Tokyo-based AI startup LayerX today announced its Series B round of $100 million with Technology Cross Ventures (TCV). This leads the round, marking its very first investment in any Japanese startup. This funding takes LayerX’s total capital raised to approximately $192.2 million.
AI-Powered Efficiency for Back Office Tasks
LayerX runs Bakuraku. It is an AI SaaS platform that can manage expenses and automate invoicing as well as corporate card workflows. More than 15,000 companies are already using it. Among them are Mitsui and MUFG; Ippudo, IRIS Ohyama, and the Imperial Hotel. Its AI Workforce solution utilises generative AI agents based on enterprise data to reduce knowledge work bottlenecks. It offers Alterna, a digital investment platform co-created with Mitsui & Co.
Why LayerX Matters in Japan’s Digital Transition
Japan is facing ageing demographics and labour shortages, and mandatory e-invoicing starting in 2023. Firms still rely on paper or Excel. Digital transformations succeed only 16% of the time in Japan. It falls to a mere 4-11% in traditional industries. LayerX fixes that with AI-native automation by replacing manual process workflows with smarter workflows. It is like auto-entry and document splitting.
From February 2024, the client base of LayerX leapt from 10,000 to 15,000 by April 2025. In less than two years, the headcount grew from 220 to 430 people employed. The company will beat any other Japanese SaaS competitor to the ¥10 billion ($68M) ARR milestone in under five years. The company set a target of ¥100 billion ($680M) recurring revenue by 2030. About half of it comes from AI agent services. LayerX plans to grow its workforce to 1,000 employees by 2028.
Funding Milestone and Strategy
This $100M Series B is among the largest ever raised at this stage by a seven-year-old Japanese startup. The round includes MUFG Bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Innovation Partners, JAFCO, Keyrock Capital, Coreline Venture, and JP Investment as participants. LayerX will use this investment to further expand AI Capability Compliance Support globally and deepen enterprise integrations.
Competitive Landscape and Edge
In Japan, LayerX is competing against well-known names like Money Forward Cloud Keihi and Rakuraku Seisan. Globally, on the playing field, it competes with international biggies such as SAP Concur, Rippling, Brex, Ramp and Spendesk apart from Airbase in the world of spend automation. What really makes LayerX stand out is its deep support for Japanese accounting standards, tax regulations, and e-Ledgers. These are the issues that international competitors often miss. Their team isn’t your run-of-the-mill lineup, either. They’ve assembled more than a dozen former CTOs, plus a Kaggle Grandmaster, giving their AI a serious edge in real-world business applications.
Bottom Line
LayerX has just taken a large step toward consolidating Japan’s fragmented enterprise software space after the company announced it had raised a 11 billion JPY ($100 million) Series A round. It’s a true testament to how AI can actually rid us of boring corporate tasks. With funds from tier one investors and numbers that make headlines, LayerX’s platform is dealing directly with the digital funding issues facing Japan. And the company is not satisfied with local conquest alone; it is targeting to spearhead a worldwide push toward back-office automation. They have ambitious revenue targets, big hiring plans. Anyone following enterprise tech should be watching LayerX right now. They might just set the new standard for how AI transforms business operations.
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