General Atlantic completed its first growth equity investment in Japan and plans to do more, citing an increase in entrepreneurship in a country long considered a backwater for startups.
The New York-based private equity firm said it purchased a $96 million (?14.9 billion) minority stake in human resources software platform SmartHR from early-stage investor Coral Capital. SmartHR is one of Japan¡¯s few unicorns, defined as a company with a valuation of $1 billion or more, and counts KKR and Sequoia Capital among its investors.
¡°About two years ago, we had the hypothesis that there was an entrepreneurial renaissance in Japan and there was a new generation of managers that were creating service companies with high ambitions and high growth,¡± General Atlantic Co-President Mart¨ªn Escobari said in an interview.
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