HERP

HERP Inc. is a Japanese HR technology firm founded in March 2017 by CEO Ichiro Shoda and Director Ryo Tokunaga. Shoda's background includes roles in sales and engineer recruiting at Recruit Holdings, followed by a position as head of recruiting at Eureka, Inc. Tokunaga previously worked at a consulting firm, specializing in user experience for large corporations. The company name is an acronym for "Human Recruiting Platform" and also reflects a desire to "HELP" recruiters. The firm operates a multi-product platform designed to streamline and improve the recruitment process for employers, agencies, and job seekers. Its core business model combines recurring subscription revenue from its SaaS products with a success-fee-based model for successful talent placements. The company's flagship product is HERP Hire, an AI-powered applicant tracking system (ATS) that supports a collaborative approach to hiring called "scrum recruiting," which involves various team members in the process. The system automates the aggregation of applications from over 30 job boards, integrates with communication tools like Slack and Chatwork for real-time updates, and provides data analytics to improve decision-making. More than 4,000 companies have adopted HERP's products. HERP's suite of services extends beyond the ATS. It includes HERP AI Recruiter, which assists with screening, interview transcription, and candidate communication. Other products are HERP Career, a job portal for startup roles with over 100,000 monthly users; Jobmill, a platform for recruitment agencies; HERP Nurture, a talent pool management system; and HERP Trust, an online reference check tool. The company also offers recruitment consulting services. As of August 2026, HERP has raised a cumulative total of approximately ¥3.4 billion. A recent Series C funding round brought in ¥1.9 billion, led by JIC Venture Growth Investments with participation from existing investor DNX Ventures and Japan Finance Corporation. The company plans to use the capital to expand its team from around 100 employees to 300 by 2029 and to enhance its AI-driven matching capabilities by leveraging the data collected across its platform. Keywords: HRTech, applicant tracking system, ATS, recruitment management, SaaS, scrum recruiting, AI recruiting, talent acquisition, HERP Hire, recruiting platform, digital talent recruitment, talent pool management, reference check, recruitment consulting, candidate sourcing, HR software, Japan, Jobmill, HERP Career