Japan-headquartered management recruitment firm Matching Service Japan (MS-Japan) has partnered investment adviser Hayate Investment to form a ¥2bn ($19.3m) corporate venture capital vehicle dubbed MS Hayate Fund I.
The fund will have a seven-year investment period, extendable by two years. It will operate on a sector-agnostic basis, according to The Bridge, unlike peers HRTech Fund, Persol Innovation Fund and Temp Innovation Fund, which represent human resources firms Will Group, Persol Holdings and Temp Holdings respectively and which mainly target HR technology developers.
Founded in 1990, MS-Japan’s core business is MS Agent, a specialised recruitment platform that hires accounting, finance, staffing, legal and business planning professionals on behalf of its corporate clients. In addition, it runs direct recruiting service MS Jobs and business media portal Manegy.
MS-Japan has already conducted corporate venturing deals, having backed Kiyo Learning, a professional training platform provider that went public in October last year, and taken part in an $11.8m round for mental health assessment service LaFool in December 2020.
