You've decided on ASEAN. You haven't found the starting point.
Nursery is designed for Japanese brands with zero ASEAN sales history. You have the product, the brand, but don't know which platform, market, or price point works. We cap at 5 seats to ensure every brand gets real one-on-one support.
5 seats per cohort. If yours is one of them, you move with us.
TheNewGate Asia Pacific — NurseryApply → Validate → Graduate.
Nursery Plan is not a starter subscription — it is a structured cohort program with application requirements, a defined scope, and a graduation criterion. It exists for Japanese brands that need a low-commitment, high-support first step into ASEAN, with a clear path to scale.
All communications and documentation in Japanese.
Cohort details
What the program includes.
- Duration
- Quarterly cohort (rolling entry)
- Seats
- 5 maximum per cohort
- Graduation criterion
- SGD 10,000 monthly GMV × 2 consecutive months
- Language
- Japanese-first throughout
- Channels
- One marketplace channel included
Cohort status
5
seats open
We accept one new cohort per quarter. Applications reviewed on a rolling basis.
From application to first import.
Submit your application
Tell us about your product, your ASEAN goals, and where you are today. Applications are reviewed quarterly.
Onboarding call
A 60-minute Japanese-language session with our team to align on scope, channels, and success criteria.
IOR setup and marketplace listing
We handle customs registration and list your product on one supported marketplace channel.
Monthly review cadence
Regular check-ins track your GMV trajectory and flag any compliance or platform issues early.
Where Nursery graduates go.
Graduation criterion: Graduation criterion: SGD 10,000 monthly GMV across two consecutive months.
Upon graduation, Standard tier is prioritised. No re-application required.
“Our first ASEAN import went live in 6 weeks. We didn’t think that was possible without a local entity.”
When Nursery succeeds, upgrading is the natural step.
Upgrade trigger
When your Shopee store achieves SGD 800+/month for two consecutive weeks in weeks 6–8, you're ready for Entry.
Before upgrade
You're validating product-market fit with test data
During upgrade
We migrate your store to an Entry contract without operational interruption
After upgrade
Fixed monthly fee, expanded channel options, dedicated account manager
Tokyo skincare brand: 0 to graduation in 8 months.
Tokyo Skincare Brand (cosmetics, SME)
Channel: Shopee MY
Month 0: Joined Nursery with two product SKU samples
Month 2: HSA pre-check complete, store live
Month 6: SGD 920/month achieved, triggering graduation criteria
Month 8: Graduated to Entry with zero operational disruption
“We didn't expect to establish ourselves in Malaysia within 8 months. Nursery let us truly test the market without taking a big risk.”
Why not go straight to Entry?
| Nursery | Entry | |
|---|---|---|
| Initial investment | SGD 1,500/month | SGD 3,800/month |
| Service commitment | 8-week pilot | 12-month contract |
| Right for | Demand not yet validated | Ready to sell, needs operational support |
The real cost of getting it wrong in ASEAN
Most Japanese brands that fail in ASEAN don't fail because their products are bad. They fail because they chose the wrong channel first, set the wrong price point, or got locked into a compliance structure that couldn't scale. The typical cost of a failed first attempt — a Singapore subsidiary that needs to be wound down, a trading company contract that locked you in for 18 months, inventory that was shipped before demand was proven — easily exceeds JPY 5 million.
Nursery is structured precisely to eliminate these failure modes. We keep the commitment small, the timeline short, and the feedback loop tight. If your product doesn't resonate in month three, you know before you've spent anything irreversible. If it does resonate, you have the data to justify the next investment.
Every Nursery participant receives a dedicated slot in our quarterly review cycle, access to our Singapore-registered IOR infrastructure (no local entity required), and guidance from our team that has managed ASEAN market entries across cosmetics, food & beverage, industrial goods, and health products.
Why ASEAN validation requires boots on the ground
Shopee Malaysia and Shopee Singapore behave differently even though they share a platform. Malaysian consumers respond to price-off campaigns. Singapore consumers respond to trust signals — certifications, brand heritage, ingredient transparency. A product listing optimized for one will underperform in the other.
Lazada's ranking algorithm favors sellers with consistent fulfillment velocity. TikTok Shop rewards live commerce engagement. Each channel has its own grammar, and the only way to learn it is to operate in it. Nursery gives you 8 weeks of live operation with a team that already knows the grammar.
What graduation from Nursery actually looks like
Graduation is not automatic at week 8. It's triggered by data. When your Shopee store demonstrates SGD 800+ in weekly revenue for two consecutive weeks, we schedule a graduation review. In that review, we present your full 8-week performance data: which product SKUs showed traction, which price points converted, which customer segments responded. We make a concrete recommendation — Entry for continued single-channel validation, or Standard if two-channel expansion is the clear next move. You then decide, with real data, not a sales pitch.
Regulatory Foundation
- UEN
- 202548372K
- Address
- 6 Raffles Quay, #11-07 John Hancock Tower, Singapore 048580
- Directors
- Uruma Matsushita (Founder & CEO)
- Legal Basis
- Hub-and-Spoke model confirmed by Christopher & Lee Ong, Singapore
- Affiliation
- Serving JCCI member companies across Singapore
Certified Carrier Network
FAQ
Nursery Plan — common questions.
Nursery cohort is limited to 5 brands per intake. Our structured program has a 100% graduation rate to Standard tier for brands meeting volume thresholds.