visasQ
VisasQ is a Japanese expert network with global presence. It ranks among the largest expert networks globally.
VisasQ history and highlights
The company It was launched in 2012 as Walkntalk Inc. and rebranded to VisasQ in 2015.
VisasQ went public on March 10, 2020, on the Tokyo Stock Exchange growth market.
In July 2020, the firm invested $0.3m in Boston-based DeepBench. VisasQ intended to use Deepbench's technology to streamline its matching capabilities and process overseas advisors.
In August 2021, VisasQ acquired Coleman Research for $102m. At the time, Coleman had more than twice the revenues of VisasQ. The combined entity has a strong presence in Japan and the US.
As the global expert network industry faced headwinds in 2022-2023, many expert networks struggled to grow. VisasQ was no different and - being a public company - disclosed this and wrote off the entire $95m goodwill from acquiring Coleman in the FY2023 annual report.
In April 2024, the combined entity had a database of 640,000+ experts and more than 600 employees in 7 office locations (Tokyo, New York, California, North Carolina, Singapore, Hong Kong, and London), supporting more than 1,000 clients.
In November 2024, VisasQ-Coleman announced they had more than 650,000 experts globally, 175,000 of which are in Japan. This makes it one of the larger expert networks globally.
VisasQ service offering
The company operates five main business areas, ranked below by size:
VisasQ interview - regular expert calls.
VisasQ survey - a regular B2B survey.
VisasQ now/ VisasQ lite - a quick poll to a few experts (the ambition is to deliver 5+ experts within 24h).
VisasQ report - smaller consulting projects that give you a full written report, including doing expert calls and running surveys for you.
VisasQ partner - engaging experts for site visits, projects etc. Other networks call this "breakout engagements".
VisasQ team and other notable events
The founders and management team combine experience from investment banks (Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan) and investment firms (Sumitomo, Unison). VisasQ is one of the larger expert networks in Japan. Expert networks in Japan have seen strong growth in recent years, with local competitors ShareFair, Mimir Uzabase, Resory and Hudson Research all growing. In addition, international firms GLG, AlphaSights, Atheneum and Guidepoint have all established offices in Tokyo. You can access the best Japanese expert networks on Inex One.
In 2020, Mimir's owner Uzabase Inc. made a similar step to VisasQ and also acquired a US-based expert network, Enquire.
Inex One identified VisasQ-Coleman as a regional champion in our recurring expert network market size. Regional champions have a particularly strong foothold in their respective regions, while also having material international operations.
