Japan’s Recruit Holdings Looking to Tap Israeli Startups With New Fund

Recruit Strategic Partners (RSP), the venture capital subsidiary of Tokyo-headquartered human resources and media services company Recruit Holdings Co. Ltd., is looking to tap Israeli startups with a new $100 million fund that will focus on Israel, the U.S., and India.

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Recruit’s decision to expand its investments in Israel is part of its digital asset-focused business strategy, and comes about due to Israel’s innovation and development-heavy ecosystem, RSP’s vice president Tanaka Yuki told Calcalist. Recruit could also help Israeli companies penetrate the Japanese market, he added.

Tokyo-listed Recruit has a market capitalization of almost $50 billion. Among its notable acquisitions is employer and workplace review website Glassdoor, which it acquired in 2018 for $1.2 billion, and employment-related search engine Indeed.com, for which it paid $1 billion in 2012.

The company has made several previous investments in Israel, the latest, in May, an undisclosed sum in cryptocurrency startup COTI Ltd., through Recruit's blockchain-dedicated fund.

With the new fund, the company is looking to invest in Israeli companies in the domains of fintech, blockchain, machine learning, virtual reality, and big data, to the tune of 10 new investments a year.

Tanaka is set to arrive in Israel soon to scout for investment opportunities.

This article has been amended to reflect the correct scope of the fund.