This month’s roundup covers the latest innovations and developments from Japan’s SaaS industry including a major growth equity investment in HR tech, the launch of a national digital asset infrastructure and new funding for AI-powered voice agents. 

SmartHR Secures ¥14.6b from General Atlantic

SmartHR News reported (in Japanese) that SmartHR, Japan’s leading cloud-native human resources management platform, has received a strategic minority investment of about ¥14.6 billion ($96 million) from General Atlantic. Announced on November 18, this marks General Atlantic’s first growth equity investment in Japan.

The global growth equity firm acquired its stake from Coral Capital, an early investor that will remain a minority shareholder. SmartHR plans to leverage General Atlantic’s global expertise in scaling HR software businesses to accelerate new product development, engage in strategic M&A and enhance its go-to-market strategy. This partnership aims to further digitize Japan’s labor management sector, where cloud adoption is still in its growth phase compared to global standards.

IVRy Raises ¥4b in Series D

PR Times reported (in Japanese) that IVRy Inc., the provider of the AI-powered voice communication SaaS IVRy, has raised ¥4 billion in a Series D funding round. The round, announced on November 6, brings the company’s total funding to more than ¥10 billion.

The fresh capital will be used to strengthen the company’s enterprise capabilities and expand its IVRy Data Hub, a new data platform launched simultaneously with the funding news. The Data Hub utilizes AI to analyze unstructured voice data from telephone interactions, converting it into actionable business insights for risk detection and operational efficiency. IVRy aims to solve Japan’s labor shortage by automating telephone operations across 47 prefectures and more than 97 industries.

Progmat and NTT Data Launch Progmat SaaS

NTT Data News reported (in Japanese) that Progmat, Inc., in collaboration with NTT Data and SBI R3 Japan, officially launched Progmat SaaS on November 1. This new platform is designed to serve as a “national infrastructure” for the issuance and management of digital assets, including security tokens (ST) and stablecoins (SC).

By offering the Progmat infrastructure as a SaaS solution, the company enables financial institutions and intermediaries to enter the digital asset market without the heavy burden of building and maintaining their own blockchain nodes. The service allows for the easy implementation of digital asset businesses—such as custody and ledger management—via API linkage or a web-based UI, significantly lowering the barrier to entry for regional banks and securities firms.

INDX Raises ¥100m in Seed Round

The SaaS News reported that INDX, a Tokyo-based startup specializing in unstructured data processing, has secured ¥100 million in a Seed funding round. The investment was backed by Incubate Fund, East Ventures and the Japan Finance Corporation.

INDX is developing the INDX Engine, a platform that utilizes Generative AI to organize and analyze unstructured data—such as documents, images and videos—that enterprises often struggle to utilize. The fresh capital will be deployed to accelerate the R&D of their proprietary engine and expand sales channels, helping Japanese companies unlock the hidden value of their internal data assets to drive digital transformation.