HANOWA

What HANOWA does

HANOWA (ハノワ) is a Japanese two-sided marketplace platform that matches dental clinics with licensed dental professionals — primarily dental hygienists, but also dental assistants, dentists, and dental technicians — seeking flexible, part-time, or spot work. Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Osaka, the company operates a mobile-first platform (iOS and Android apps plus a web portal at app.hanowa.net) covering all 47 Japanese prefectures, with no upfront cost for dental professionals and a clinic-side, transaction-based revenue model.

The platform is built around four interlocking products: a real-time matching engine connecting clinics and professionals based on location, schedule, and preferences; the Arigatou (アリガトウ) mutual review system that exchanges post-job feedback between both parties to inform future matching; the Trial Matching (お試しマッチング) feature enabling short trial work sessions before formal engagement; and the Omedetou (オメデトウ制度) conversion system allowing clinics to convert successful spot workers into permanent or part-time hires for a flat 330,000 JPY fee, with a 1 million JPY penalty for direct off-platform hiring.

HANOWA monetizes via a 30% take-rate commission on wages paid during spot assignments (acting as employer-of-record) and the flat 330,000 JPY direct-hire conversion fee. As of mid-2023, the platform had 6,600+ registered dental professionals and 2,500+ registered dental clinics, with 20,000+ cumulative matches. The company has raised over 200 million JPY across three funding rounds (April 2021, May 2023, and a prior undisclosed round), with the May 2023 round supporting the engineering build-out and nationwide geographic expansion. Distribution is fully self-serve digital with no sales force, complemented by an extensive content-marketing program including two blogs, a monthly newsletter, weekly podcasts, and social media channels.

Name

HANOWA

Legal name

株式会社HANOWA

Website

https://hanowa.net

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

HANOWA is a Japanese mobile-first marketplace that matches dental clinics with dental hygienists, assistants, dentists, and technicians seeking flexible or spot work. The Osaka-based platform operates nationwide across all 47 prefectures, charging clinics a 30% commission and a flat fee for permanent-hire conversion.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Dental Staffing Marketplace

NAICS

Employment Placement Agencies (561311), Temporary Help Services (561320)

SIC

Services-Employment Agencies (7361)

akta.pro primary industry

Office & Administrative Temp Staffing (BPACACAA)

Keywords

• Dental staffing marketplace
• Healthcare workforce sharing
• Spot staffing platform
• Dental professional matching
• Flexible healthcare hiring

Headquarters

HQ city

Osaka

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Spot matching commission (ハノワ勤務): HANOWA charges dental clinics a 30% success fee on the wage paid to the matched dental professional for each spot/short-term assignment. Payment is processed by HANOWA, which collects from the clinic and remits to the worker minus the commission.
2. オメデトウ制度 (Permanent hire conversion): A flat fee of 330,000 JPY (tax included) is charged to the dental clinic when they directly hire (full-time or part-time) a dental professional they originally met through the HANOWA platform. This replaces the need for a traditional recruitment agency fee.
3. Employer-of-record / payroll handling: HANOWA acts as the employer of record for spot assignments, collecting total cost (wage + transportation + commission + bank transfer fees) from clinics at month-end and remitting net pay to workers, taking the commission as revenue.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

HANOWA runs a mobile and web-based two-sided marketplace that matches dental clinics in need of temporary or supplemental staff with licensed dental professionals (dental hygienists, dental assistants, dentists, and dental technicians) seeking flexible spot or part-time work across Japan's 47 prefectures. The platform handles matching, scheduling, messaging, mutual post-job reviews (Arigatou), and acts as employer-of-record, collecting payments from clinics and remitting wages to workers minus a 30% commission. A separate permanent-hire conversion pathway (Omedetou) lets clinics convert successful matches into regular staff for a flat 330,000 JPY fee.

