Y Combinator, Global Brain back Tailor, a Japanese headless ERP startup
Tailor, a Japan-based back-end enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform, today announced that it has raised $4.3 million in seed funding from Y Combinator and Global Brain.
Founded in 2021 by Yo Shibata and Misato Takahashi, Tailor provides a headless ERP platform, i.e. an ERP without a front end, instead providing data from back-office systems such as the finance and provisioning to other apps through the API, Shibata told TechCrunch.
Legacy ERPs provided by companies such as SAP, Oracle and NetSuite (which is owned by Oracle) and local players like OBIC, are difficult for users to customize, according to Shibata. One reason is that their systems are typically designed for the world's largest organizations, making them unsuitable and expensive for small-to-medium business projects, Shibata said, often leaving those ERP customers frustrated with the sheer number of features and the complexity of the user interface, he added.
Japanese companies suffer from high maintenance costs and slow development. According to the company, approximately 70% of software industry spending in Japan is spent on creating custom products.
Shibata says Tailor's API approach should make it easier for businesses to integrate with another third-party SaaS tool and help users build their bespoke in-house tools faster.
Serial entrepreneurs Shibata and Misato previously founded retail technology company Spotlight and sold it to Rakuten for $20 million in 2013. They reunited again last year for a bigger challenge , aiming to enter the global market with Tailor's ERP platform and with the ambitious goal of reaching $1 billion in revenue.
The Japanese startup currently has one client and 10 employees, but plans to double its workforce to 20 employees by the end of the year. With the seed capital, the company will improve its product capability and developer integration features, Shibata said. Additionally, the company intends to prepare the product for developers in the US and sell it in the US market, aiming for 2023.
"We aim to transform the way in-house management software is built for businesses," Shibata said.
Tailor, a Japan-based back-end enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform, today announced that it has raised $4.3 million in seed funding from Y Combinator and Global Brain.
Founded in 2021 by Yo Shibata and Misato Takahashi, Tailor provides a headless ERP platform, i.e. an ERP without a front end, instead providing data from back-office systems such as the finance and provisioning to other apps through the API, Shibata told TechCrunch.
Legacy ERPs provided by companies such as SAP, Oracle and NetSuite (which is owned by Oracle) and local players like OBIC, are difficult for users to customize, according to Shibata. One reason is that their systems are typically designed for the world's largest organizations, making them unsuitable and expensive for small-to-medium business projects, Shibata said, often leaving those ERP customers frustrated with the sheer number of features and the complexity of the user interface, he added.
Japanese companies suffer from high maintenance costs and slow development. According to the company, approximately 70% of software industry spending in Japan is spent on creating custom products.
Shibata says Tailor's API approach should make it easier for businesses to integrate with another third-party SaaS tool and help users build their bespoke in-house tools faster.
Serial entrepreneurs Shibata and Misato previously founded retail technology company Spotlight and sold it to Rakuten for $20 million in 2013. They reunited again last year for a bigger challenge , aiming to enter the global market with Tailor's ERP platform and with the ambitious goal of reaching $1 billion in revenue.
The Japanese startup currently has one client and 10 employees, but plans to double its workforce to 20 employees by the end of the year. With the seed capital, the company will improve its product capability and developer integration features, Shibata said. Additionally, the company intends to prepare the product for developers in the US and sell it in the US market, aiming for 2023.
"We aim to transform the way in-house management software is built for businesses," Shibata said.
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