Japanese Internet Giant Recruit Comes With A New $25M Blockchain Fund

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Japanese Internet Giant Recruit Comes With A New $25M Blockchain Fund

Where Is Recruit Valued At?

Even though cryptocurrency market prices may be down significantly, new investors continue to make their entry into the blockchain space. With $45 billion, the Japanese internet giant Recruit Holdings that owns Glassdoor among others quietly launched a $25 million fund.  

Based out of Singapore, and closed in November 2018, the existence was made public following the announcement of the maiden deal, which was an undisclosed investment in Beam. Being very vocal about its intention to offer a cryptocurrency fund, equity investments were made in blockchain companies through the central corporate fund, Recruit Strategic Partners which is currently $100 million and the company’s sixth.
 
More On Recruit And The Crypto Fund.

As with the crypto fund, Recruit is free to do deals in both tokens and equity generally diving deeper into the blockchain. With an equity fund that was not flexible, it wasn’t in a position to buy tokens and assets. They are planning to continue two vehicles crypto funds as well as RSP funds in tandem as needed.

While all’s well, the bubble popped as the number of ICO though is down but not quite out. With changing dynamics, the token sales though almost universally conducted privately rather than publicly was for full-time investors and professionals rather than anyone. 

With a lot of ICOs, the number is smaller but with a good amount of deal flow for token and equity raising with a positive outlook being a strong believer in blockchain and decentralized technology. Apart from direct investments the fund also invests in other funds as an LP helping spread the reach.

With the broad investment area, offering deep tech to the application layer too, continuing research to understand core technology and the potential is necessary. Being extremely cautious in spending the fund, they are seeking companies with a real impact on the society contributing as Recruit. 

Even though Recruit came on the radar for many in the U.S with its acquisition of Glassdoor for $1.2 billion, it is already a major name in the digital space in Japan according to a recent Bloomberg profile story explained in some detail. 

 
The U.S. Job Hunting Service Glassdoor Sold To Japan’s Recruit For $1.2 Billion

As it comes as best known for providing insight into the company working cultures the U.S job-hunting service, Glassdoor has been acquired for $1.2 billion in cash by Recruit, a $39 billion Japanese corporate specializing in HR and recruitment services. Glassdoor continues to maintain the brand even after an all-cash acquisition. 

Raising a total of just over $200 million from the investors, Glassdoor has hit the bar with the most recent round of $40 million series H. Glassdoor had a valuation of around $1 billion, with the last investment. In terms of growth, the last couple of years never was so spectacular with the huge amount of more than what Recruit is paying. For those backers, this deal looks like a win especially for earlier-stage investors mainly Benchmark and Battery Ventures.

With 59 million people using Glassdoor each month, many of them are coming to the service to read about how companies are rated by the people who work or worked there. Glassdoor is headquartered in the U.S, has a database on more than 770,000 companies widespread across 190 countries worldwide including even those 40 million reviews covering the company culture, CEO ratings, salary information and more. The revenue of Glassdoor comes from recruitment services, claiming some 7000 employees and 40 percent of Fortune 500.

 
A Short History Of Recruit

Even if the Recruit was not a well-known name in the U.S., this Japanese firm comes huge with a history of the purchaser of overseas businesses. Founded in 1960, it is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange with 45,000 employees across 60 countries valued at more than $45 billion.

With core services being recruitment and HR, it also operates in real estate, travel, dining, and other segments. It comes with a history of acquisitions including the U.S based Indeed.com, Simply Hired, as well as European services like restaurant site Quandoo, hair and beauty service Wahanda, and education technology company Quipper.  

 Even though it is not anticipated that Recruit acquires blockchain companies that fund invests as it is still early days for the technology in terms of development, adoption, and monetization, Recruit is determined to keep an eye on developments ensuring potentially significant innovation is not missed out. 

 
To Conclude 

Recruit comes as the only corporate that starts a crypto token fund. Along with this is Line, a Japanese company best known for messaging app that launched a $10 million crypto fund last year, and also the Korean rival Kakao has a blockchain consultancy actively doing deals. Here, Kakao made the first blockchain investment when it backed Israeli based Orbs in an undisclosed deal.