Japanese artificial intelligence startup LayerX has successfully closed a $100 million Series B funding round, spearheaded by Technology Cross Ventures (TCV). This significant investment aims to bolster the company's efforts in automating critical back-office functions for enterprises, particularly in industrial sectors facing severe labor shortages and efficiency challenges.
The funding arrives as Japan grapples with an aging demographic, persistent labor scarcity, and the 2023 mandate for e-invoicing, all accelerating the need for digital transformation in finance, tax, procurement, and HR. Despite this urgent demand, successful digital overhauls remain rare, especially within traditional industries. LayerX's platform, utilizing AI SaaS (Software as a Service powered by artificial intelligence), directly addresses these bottlenecks by providing cloud-based solutions to streamline administrative tasks.
LayerX's flagship offering, Bakuraku, is an integrated platform designed to automate corporate spending workflows, encompassing expense management, invoice processing, and corporate card operations. This solution has already been adopted by over 15,000 companies, including major industrial players, demonstrating its practical value in reducing manual effort and improving accuracy in high-volume, paper-intensive environments. The platform's rapid adoption underscores a growing demand for AI-native tools that deliver immediate operational improvements.
With a total of $192.2 million raised to date, LayerX is poised for aggressive expansion, targeting $680 million in annual recurring revenue by fiscal year 2030, with a significant portion expected from its AI agent business. The company's swift growth, outpacing historical Japanese SaaS benchmarks, signals a broader industry shift towards intelligent automation as a strategic imperative for operational resilience and competitiveness.
