What iRec does

iRec (アイレック), operated by アイレック株式会社 (iRec, Inc.), is a Tokyo-headquartered, privately held Japanese SaaS company that has operated a no-code recruitment website platform since 2014. The product enables companies — primarily small and medium-sized Japanese employers — to build, publish, and operate branded recruitment sites using pre-built 'job-seeker-first' templates, a dashboard-style CMS that requires no HTML or technical expertise, and a centralized applicant management workflow. The company's core technology differentiator is native, built-in auto-distribution of job postings to the dominant Japanese job discovery surfaces — Indeed, 求人ボックス, スタンバイ, キャリアジェット, and Googleしごと検索 — so a single publish reaches the major candidate channels. In April 2026, iRec added an AI対応サポートチャット (AI support chat) feature that uses a generative-AI conversational assistant to answer candidate questions and guide applications on customer recruitment sites.

iRec's business model is a B2B SaaS subscription billed annually, with pricing scaled to recruitment-site size and feature tier. Specific prices are not publicly disclosed, but the platform is positioned as a low-cost alternative to custom agency-built recruitment sites (cited baseline: ~¥3M and 6 months for custom builds). As a registered IT導入支援事業者 under Japan's IT導入補助金 program, eligible SMB customers can claim back up to ~50% of implementation cost via government subsidy. The go-to-market combines product-led growth (self-serve sign-up, templates, free AI diagnostic, content marketing, SEO, webinars) with inside sales (60-minute online consultations via TimeRex) and channel distribution through IT-subsidy-eligible partners. iRec has reached 1,000+ cumulative customer companies (April 2024), with named logos spanning SMB clients (e.g., 金吾堂, Espacio, NETYER, ユニバーサル園芸社, 月江館) and a smaller set of mid-market/enterprise accounts (e.g., JINS, KYODO NEWS DIGITAL, 三幸学園, SOMPOワランティ, ProFuture). The company is bootstrapped, with no disclosed funding rounds, parent company, or subsidiaries.

iRec monetizes its installed base through recurring subscriptions, retains customers through the inertia of built-out sites and indexed content, and generates demand through a content-marketing engine (blog, white papers, seminars) targeted at Japanese HR and recruitment managers. Operating geographies disclosed are Kanto/Tokyo (Japan-domestic), with no evidence of international expansion. Recognition includes 10 consecutive 'High Performer' designations in the ITreview Grid Award through 2026.

Name

iRec

Legal name

アイレック株式会社 (iRec, Inc.)

Website

https://i-rec.jp

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Short description

iRec (アイレック) is a Tokyo-based, bootstrapped SaaS company that provides a no-code recruitment website platform for Japanese SMBs and mid-market employers, featuring templates, applicant management, and native auto-distribution to Indeed, 求人ボックス, スタンバイ, キャリアジェット, and Googleしごと検索.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Tokyo

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. SaaS Subscription: iRec operates as a cloud-based recruitment website SaaS platform. Customers pay a recurring subscription fee for access to site creation tools, templates, job distribution, and support services. Pricing varies by recruitment site scale and plan tier.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

iRec is a cloud-based recruitment site creation and operation platform that enables companies to build, publish, and manage their own branded job listing sites using no-code tools and pre-built templates. Job postings are automatically distributed to major Japanese job boards (Indeed, 求人ボックス, スタンバイ, キャリアジェット) and Googleしごと検索. The platform also provides centralized applicant management and an AI-powered support chat feature to assist job seekers on the recruitment site.

Product overview

iRec is a single unified SaaS platform for recruitment site creation and operation. Its core offering is the iRec recruitment site platform, which includes site creation tools, job listing management, and native integrations that auto-publish listings to Indeed, 求人ボックス, スタンバイ, キャリアジェット, and Googleしごと検索. An add-on AI support chat feature (AI対応サポートチャット), launched in April 2026, extends the platform with a generative AI-powered conversational interface to assist job seekers on employer recruitment sites. iRec also provides free recruitment strength diagnostics (求人票Strength Diagnostics) to help employers evaluate their job postings. The platform supports IT導入補助金 (IT introduction subsidy) eligibility for qualifying customers.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• iRec (アイレック) Recruitment Site Creation & Operation Platform A cloud-based SaaS platform that enables companies to build, publish, and manage their own branded recruitment websites. It provides no-code site-building tools, pre-built job-seeker-first templates, centralized applicant management, and automatic job posting distribution to Indeed, 求人ボックス, スタンバイ, キャリアジェット, and Googleしごと検索. Targets SMB and enterprise HR/recruitment teams in Japan.

Quantifiable outcome

• Recruitment advertising costs reduced by 50% (one case study company replaced job board ads entirely with their iRec recruitment site)
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers17 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

AI capability2 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• IndeedcoreTechnology or IntegrationiRec has automatic integration with Indeed, automatically distributing job postings to Indeed. iRec's content is designed to optimize for Indeed's AI-based job matching algorithms.
• Googleしごと検索 (Google for Jobs)coreTechnology or IntegrationiRec automatically distributes job postings to Googleしごと検索 (Google for Jobs), expanding visibility of client job listings to Google search users.
• IT Subsidy Program (IT導入補助金)coreGTM or Marketing PartneriRec is registered as an 'IT導入支援事業者' under Japan's IT Subsidy (IT導入補助金) program. Eligible SMB customers can receive government subsidies covering up to approximately 50% of iRec's implementation costs.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• TalentPalette (タレントパレット): TalentPalette is a Japanese talent-management SaaS offering recruitment, employee engagement, and analytics — an emerging player whose recruitment-marketing module competes with iRec for Japanese SMB HR-tech budgets.
• HRBrain: HRBrain provides talent management and HR analytics SaaS for Japanese SMBs/mid-market. It overlaps with iRec on the recruitment-marketing side and competes for the same HR-tech wallet at smaller Japanese employers.

Broad incumbents

• Recruit Holdings (リクルートホールディングス): Recruit operates タウンワーク, リクナビ, and Indeed Japan — a broad incumbent in Japanese recruitment advertising and matching, providing overlapping employer-branding and job-distribution capabilities far beyond iRec's SMB niche.
• BizReach: BizReach operates a Japanese direct-recruitment and headhunting platform with employer branding features, serving mid-career hiring — comparable at the recruitment-marketing layer but at higher-end employer segments than iRec.
• SmartHR: SmartHR is a leading Japanese HR SaaS platform serving SMBs with HR/payroll/admin — adjacent to iRec's recruitment site SaaS, often sold to the same buyer (HR/recruiting managers) at Japanese SMBs.
• Indeed (Japan): Indeed is the dominant Japanese job search engine and a core integration partner for iRec. While not a direct site-builder competitor, Indeed's broader recruiting ecosystem (including employer pages and sponsored listings) overlaps with iRec's value proposition.

Direct peers

• Wantedly: Wantedly operates a Japanese recruitment platform combining company story pages, job matching, and scouting — overlapping with iRec in the company-page/employer-branding recruitment use case for Japanese employers.
• engage (エンゲージ / en-gage): en-gage is a Japanese recruitment marketing and company-page SaaS targeting SMBs, offering employer branding tools and job distribution — directly comparable to iRec's recruitment site and auto-distribution platform for Japanese SMBs.

Regional players

• Workable: Workable is a global recruitment/ATS SaaS with branded career-page functionality — a comparable product category to iRec, though it serves global SMBs rather than Japan specifically.
• Greenhouse: Greenhouse is a global recruitment/ATS platform with branded career-site features — comparable in offering to iRec's recruitment-site SaaS, though oriented to mid-market/enterprise outside Japan.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

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 iRec