LayerX, a Japanese AI SaaS startup, just raised $100M in a Series B round led by U.S. fund Technology Cross Ventures (TCV). This marks TCV’s first investment in a Japanese startup.
The round pushes LayerX’s total funding to $192.2M, making it one of the largest Series B raises for a seven-year-old Japanese startup. Other backers include MUFG Bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Innovation Partners, JAFCO Group, Keyrock Capital, Coreline Venture, and JP Investment.
LayerX’s flagship product, Bakuraku, automates expense management, invoice processing, and corporate card operations for 15,000+ companies. It also offers Alterna, a retail digital securities platform, and Ai Workforce, a generative AI tool for workflow automation and data utilization. 
Founded in 2018 by Yoshinori Fukushima, a University of Tokyo machine learning alum and serial entrepreneur behind Gunosy, LayerX pivoted from blockchain projects to AI-driven SaaS after spotting Japan’s heavy reliance on paper-based invoice processing.
Fukushima told TechCrunch:
“Despite a wave of digitalization, many Japanese companies still rely on paper and Excel for expense reimbursements and invoice processing.”
LayerX competes domestically with Money Forward Cloud Keihi, freee, and Rakuraku Seisan, and globally with SAP Concur, Rippling, Brex, Ramp, Spendesk, and Airbase. Ai Workforce rivals include Harvey.
Bakuraku stands out with AI-driven features like “auto-entry and document splitting” and boasts a team including over 12 former CTOs and a Kaggle Grandmaster. The platform covers expense management, invoice processing, corporate cards, workflows, e-ledger compliance, attendance, and receivables—all in one.
The startup hit 10,000 customers in Feb 2024 and 15,000 by April 2025. Headcount doubled from 220 in Oct 2023 to around 430 by July 2025.
LayerX is on pace to hit $68M (¥10B) in annual recurring revenue faster than any SaaS company in Japan, beating the previous record of eight years by achieving it in under five. Fukushima said:
“The growth benchmark known as T2D3 was achieved ahead of schedule, and we expect to surpass the previous domestic record, which took eight years from product launch, in under five years.”
Top clients include Mitsui & Co. and MUFG Bank for Ai Workforce, with Bakuraku serving Ippudo, IRIS Ohyama, the Imperial Hotel, and Sekisui Chemical.
LayerX targets $680M (¥100B) annual recurring revenue by FY 2030. Roughly half will come from AI agent business. It plans to grow its team to about 1,000 employees by 2028.
