We’re excited to share that we’ve led a ~$1.6m Pre-Series A round into Graffer, with participation from our friends at Incubate Fund.
In November I wrote a blog post about my interest in Govtech. I mentioned how the government is bafflingly inefficient, and how most of their software is cumbersome and outdated despite spending billions on system integrators to build them. To give you perspective on how bad it can be, there are some government websites you can only use from 8:30 – 21:00. Can you imagine if you could only order from Amazon during their arbitrary work hours? So much for the 24 hour / 365 days always-on internet age.
I also lamented that I hadn’t found a strong team to back despite there being such a great opportunity. To my surprise, after that post I received multiple inquiries from entrepreneurs tackling this market. And after meeting with a few, it was abundantly clear that Graffer was the team we wanted to support in full force.
Whether you are a person or a business, every year you have to deal with at least one government filing or process. This means dealing with paperwork, interacting with poorly built websites, or worse: going to the city ward, taking a number, and having a seat in the waiting area. To add to the pain, since most people only do this a few times a year, they need to relearn how to do it every, single, time. It is a nightmare. If only there was an intuitive online service that could handle all of this for you… Enter Graffer.
Graffer is built on top of government systems across the country to deal with all these processes and filings for you in an intuitive, seamless way. With just a few clicks and your credit card you can finish and get back to living your life. They’ll do the rest. It is literally a life saver.
We’ve known the CEO, Ishii-san, for years and have come to admire his thoughtfulness, attention to detail, and ability to recruit amazing people. The Graffer team hails from Recruit, Medley, and Bizreach. They have deep experience building intuitive products and scaling both the user base and the team behind them. We’re humbled that such an incredible team chose us as their partner.
There are 295 million personal filings, 214 million sole proprietorship filings, and 129 million business filings done per year in Japan. It is a massive opportunity, and Graffer is poised to make a real impact on people’s lives across the country. We’re honored to play a small part in their endeavor.
Founding Partner & CEO @ Coral Capital
