LayerX, a Japanese AI SaaS startup that helps businesses reduce back-office work, has raised $100 million in a Series B round led by U.S.-based Technology Cross Ventures (TCV). This is TCV’s first investment in a Japanese startup.
The company did not reveal its valuation but said both the funding size and valuation are among the largest ever for a seven-year-old Japanese startup at the Series B stage. Other investors, including MUFG Bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Innovation Partners, JAFCO Group, Keyrock Capital, Coreline Venture, and JP Investment, also joined the round. With this, LayerX has raised a total of $192.2 million so far.
LayerX offers three main products:
Bakuraku – a platform that automates corporate spending tasks like expense management, invoice processing, and corporate card operations, already used by over 15,000 companies.
Alterna – a retail digital securities investment platform built with Mitsui & Co.
Ai Workforce – a generative AI tool that streamlines workflows and uses enterprise data effectively.
The startup was founded in 2018 by Yoshinori Fukushima, a serial entrepreneur who studied machine learning at the University of Tokyo. He had earlier launched the news app Gunosy, which later got listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. LayerX grew out of one of his digital transformation and blockchain projects.
LayerX was founded by Yoshinori Fukushima, who noticed a significant problem in Japanese companies, they were still relying on paper-based invoice processing. To address this the team shifted its focus to building SaaS solutions and developed its AI-powered platform, Bakuraku.
Fukushima told TechCrunch that Bakuraku’s AI-first user experience quickly became popular, helping LayerX form key partnerships with companies like MUFG (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group). These successes also set the stage for the company’s latest funding round.
The CEO explained that even with digitalization, many Japanese companies still use paper and Excel for handling expense claims and invoice processing. In Japan, LayerX competes with platforms like Money Forward Cloud Keihi, freee, and Rakuraku Seisan. On the global stage, its competitors include SAP Concur, Rippling, Brex, Ramp, Spendesk, and Airbase. For its AI Workforce product, the startup also faces competition from Harvey, Fukushima added.
Bakuraku differentiates itself with an AI-driven user experience. The company continuously upgrades automation features like “auto-entry and document splitting”, while also investing in AI agents and AI-enabled business processing outsourcing (BPO). Its team includes “more than 12 former CTOs and a Kaggle Grandmaster.” Bakuraku offers a comprehensive, integrated platform covering “expense management, invoice processing, corporate cards, workflows, e-ledger compliance, attendance, and receivables—all in one solution,” Fukushima added.
The startup has closed its Series B funding less than two years after securing its Series A in November 2023. Its signature platform, the Bakuraku Suite, has seen significant growth, the seven-year-old company said.
“We passed 10,000 customers in February 2024 and reached 15,000 by April 2025, with more enterprise clients coming on board,” the CEO said. “Headcount has also grown from about 220 employees in October 2023 to around 430 as of the end of July 2025.”
LayerX says it is on track to reach $68 million (¥10 billion) in revenue faster than any SaaS company in Japan’s history. Founder Yoshinori Fukushima explained that the company hit the T2D3 growth benchmark earlier than expected and aims to break the previous domestic record—eight years from product launch—in less than five years.
The company’s Ai Workforce product already serves major clients like Mitsui & Co. and MUFG Bank, while its Bakuraku platform is used by well-known names such as Ippudo, IRIS Ohyama, the Imperial Hotel, and Sekisui Chemical.
Looking ahead, LayerX aims to reach about $680 million (¥100 billion) in annual recurring revenue by 2030, with nearly half of that expected from its AI agent business. It also plans to expand its team to around 1,000 employees by 2028.
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