Welcome to another episode of The Coral Capital Podcast, a show about startups, technology, and venture capital with a focus on Japan and Asia broadly.

In this episode, we chat with Takafumi Kurahashi, COO at SmartHR. SmartHR is the leading HR SaaS company in Japan. In 2021 they closed a JPY 15.6 billion (~$142.5 million) Series D, most of which was committed from global investors including Light Street Capital, Sequoia Capital Global Equities, Whale Rock, and other global institutional investors. The round valued the company at JPY 170 billion (~$1.6 billion).

In this episode we discuss:

• What it was like to join small Japanese startup 5 years ago and scale at T2D3 speed
• What foreign investors don’t realize about the Japanese startup ecosystem
• The culture and management styles that got them here
• Why $1B ARR is on the horizon

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Disclaimer: The content of this podcast is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument. The views and opinions expressed are provided for general information purposes only.