Japanese HR Tech startup Grooves readies regional expansion plan after raising $7.3m

Grooves, a Japanese human resource tech (HR Tech) startup, is gearing up for a regional expansion after closing a $7.3-million funding round.

The round was supported by JIV Venture Growth Fund 1 and existing investor Nanto CVC2 Fund, raising Grooves Inc’s total funds raised to date to $21 million.

Established in Tokyo in 2004, Grooves has 17 years of expertise in the HR tech industry. Its platform enhances the recruitment process for candidates, recruiting agencies, and companies.

The company offers unique recruiting platforms backed up by artificial intelligence and big data to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of clients worldwide. It currently has more than 9,000 listed Japanese corporations within its platform.

Through its own IT engineer career support platform, Forkwell, Grooves Inc aims to champion more global tech talents.

Already used by more than 50,000 users and gaining an additional 30,000 members in just the past year, Forkwell has been offering IT jobs by providing recruitment and career services as well as events and seminars specialized for IT engineers.

Grooves said the latest investment will be used to expand its user base, develop new features, and enhance partnerships with both JIC Venture Growth Investments and Nanto Bank Group.

“As we continue to grow Grooves, we are proud to have brought together the technology, the team, the partners, and a user base of passionate software developers to navigate this new world of remote learning,” said Grooves Inc’s Chief Executive Officer Yukihiro Ikemi.

JIC Venture Growth Investments CEO Hideki Yarimizu said the declining rate of the working population in Japan and the overconcentration of the population in Tokyo are important social issues.

“We are convinced that the creation of further matching of talents with local companies and the speeding up of the recruitment process of regional financial institutions by Grooves will help improve the liquidity of the labour force and solve the shortage of local manpower,” Yarimuzu added.