Baker McKenzie Advises on Landmark Acquisition of Japan’s HR SaaS Leader, jinjer
Baker & McKenzie (Gaikokuho Joint Enterprise) (“Baker McKenzie”) provided legal counsel to J-STAR Co., Ltd. (“J-STAR”) and Potentia Capital (“Potentia”) on their collaborative acquisition of jinjer, a prominent HR SaaS provider in Japan. The transaction encompassed the acquisition of all outstanding shares in the company for an undisclosed amount.
J-STAR, a leading Japanese private equity firm managing approximately JPY 200 billion in assets, has invested in jinjer through its JPY 75 billion J-STAR No. 5 Fund. Meanwhile, Potentia, Australasia’s foremost private equity and growth capital firm specializing in technology, contributed via its Fund 2. Established in 2022 with AUD 670 million from institutional investors, Potentia now manages over AUD 2 billion in assets.
jinjer offers a comprehensive suite of multi-module, cloud-based HR SaaS solutions tailored for enterprise customers in the Japanese market. Over the past three years, jinjer has experienced remarkable growth, fueled by the expansion of its product offerings. Its market-leading SaaS platform addresses every stage of the employee lifecycle, encompassing HR management, payroll, time and attendance, expense tracking, workflow automation, performance evaluation, and talent management. Built on a modern codebase with a single integrated database, jinjer stands out as one of the few Japanese HR SaaS providers capable of delivering a truly seamless, unified user experience across the entire HR ecosystem.
The transaction was led by Tetsuo Tsujimoto and Shinichiro Kitamura, partners in the Baker Tokyo Corporate/M&A and Finance & Projects Groups, respectively. They were supported by Corporate/M&A Group partner Satoshi Abe, senior associate Tatsuya Niwa and associate Takahiro Toda, IP Tech Group partner Tsugihiro Okada, and Finance & Projects Group counsel Takuya Wada and associate Akiko Tsuji.
