Japan based HR automation service SmartHR raised a $4.9m Series A, led by World Innovation Lab (WiL) with Beenext and 500 Startups Japan participating.
SmartHR helps automate employee benefit and insurance programs. Four years ago the founder and CEO Shoji Miyata was wheelchair bound with a rare disease. Thanks to national health insurance he was able to make a full recovery, but he realized that filing the appropriate paperwork is a nightmare. Since launching last November with 200 trial members, SmartHR has bloomed to over 1,700 companies. It won the TechCrunch Tokyo pitch the month of its release and opened an API to other cloud services in May. The API also is available for internal HR systems.
https://www.techinasia.com/smarthr-zenefits-japan-funding-5m