Domestic venture capital (VC) LB Investment has begun to actively invest in Japanese startups.
On the 3rd, LB Investment announced that it had invested in 'PAINDI,' a company operating a human resources (HR) platform for software engineers in Japan. They participated as a financial investor (FI) in a series D funding raising totaling 2.05 billion yen (approximately 19.36 billion won).
This marks LB Investment's first investment in a Japanese startup, with participation from major Japanese investors including Japan Post Investment (JP), SMBC Venture Capital, Carbide Ventures from the U.S., and Darwin Ventures from Taiwan.
PAINDI has secured over 200,000 software and AI engineers in Japan through its software (SW) and artificial intelligence (AI) engineer recruitment platforms, 'PAINDI Career,' and its freelance engineer matching service, 'PAINDI Freelance.'
Currently, it is reported that over 3,000 corporations, from startups to large enterprises in Japan, are utilizing PAINDI for engineer recruitment. Healing Paper, which operates Gangnam Unnie, and Lemonbase, which provides HR SaaS for organizational management, are also clients of PAINDI.
PAINDI plans to use the funds raised from this investment to enhance the PAINDI platform. They have also set a goal to expand into the markets of Korea, Taiwan, and India, aiming to secure over 1,600 clients in the Asia region by 2028.
Park Gi-ho, representative of LB Investment, said, "I highly valued that PAINDI is already a highly competitive company in the Japanese market," adding, "This investment will serve as an opportunity to expand investments in Japan and globally."