Product overview

HANOWA (ハノワ) is a dental healthcare human resources sharing platform and mobile application that operates as a matching service connecting dental professionals (dental hygienists, dental assistants, dentists, dental technicians) with dental clinics across all 47 prefectures of Japan. The platform's core offering is the matching platform itself, supplemented by the オメデトウ制度 (Omedetou System) for direct-hire conversion after spot work, the お試しマッチング (Trial Matching) feature for pre-engagement compatibility assessment, and the アリガトウ mutual review system for building trust and accountability between parties. The platform functions as a job board, messaging system, scheduling calendar, and payment intermediary for dental clinic staffing needs.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• オメデトウ制度: A system that allows dental clinics to directly hire partners (dental hygienists, assistants, etc.) who they met through HANOWA, for regular or part-time positions. The fee is 330,000 JPY (tax included).

Products and services

• HANOWA (ハノワ) Core Matching Platform Mobile (iOS/Android) and web-based two-sided marketplace that matches dental clinics with licensed dental professionals — dental hygienists, dental assistants, dentists, and dental technicians — for spot and short-term work across all 47 prefectures of Japan. Includes in-app messaging, scheduling calendar, payment processing, and mutual post-job reviews; acts as employer-of-record. Free for dental professionals; clinics pay a 30% commission per assignment.
• オメデトウ制度 (Omedetou Permanent-Hire Conversion System) Formal pathway that lets a dental clinic hire (full-time or part-time) a dental professional originally met through the HANOWA spot platform. HANOWA handles the application form and provides contract support; fee is a flat 330,000 JPY (tax-inclusive).
• お試しマッチング (Trial Matching) Short-duration (e.g., 30-minute to half-day) initial work session before a formal engagement, allowing both clinics and dental professionals to assess fit. Paid at the standard hourly rate and counts as a regular work session.
• アリガトウ (Arigatou Mutual Review System) Mutual thank-you review system where both the dental clinic and the dental professional exchange post-job reviews. Reviews are publicly visible on user profiles and serve as a quality signal and reference for future matching decisions.

Quantifiable outcome

• 20,000+ cumulative matches achieved by June 2023
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers13 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• AsobiConnection: Japanese gig-style staffing platform for hospitality and service industries; comparable business model to HANOWA (mobile-first matching, employer-of-record, transaction-fee monetization) though focused on hospitality rather than dental.
• Sharefull (シェアフル): Japanese 'working short hours' (shigoto haburashi) platform matching workers with short-hour jobs across multiple verticals; operates the same spot-work, employer-of-record, take-rate model as HANOWA but is horizontal rather than dental-specialized.

Broad incumbents

• M3 Career (JobMedley / ジョブメドレー): Japan's largest healthcare job-matching platform operated by M3, connecting medical, nursing, care, and dental professionals to facilities; comparable on the healthcare-job-board model but broader than HANOWA's dental specialization.
• Quick (クイック): Established Japanese staffing and recruitment agency with healthcare and dental vertical exposure; comparable generalist staffing model though primarily permanent placement rather than platform-based spot matching.
• Timee (タイミー): Leading Japanese spot-work/gig platform with large marketplace scale across service, retail, and hospitality; uses the same user-paid-service-fee model as HANOWA but lacks dental specialization.
• ShiftKey: Large US healthcare staffing marketplace allowing healthcare professionals to find shifts and facilities to fill needs; same self-serve marketplace and per-shift matching model as HANOWA but broader and US-focused.

Emerging players

• Trusted Health: US-based healthcare workforce platform that placed clinicians during COVID-19; comparable marketplace model for healthcare professionals with shift-based matching though focused on nursing rather than dental.
• Clipboard Health: US marketplace connecting healthcare facilities with per-shift nurses and aides; highly comparable mobile-first, transaction-fee, employer-of-record model to HANOWA though operating in nursing rather than dental and in the US rather than Japan.
• Vivian Health: US healthcare hiring marketplace for clinicians; analogous job-matching-and-placement marketplace model to HANOWA though operating across nursing and allied health in the US.
• CrowdCare Japan (Medipal): Japanese crowdsourced healthcare worker marketplace by Medipal Holdings; overlaps with HANOWA's employer-of-record, marketplace, and spot-matching model but focuses more on pharmacists/nurses than dental hygienists.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/HANOWA_dental
• Facebookfacebook.com/Hanowa-536012326845971
• Instagraminstagram.com/hanowa.me

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors4 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about HANOWA