HERP has raised approximately ¥1.9 billion in Series C financing to expand its AI-powered recruiting platform and matching businesses, bringing the Japanese HR technology company’s cumulative funding to approximately ¥3.4 billion. JIC Venture Growth Investments joined as the new lead investor, with existing backer DNX Ventures participating again.
The financing consists of a combination of third-party equity financing and borrowings from financial institutions. Japan Finance Corporation also participated in the funding.
For DNX Ventures, the Series C represents its third investment in HERP following participation in the company’s Series A and Series B rounds.
HERP has developed a multi-product recruiting platform spanning employers, recruitment agencies and job seekers.
Its products include HERP Hire, an applicant tracking and recruiting management system; Jobmill, a platform for recruitment agencies; and HERP Career, a job discovery service for candidates.
HERP Hire and Jobmill have collectively been adopted by more than 4,000 companies, while HERP Career has surpassed 100,000 monthly users.
The company is increasingly positioning its platform around the role AI can play in improving hiring decisions rather than simply automating administrative recruiting tasks.
HERP’s strategy is built around accumulating recruiting context generated through actual hiring processes, including information about candidate evaluations, hiring requirements and decision-making by recruiters, managers and operating teams.
That proprietary context can then be applied to AI-powered job design, candidate recommendations, screening and matching.
HERP AI Recruiter, which applies AI to recruiting workflows, was introduced at more than 200 companies within approximately eight months of its beta launch.
HERP plans to further connect the data accumulated through its applicant tracking system with HERP Career and Jobmill.
The company believes combining recruiting data with AI can improve matching beyond conventional criteria such as qualifications and stated job preferences.
Its technology is intended to identify hiring requirements that employers may not have explicitly recognized while matching candidates based on factors including interests, potential and cultural fit.
Jobmill has also emerged as an important component of HERP’s broader marketplace strategy.
The service was adopted by more than 500 recruitment agencies within roughly a year of its beta release.
HERP designed Jobmill to allow agencies to discover and propose candidates for opportunities beyond their existing direct client relationships, potentially creating matches that would not have occurred through traditional recruiting channels.
HERP Career complements that model on the job-seeker side.
The platform includes approximately 30,000 job listings and provides candidates with information beyond conventional job descriptions, including company funding, growth and perspectives from employees.
HERP has also expanded beyond its original subscription-based software model by incorporating transaction-based revenue tied to successful matches.
The company believes connecting employers, recruitment agencies and candidates through the same ecosystem creates a reinforcing network in which better information can generate better recommendations and additional successful matches.
The Series C will support a substantial expansion of HERP’s organization.
HERP currently employs approximately 100 people and plans to triple its workforce to about 300 by 2029 as it invests in existing products, matching services and additional new businesses.
The financing also comes as generative AI changes both sides of the recruitment market.
Employers increasingly use AI for activities such as screening applicants and generating outreach, while job seekers use AI tools for résumé preparation and interview coaching.
HERP’s strategy is to use AI for efficiency and quality improvements while preserving human decision-making for the parts of recruiting where context and judgment remain important.
DNX said its follow-on investment reflects HERP’s evolution from a recruiting management software provider into a platform connecting companies, recruitment agencies and job seekers.
The investor also highlighted HERP’s accumulated recruiting context as a potential competitive advantage as AI becomes increasingly integrated into hiring workflows.
KEY QUOTE:
“We believe what we should return to you is results. We will devote ourselves to making this funding an opportunity for further leaps.”
Ichiro Shoda, Representative Director Of HERP
