Panasonic invests in CLAS, a provider of furniture and appliance rental and subscription services, through the Panasonic Kurashi Visionary Fund

Tokyo, Japan, July 28, 2026 – Panasonic Corporation (Head Office: Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Akira Toyoshima; hereinafter referred to as Panasonic) today announced that it has invested in CLAS Inc. (Head Office: Meguro-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Hirotake Kubo; hereinafter referred to as CLAS), a company that offers furniture and appliance subscription service that provides flexible living and working spaces tailored to the period of use, for both individual and corporate customers. The investment was made through a corporate venture capital fund, commonly known as the Panasonic Kurashi Visionary Fund, jointly managed by Panasonic and SBI Investment Co., Ltd.

Against the backdrop of a growing number of single-person households and increasingly diverse lifestyles, a shift in values from ownership to usage is spreading in furniture and appliances industry. While demand for subscription-based rental services is expanding, competition with the purchase-based market and other sharing services is intensifying. Even in this environment, the adoption of reuse and sharing, along with the spread of sustainable consumption behavior, is expected to continue, and significant potential for growth remains in the subscription-based rental service industry.

A key feature of CLAS is that, in addition to offering a monthly subscription service for furniture and appliances, it provides the flexibility to use items only for the required period and to exchange or return them according to changes in life stage or circumstances. Customers can also purchase products they like through residual-value payments, offering an optimal option that helps prevent unsuitable purchases and minimizes upfront investment risk. CLAS’s service allows individual customers to set up their living and working environments while minimizing initial costs and disposal effort. The service is designed to align well with short- to medium-term housing needs such as personal relocations and single-person work assignments. For corporate clients, CLAS helps enhance the value of real estate properties, support their early sale, and build offices that remain adaptable to corporate change. Furthermore, this circular-use model has the potential to become widely adopted as circular-economy-based living infrastructure, and Panasonic is closely monitoring CLAS's future development and market trends.

Panasonic has offered Panasonic Factory Refresh, its line of Panasonic-inspected refurbished products in which collected home appliances are regenerated, resold, and provided after their quality has been confirmed through rigorous inspection. Through this investment in CLAS, Panasonic—acting as a partner supporting the circular furniture and appliance business—will further accelerate the realization of a circular economy in the furniture and appliance field and help expand the range of options for sustainable living.

In the furniture and appliance field, values are also shifting from ownership to usage, and the adoption of subscription-based services is accelerating. In this context, we believe that circular living‑environment services are becoming increasingly important as a domain where we can leverage the regeneration and recycling expertise we have cultivated. Through this investment in CLAS, and by utilizing a broad customer base spanning both individuals and businesses, we aim to further advance the development of a circular-use platform that integrates the use, collection, and reuse of furniture and appliances, thereby creating new value toward the realization of a circular economy.

Under our vision of "Make your life free and light," we have aimed not only to provide furniture and appliances to individuals and businesses, but also to stay close to people's diverse lifestyles and to build a circular-use platform that continually updates the way people live as their circumstances change. We are truly honored to have entered into this capital and business alliance with Panasonic, a company that leads daily living in Japan through technology and manufacturing and is pursuing advanced initiatives in the regeneration and recycling of home appliances.
By combining the strengths of both companies, we are confident that we will accelerate the creation of new social infrastructure that balances convenience and sustainability and contributes to a circular economy. Together with Panasonic, we will pioneer a future in which anyone can design a flexible and sustainable way of living, beyond the concept of ownership.