Recruit Holdings Co., the world’s sixth-largest staffing firm, invested in Align Commerce Corp., a San Francisco-based international payments system firm using blockchain technology.

The investment was made by RSP Fund No. 6 LLC, operated by Recruit Strategic Partners. The amount invested was not announced.

Align Commerce plans to use the funds raised to facilitate the development of new products and expansion of customer bases, especially in the US.

Align Commerce provides international payments services to businesses in 60 countries, in 22 of which both inward and outward payments are available. Its security-focused service design and operation, such as setting strict standards for the selection of service providers, have attracted a large number of users, according to Recruit. The company launched its service in April 2015 and has conducted more than $1 million in transactions.

“Through this investment, Recruit aims to popularize the company's international payment service, which is expected to see growing needs in the future,” Recruit reported. “Payments beyond countries and currencies aligned with purchasing other countries' products on websites or using other countries' outsourcing services are expected to expand in the near future. Especially it is expected to grow among small- and mid-sized enterprises.”

Recruit also announced this week an investment in DataRobot Inc., a Boston-based provider of platforms for general machine learning. Recruit also formed a partnership between DataRobot and the Recruit Institute of Technology, the artificial intelligence research laboratory of Recruit.

Recruit ranks as one of the world’s largest staffing firms but it operates other businesses, including publishing operations in Japan.