We've seen continuous growth quarter over quarter, both contributions we've seen from organic as well as new consolidation. So we're seeing diversifying revenue structures and also steady and recurring growth from all sides of the business. This is the gross profit trend across the company. For the first time, we've hit JPY 5 billion in quarterly gross profit, continuing to see both growth in revenue as well as improvements in gross margin. This is the EBITDA as well as the J-GAAP operating profit trends.
Back in fourth quarter 2024, we've decided to invest in new initiatives that go to feed 2025 growth. But first quarter EBITDA and operating profit figure, as you can see here, is back on a normal track at this point. We've seen better than expected EBITDA as well as operating profit for the quarter for reasons I'll explain to you in this next slide.
So this is the background to the first quarter beat. The waterfall chart on the left shows the difference between the upper end of the first quarter EBITDA guidance versus where we are in the first quarter. So we've seen JPY 120 million contribution from better than expected gross profit in the quarter. And also, we've been able to create more cost synergies than expected in the quarter, mainly around transaction costs of the companies that we've purchased, the payment expenses. And also, we've seen better advertising efficiencies in the quarter, and also miscellaneous costs add to the beat in Q1. And in terms of how we're expecting 2025 EBITDA to trend going forward, is the illustrative chart you can see on the right.
We're expecting a slight decline in second quarter EBITDA versus the previous quarter, but we're on a very good track in terms of achieving JPY 5.5 billion-JPY 6 billion EBITDA for the full year. We'll try to identify and invest in growth opportunities throughout the year. So rather than saving investments for Q4, we'll try to identify and deploy hiring, marketing, and technological costs as we identify opportunities throughout the year. This is the trends in the SG&A. So we continue to invest in growth, mainly in advertising as well as technology.
And in terms of the other expenses, which was higher in Q4, it has come down to our normal levels as we lapped one-time expenses that we saw in Q4. Going into trends within each segment, this is the procurement platform business. We continue to see good Q on Q and year-over-year growth.
So in addition to revenue growth, we've seen a record gross profit margin for the quarter, contribution from productivity improvements, as well as consolidation of profitable businesses. And in terms of the revenue trends, in August and September, we saw some impact effects from slow typhoons and unfavorable weather. But at the end of the day, the first quarter organic growth was at 15.9% versus 17.2% in Q4. So we continue to grow very strong in terms of organic growth. This is the number of registered users on Raksul.com. We're now at 2.8 million users on our platform.
This is the KPI trends within the procurement platform business. We saw 10.9% growth in users at Raksul.com. Overall organic growth of the users at 10.3%. And if you include newly acquired companies, our user base is growing 40% year over year. This is a unique purchasing user per quarter.
So these are the active user base growth of our businesses. In terms of average revenue per order, as well as number of purchases per year, we continue to see single-digit growth. These fuel the mid to high teens organic growth that we see across our procurement platform. This is the marketing platform renamed from Novasell. So this segment now includes both the advertising agency, SaaS, as well as the website builder business. In first quarter, the advertising agency business for large companies has recovered from the previous year, mainly due to a temporary drop we saw the year before. The SaaS business, as well as the SME marketing business, has seen sequential growth quarter over quarter. This is the KPI trends. This is changed from the way we used to disclose as Novasell.
We will be disclosing the gross profit trends by subsegments, as well as number of companies that use our services broken down between medium and large enterprise, as well as sole proprietors and SMEs. So in terms of the gross profit structure, more than half of the gross profit in this business comes from the SME marketing business, as well as the SaaS business for large corporates. These are two relatively stable sources of revenues and profits, and the rest comprises of relatively volatile advertising agency business. But even within the advertising agency, the synergies between the software side and the agency side are fueling more stability in the revenue. And in terms of users, in addition to 348 users of the former Novasell, we now include 26,000 paying users, mainly coming from Peraichi.
This is a broader marketing service that serves tens of thousands of clients, whether it's small businesses to larger corporates. Just briefly on the acquisition of All Market Inc. This company is an independent web advertising company that provides strategic design, planning, and production of digital marketing for companies in human resources, education, and e-commerce. In terms of the purpose of this acquisition, we see this as our expansion into adjacent areas. Also, this is our way of enhancing our supply.
Within the advertising agency business, a marketing platform, as well as the SME marketing business, we have a lot of demands from our clients for digital marketing execution, as well as operation and maintenance. We believe that the capabilities of All Market Inc. will allow us to internalize a lot of digital advertising demand that goes to Novasell and the broader marketing platform business.
