Circus

What Circus does

Circus (circus株式会社) is a Tokyo-headquartered HRTech company founded in July 2017 by Yabe Takashi, operating a four-product HR platform structured around two pillars: a Data Platform serving HR industry participants and a Human Capital pillar serving individual job seekers. The flagship product, circusAGENT, is a B2B marketplace connecting companies seeking to hire with recruitment agencies; it aggregates 120,000+ job listings accessible to 170,000+ recruitment agent companies and has processed 16,982 annual contracts on behalf of 4,300+ client companies. The platform generates revenue through a performance-based success fee charged only upon successful placement, with no listing or subscription fees for employers; agencies access built-in CRM, candidate management, inter-agency sharing, and revenue-sharing features. The resume creation service 'Totonou Application Documents' (Totonou Oubo Shorui, launched January 2026) extends the offering to job seekers directly with NLP-based resume parsing and AI-generated job summaries.

The company operates a vertically integrated platform architecture combining structured job-listing data, accumulated hiring and screening outcomes, and a LINE messenger integration (over 15,000 friends) for agent-candidate communication. Supporting products include circusHR β (a corporate HR SaaS for enterprise HR departments) and 転職AGENT Navi (a job-seeker-to-career-advisor matching service). Marketing and go-to-market rely on multi-channel distribution including trade event exhibitions (Back Office DXPO in Sapporo and Nagoya 2026), content marketing, PR, and strategic channel partnerships including a manufacturing-focused alliance with Genbato via Yamazen. The company has earned three consecutive ITreview Grid Award Leader designations in the job database category and the SalesNow Growth Award 2025 for SMB performance.

Circus is a privately held, bootstrapped company with ¥29.56M in stated capital and no disclosed external funding rounds or institutional investors. The organization has grown to 171 employees by March 2026, with headquarters in Kyobashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, and has established structured new-graduate hiring starting April 2024 (a second cohort of 11 joined April 2025). Geographic operations remain centered on Japan's Kanto region with recent expansion signals pointing to Hokkaido and Tokai regional markets. Ownership and control appear concentrated with the founder, who is a former recruitment agent by background.

Name

Circus

Legal name

circus株式会社

Website

https://circus-group.jp

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Circus (circus株式会社) is a Tokyo-based HRTech company operating circusAGENT, a B2B recruitment marketplace connecting 4,300+ client companies with 170,000+ recruitment agents, complemented by corporate HR SaaS (circusHR β), a job seeker-agent matching service, and a free AI-assisted resume creation platform.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Recruitment Platform

NAICS

Employment Placement Agencies and Executive Search Services (56131), Employment Placement Agencies (561311)

SIC

Services-Employment Agencies (7361)

akta.pro primary industry

Retail & Consumer Services Direct Hire (BPACAFAM)

Keywords

• Recruitment platform
• HR technology
• Talent acquisition
• Job matching platform
• HR SaaS solutions

Headquarters

HQ city

Tokyo

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. Success Fee / Transaction Fee: Performance-based pricing model where companies pay only when hiring is successful. No listing fees or monthly fees charged to companies.

Pricing tiers

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Circus operates circusAGENT, a B2B recruitment platform connecting companies seeking to hire with recruitment agencies. Companies post job listings for free and reach 170,000+ recruitment agent companies, paying only a success fee upon successful hires. The company also offers circusHR β (corporate HR SaaS), 転職AGENT Navi (job seeker to career advisor matching), and ととのう応募書類 (Totonou Application Documents, a free AI-powered resume creation service for job seekers).

Product overview

Circus offers a multi-product HR tech platform comprising four core services: (1) circusAGENT - a B2B recruitment platform connecting companies with talent agencies through a database of 120,000+ jobs and 1,700+ registered agencies with built-in CRM, sharing functions, and revenue-sharing; (2) circusHR β - corporate HR operations SaaS; (3) 転職AGENT Navi - job seeker to career advisor matching service; and (4) ととのう応募書類 - free resume creation service with AI capabilities. The Data Platform area provides HR DX solutions while Human Capital area focuses on individual career support.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• circusAGENT: Human resources introduction platform (B2B platform connecting companies with employment agencies)
• circusHR β
• 転職AGENT Navi
• ととのう応募書類 (Totonou Application Documents)

Products and services

• circusAGENT A B2B recruitment platform that connects companies with talent agencies. Companies post jobs once and reach 1,700+ agencies for candidate referrals. Agencies access 120,000+ job listings with built-in CRM, candidate management functions, sharing functionality for inter-agency collaboration, and revenue sharing.
• circusHR β

Quantifiable outcome

• 170,000+ recruitment agent companies on platform
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

AI capability4 records

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• ゲンバト (Genbato)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPartnership with Yamazen (山善) for manufacturing companies. Genbato serves as a channel partner connecting recruitment services with manufacturing sector companies.
• ウィルオブ・ワーク (Willof Work)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStrategic partnership in the recruitment/HR services sector
• SpeeeminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with Speee, a digital marketing company
• Open House GroupminorGTM or Marketing PartnerCustomer and marketing partner relationship
• UUUMminorGTM or Marketing PartnerCustomer and marketing partner relationship
• CyberBuzzminorGTM or Marketing PartnerCustomer and marketing partner relationship

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• HRBrain: Japanese HR tech SaaS providing HR database, evaluation, and talent management tools. Comparable as a Japan-focused HR-tech company expanding into adjacent SaaS products from a similar starting point.
• SmartHR: Leading Japanese cloud HR and labor-management SaaS, having expanded into broader HR-tech adjacencies. Relevant peer for Circus's circusHR β HR-SaaS direction and its capital-efficient growth playbook in Japan.
• Eight (Sansan): Japan-based business card and contact database platform by Sansan with a people-search and recruiting data layer. Comparable as a Japan B2B platform that has built a recruitment-relevant data asset on top of professional identity data.

Broad incumbents

• Mynavi: Japan's largest new-graduate recruitment media and broader HR services firm. Especially comparable given Circus's recent expansion into the new-graduate recruitment market.
• Indeed: Global job search engine owned by Recruit. Operates a job-listing and matching platform competing for the same employer budget and candidate attention as circusAGENT, though global rather than Japan-focused.
• en Japan: Major Japanese HR services company operating multiple recruitment platforms and staffing businesses. Competes with Circus for employer hiring spend and recruitment agency partnerships in Japan.
• LinkedIn: Global professional network with recruiting solutions (LinkedIn Recruiter, job listings) used heavily by Japanese employers. Represents the broadest incumbent competitive threat for any B2B recruitment platform.
• Recruit Holdings: Japan's largest HR and recruitment conglomerate (Indeed, Rikunabi, SUUMO-adjacent HR services). Overlaps broadly with Circus across recruitment platforms and HR SaaS, with vastly greater scale and resources.

Direct peers

• BizReach: Japanese direct recruitment and headhunting platform serving employers and job seekers with a database-driven matching model — directly comparable to circusAGENT's employer-to-agent matching business and a clear competitor in Japan's recruitment-platform category.
• Wantedly: Japan-headquartered job-matching platform connecting companies with candidates around mission and culture fit. Comparable as a Japanese recruitment-tech platform with similar employer/candidate matching and a consumer-facing brand.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/circus.inc
• Instagraminstagram.com/circus_group_inc?igsh=cnFuOXhiYWtpaG13&utm_source=qr

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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 Circus