Shintaro Yamada

Shintaro Yamada is the founder and chief executive of Mercari, one of Japan’s largest community-powered marketplaces, offering everything from vintage fashion to second-hand electronics and collectibles.

A serial entrepreneur, Yamada launched Mercari in 2013 with a mission to create a mobile-first app designed to make it simple for anyone to sell items they no longer need. Yamada’s intuitive approach to user experience and focus on security quickly propelled the company to success. By 2016 it was crowned Japan’s first unicorn after exceeding a valuation of $1 billion, firmly establishing itself as a major player in the global resale market.

Yamada's leadership has been central to Mercari's growth. Following Mercari's landmark 2018 IPO on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, he diversified the business beyond its core C2C marketplace to include fintech service Merpay and a B2C marketplace, Mercari Shops. By leveraging AI and other technologies, he has continuously enhanced the e-commerce platform. Mercari now operates in both Japan and the United States. Yamada kick-started the platform’s global expansion plan beyond these two tentpole markets in 2025, starting with Taiwan. Before founding Mercari, Yamada studied mathematics at Waseda University and worked at e-commerce giant Rakuten. He also founded a successful games company, Unoh, which was later acquired by Zynga.