LayerX Raises $100M Series B to Automate Japan Enterprise Back-Office

LayerX, a Tokyo-based AI SaaS startup founded in 2018 by serial entrepreneur Yoshinori Fukushima, recently raised $100 million in a Series B funding round led by U.S. fund Technology Cross Ventures (TCV), marking TCV's first investment in a Japanese startup. This funding round is among the largest ever for a seven-year-old Japanese startup at this stage, bringing LayerX's total capital raised to $192.2 million with participation from notable investors such as MUFG Bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Innovation Partners, and JAFCO Group. LayerX specializes in automating back-office enterprise tasks including finance, tax, procurement, and HR workflows through key products like Bakuraku, which manages corporate spending for over 15,000 companies; Alterna, a digital securities investment platform; and Ai Workforce, a generative AI tool designed to optimize workflows and use enterprise data effectively. The push for automation in Japan is driven by aging demographics, labor shortages, the rise of generative AI, and the 2023 rollout of e-invoicing, although only a small fraction of digital transformation efforts in Japanese firms succeed due to leadership, cultural, and skill-related challenges. LayerX aims to address inefficiencies such as paper-based invoice processing, helping companies overcome these barriers and scale automation to improve operational efficiency and innovation.