And in terms of the financial impact to our result, the impact of the consolidation will be minimal. However, transaction-related expenses of JPY lower tens of millions will be recorded in Q2. Our outlook of a slight decline in EBITDA includes these potential costs. And the completion of this acquisition, we plan to be January 2025. So we'll see this kicking in from the second quarter financials. This is the medium-term financial policy for overall Raksul. No changes to the medium-term plan.
We continue to aim for JPY 10 billion in EBITDA in FY 2027, JPY 30 billion in gross profit in the same time frame. And in terms of capital allocation, this also has no change. But within the JPY 2.5 billion minimum that we've committed to shareholder return, we have decided and disclosed a JPY 700 million share buyback here in December 2024. This is the balance sheet.
And also, I want to share a little bit of our view on the return on invested capital of Raksul. So our return on invested capital on business assets, assets that contribute to businesses directly, is around 20.6% in fiscal year 2024. And since the EV/EBITDA of the companies that we have acquired in 2024, and also in the future acquisitions, we'll be very conscious about valuations. So we believe that the additional return on invested capitals from companies that we acquire will be given cost synergies and growth will be either neutral to accretive to our return on invested capital versus the business asset.
However, if you look at Raksul's ROIC versus our equity and interest-bearing debt, this will be a lower number due to a couple of factors. One is that we have some standby funds on the left-hand side of our balance sheet.
This is a standby fund for the roll-up acquisitions. And instead of sourcing funding deal by deal, we have certain amounts of standby funds on hand. And also, we hold some of our new businesses like Hacobell and Josys in the form of investment securities. So these will be an additional denominator to return on invested capital. But through business growth, sale of investment securities, consolidation, we aim for that return on invested capital to also reach 20% in the medium term. And also, today, we've announced the stock incentive based on quality growth.
So in the last two paid-in stock options, the condition for exercise was JPY 7.7 billion in EBITDA back in 2020. We've achieved that with JPY 9.5 billion in 2022. Back in 2022, we've issued paid-in SO with EBITDA targets of JPY 2.8 billion and JPY 4 billion. And we've achieved JPY 4.5 billion last year.
This time, the condition is aligned with the medium-term financial policy. So we'll be aiming for FY 2027 EBITDA of JPY 10 billion. So these options will go mainly to our employees. This is in pursuit of business performance, corporate value growth, and we hope to see improved motivation and strengthened companies' cohesiveness. Oh, and the maximum dilution from the stock incentive will be 0.47%. And we'll be offsetting that with the buyback of roughly 1% this time. This is the status of the group companies. No major changes. Within Hacobell, we've seen an acquisition of TruckBook from Monoful company expanding more of the SaaS offering within Hacobell business. And lastly, going into potential Q&As just briefly, the first one is about the CB redemption and how we see the outlook for fundraising going forward.
We've decided to redeem the JPY 5 billion convertible bonds back at the end of November. Even after the redemption, we continue to have more than JPY 10 billion of cash on hand. We believe that our current cash flow and also the status of the companies that we're acquiring allows us to raise funds in forms of debt mainly. We'll continue to monitor our balance sheet, but we are very optimistic that we'll be able to fund our future acquisitions through debt, mainly related to the companies that we purchase. The second one is about the progress and pipeline of the M&A. Back in 2024, we consolidated six new companies. In the process of doing so, we want to share that we have screened over 200 companies in that process. This year, in 2025, we have more companies in screening.
And so far, we have executed or resolved two M&A deals as of the first quarter. So we'll be sourcing further M&A through brokers, introduction from our suppliers, financial institutions, etc. So we're very confident in the pipeline. And also, so far, we have a very strong pipeline so far. And the third one is about the progress of Raksul Enterprise. This business continues to drive the growth of our printing and solution business. And the number of companies using the service has come to 3,093. And the users have come to 25,000 plus at this point.
So while we continue to say that our focus is about solving management issues of SMEs, we continue to see very good competitive strength in both Raksul Enterprise and the Novasell’s large enterprise businesses. So we'll be pursuing growth in these strategic and unique businesses going forward as well.
And last but not least, I want to talk about the revenue trends of the SME business that we have in the marketing platform. So we've added Peraichi to the segment, which was previously disclosed as Novasell. This Peraichi company has a revenue of over 1 billion JPY and continues to grow over 10% every year. In terms of EBITDA, last year, the company has lost a little less than 200 million JPY in EBITDA, but the losses are shrinking as the high contribution margin business continues to grow steadily quarter over quarter.
So we believe that overall marketing platform business will be profitable for the year. And we believe that this is a very viable investment into the future of this marketing platform segment. And the rest is the reference materials. So if you have any further questions, please do let us know.
Yeah, thank you very much for watching this video.