Japanese AI SaaS Startup LayerX Raises $100 Million In Series B

LayerX, a Tokyo-based startup that helps companies automate their workflow with AI, said on Tuesday it has raised ¥15 billion (about $100 million) in a funding round led by Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), a U.S. venture capital firm whose portfolio includes Airbnb, ByteDance and Facebook.

The Series B round also drew participation from investors including Japanese banking giant Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and local venture capital firm Jafco Group, as well as California-based Coreline Ventures, founded by former partners at DCM Ventures, according to LayerX in a statement.

The seven-year-old startup developed AI-powered software that helps businesses streamline their bookkeeping process, including invoice processing, expense reimbursements and corporate card management. LayerX also created an AI tool that helps enterprises automate document-heavy workflows, such as extracting data from PDFs and turning it into a searchable database. Its other offerings include an investment platform on tokenized real estate, which it jointly developed with Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co.

“LayerX is transforming how enterprises manage financial operations in Japan,” said Michael Kalfayan, general partner at TCV, in the statement. “Their AI-native platform not only drastically reduces manual overhead, but also delivers remarkable transparency, speed, and compliance for finance teams.” LayerX said it will use the proceeds to expand its team of engineers and sales.

The startup was founded in 2018 by serial entrepreneur Yoshinori Fukushima. Prior to LayerX, Fukushima founded news aggregator app Gunosy in 2012 and took the company public in Japan in 2015. He was featured on the 30 Under 30 Asia list in 2016 for his Gunosy venture.

LayerX’s last fundraising was in 2023, when it raised about ¥10 billion in a Series A round from investors including Mitsubishi UFJ Innovation Partners and Mizuho Capital. It’s among the Japanese companies driving digital transformation of industries that are traditionally paper-heavy and slow to adopt AI.

Others include Tokyo and San Francisco-based LegalOn Technologies, which uses AI to speed up contract review. The legal tech startup in July secured $50 million in a funding round led by the growth equity team at Goldman Sachs Alternatives.

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