SIFR

What SIFR does

SIFR (シフル株式会社) is a privately held Japanese software development and IT staffing company founded in June 1980 and headquartered in Taito-ku, Tokyo. The company operates two primary revenue streams: a registered worker-dispatch (労働者派遣) staffing business that places its own engineers at client sites in the Tokyo metropolitan area, and a custom application development business delivering investigation, design, development, and maintenance of business applications plus network management. Its services span mainframe-based legacy systems, client/server architectures, intranet construction, and PC package software, with a stated strategic transition from mainframe-centric operations toward web-oriented development.

The company serves enterprise clients concentrated in Japanese financial services, including trust banks, city banks, securities firms, and life and non-life insurance companies, alongside manufacturing, food and beverage, advertising, leasing, cosmetics, and IT services clients. Named major clients include CAC, NEC Networks & System Integration, Bitel Hikuma, Joho Gijutsu Center, Crosstech, and Agilet. Pricing on the dispatch side is usage-based: the company bills clients 36,522 JPY per 8-hour engineer-day and pays dispatched workers 22,337 JPY per day, yielding a 38.8% margin rate as of April 2024. Direct-hire monthly salary bands range from 190,000 JPY for new graduates and inexperienced hires to 380,000 JPY for experienced mid-career engineers.

SIFR is owner-operated by Representative Director and founder Masahiro Kawaguchi (川口雅博), with no disclosed external investors, parent company, or subsidiaries beyond a related entity, Apairo Corporation. The firm operates a traditional sales-led go-to-market model with direct client engagement, supported by a company website and recruitment pages. With 29 disclosed employees and approximately 280M JPY (~$1.9M USD) in reported revenue, SIFR is a small-scale firm whose compliance posture was refreshed in 2024 with the IPA SECURITY ACTION Two-Star declaration following the cancellation of its ISMS certification in December 2021.

Name

SIFR

Legal name

シフル株式会社 (sifr Corporation)

Website

https://sifr.co.jp

Company type

Private

Founded year

1980

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

SIFR (シフル株式会社) is a Tokyo-based, privately held Japanese software development and IT staffing firm founded in 1980. It serves enterprise clients in financial services, manufacturing, and consumer goods via worker dispatch, legacy system development, intranet construction, and network management.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Tokyo

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. IT Staffing / Worker Dispatch: The company operates as a registered worker dispatch (労働者派遣) provider, placing its own engineers with client companies. Revenue is generated through the spread between the daily client billing rate (36,522 JPY per day per person for an 8-hour day) and the daily wage paid to dispatched workers (22,337 JPY), yielding a margin rate of 38.8%.
2. Custom Application Development: SIFR also generates revenue through bespoke software development, including investigation and analysis, design, development, and maintenance of business applications, as well as network management services. This is a project-based revenue stream.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels1 record

Core offering

SIFR is a Japanese IT services company that performs custom software development and IT engineer dispatch (worker dispatch) for client firms. It designs, develops, and maintains mainframe-based, client/server, web-based, and intranet business applications for financial institutions (trust banks, city banks, securities firms, life/non-life insurers) and manufacturing, food, advertising, leasing, and cosmetics companies. The company also dispatches its own engineers to client sites under Japan's worker dispatch framework and provides ongoing network management.

Product overview

SIFR is a software development company offering a portfolio of system construction and application development services. The core offerings include mainframe-based systems (汎用系システム構築), client/server systems (クライアント／サーバーシステム), intranet construction (イントラネット構築), and PC package software (パソコン用パッケージソフト). These are complemented by custom application development (アプリケーション受託開発) and network management (ネットワーク管理) services. The company serves various industries including banking, securities, insurance, food, manufacturing, advertising, and cosmetics sectors. The company is transitioning from mainframe-centered to web-based development as part of its technology shift strategy.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• IT Engineer Dispatch Services (IT労働者派遣) Registered worker dispatch service placing SIFR's own engineers at client sites in Tokyo and surrounding areas for project-based IT work. Engineers include programmers, systems engineers, infrastructure engineers, and network engineers.
• Custom Application Development (アプリケーション受託開発) End-to-end custom software development service covering investigation, analysis, design, development, and maintenance of business applications for client companies. Delivered for enterprises across financial services, manufacturing, food, advertising, leasing, and cosmetics industries.
• Mainframe System Development (汎用系システム構築) Mainframe-based system development for financial sector clients, including pension systems for trust banks, loan business systems for city banks, stock reform transfer systems for securities companies, customer management systems for life insurers, and expiration renewal systems for fire insurance.
• Client/Server System Development (クライアント／サーバーシステム)

Named customers16 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• 株式会社アペイロ (Apairo Corporation)minorOthersアペイロ is listed as a related company (関連会社) of SIFR. No further details about the nature of the relationship are provided in the available sources.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• BIPROGY (formerly UNISYS Japan): Major Japanese system integrator with deep financial-services and mainframe heritage; overlaps with SIFR's legacy modernization work but operates at significantly larger scale as a broad incumbent.
• Nomura Research Institute (NRI): Premier Japanese IT solutions and consulting firm with dominant positions in securities, banking, and insurance systems — the same verticals where SIFR delivers projects — but with vastly greater scale and proprietary offerings.
• CAC Holdings: Established Japanese IT services company focused on financial-sector systems; broader and more diversified than SIFR, and notably also appears on SIFR's disclosed client list as a partner relationship.
• Recruit Holdings: Largest Japanese staffing/HR conglomerate with IT staffing and engineer dispatch operations; overlaps with SIFR's worker dispatch model but as part of a much broader staffing, media, and HR-tech portfolio.

Direct peers

• TechnoPro Holdings: Japan's largest pure-play IT engineer staffing and solutions provider; directly competes with SIFR in dispatch and project-based IT services, particularly with financial and manufacturing clients.
• UT Group: Japanese staffing group with significant IT engineer dispatch operations; competes for the same Tokyo-based IT engineer pool as SIFR and serves overlapping manufacturing and IT vertical clients.
• Persol Holdings: One of Japan's largest staffing firms (parent of Persol Technology Staff), operating engineer-dispatch and IT services businesses directly comparable to SIFR's worker-dispatch and custom-development model, but at vastly larger scale.
• Otsuka Corporation: Listed Japanese IT services and staffing firm providing system development, dispatch, and multi-vendor solutions; overlaps with SIFR's core offerings across mid-market enterprise clients in Japan.
• Future Corporation: Tokyo-based independent IT consulting and systems integration firm offering custom application development and staffing services similar to SIFR, particularly in financial services and enterprise verticals.

Regional players

• WDB Holdings: Japan-listed staffing firm with a focus on science- and engineering-related temporary staffing; a smaller-scale, specialized comparator whose dispatch and project-based model parallels SIFR's engineer-placement business.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

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 SIFR