Recruit Holdings Co., the world’s fifth-largest staffing firm and the largest staffing firm in Japan, launched the HR Technology Fund, a strategic corporate venture fund that will invest in human resource companies. The fund has an initial capitalization of approximately $20 million and will invest in companies ranging from seed rounds to pre-IPO.

Chihiro Ueda leads the fund as both fund manager and president, and also retains the title of executive manager at Recruit Holdings. Ueda joined Recruit Co. Ltd. in 1999 and previously was chief strategist, international business development.

“Our goal is to provide funding for technology companies focused on disrupting the HR sector,” said Ueda. “The HR sector has been slower than other sectors in adopting new technologies. With an estimated several billion dollar potential market opportunity, we believe that this sector is ripe for new ideas.”

Recruit Holdings also operates subsidiary Recruit Strategic Partners, a fund aimed at a broader subset of technology companies. Recruit Strategic Partners’ investments include DocuSign, Rent the Runway, Mobileworks, FitMob, and Chartboost. In November, it invested in Zirtual Inc., a Nevada company that provides virtual assistance services to executives.