RareJob, Inc. (hereafter, “RareJob”), which utilizes human-related data to develop global talents, reached the agreement on October 15, 2021 with Sight Visit Inc. (hereafter, “Sight Visit”), a consolidated subsidiary of freee K.K. to acquire 70% share of shikaku square, Inc., the new company that will take over the “Shikaku Square” business, which is the online learning program for professional qualifications. Sight Visit will establish shikaku square, Inc. and split it off from them. Then, shikaku square, Inc. will join the RareJob group after we acquire 70% shares of the company on December 1.

Background and purpose of this business area expansion

The RareJob Group aims to realize a society in which everyone can unlock their potential under the group vision “Chances for everyone, everywhere.”. We launched the RareJob Eikaiwa in 2007 to help Japanese people improve English which is one of the essential skills to succeed globally. Our service mission is to enable 10 million Japanese people to speak English and we have grown our business mainly in the ESL market. In the last few years, we have been developing new services not only for English learning but also global business skill learning such as a global leader development program.

The merger of “Shikaku Square” business means the expansion of our service area to help people acquire professional qualifications, not only English and global business skills. The addition of “Shikaku Square” service, which provides learning services in the adult learning market for professional qualification, with the RareJob group is an important step to realize inorganic growth of our group. Although the history and business area of Shikaku Square is different, their value which is “effectively creating results by combining data and technology” is consistent with our value. That’s why we decided to add Shikaku Square to our group this time and expect significant growth in the medium to long-term.

About Shikaku Square business

“Shikaku Square” provides online learning programs developed based on neuroscience that helps beginners and those who do not know how to study pass exams for professional qualifications with confidence. The business aims to guide their students to the shortest way to pass exams such as the preliminary examination for lawyers and other qualifications like patent attorney by utilizing three systems which optimized study methods followed by everyone who passed the exams successfully, “Shikaku Square cloud”, “Brain-based learning (patented)” and “Miraimon”.

Three systems of “Shikaku Square”
・Shikaku Square cloud: Optimizing self-learning backed by accumulated data based successful, current examinees and neuroscience
・Brain-based learning: Suggesting individually optimized questions created by algorithms uniquely developed based on neuroscience
・Miraimon: A system to predict questions in future exams by using AI which learns a tendency what questions frequently asked in the past

These systems are highly compatible with RareJob group’s business which promotes individually optimized learning for successful results by combining data, technology and educational knowledge.
Although Shikaku Square provides services in a different learning area, its services share the same value which our group is aiming for, so we believe that this partnership will accelerate our growth even more by creating synergies.
In addition to the 300 billion yen English learning school market, where we have developed the English-related business, we will also be able to access the 250 billion yen adult learning market for professional qualification, which leads to increasing our potential for further growth.

Future prospect

The RareJob group aims to expand Shikaku Square business while providing existing services continuously. We will create synergies by sharing web marketing expertise of our Group to acquire new customers efficiently for further expansion.
Moreover, as a new initiative, we plan to promote the expansion of services such as new learning courses for English language qualifications by applying the accumulated knowledge of English-related business in our group to new study programs.

Management of shikaku square, Inc.

[Profile] Ikuo Sato
The manager of the Shikaku Square business of Sight Visit
Scheduled to be appointed as CEO of shikaku square, Inc. after December 1, 2021
He graduated from the Faculty of Law in Keio University and worked for a major recruitment agency as the manager who is responsible for recruiting people in the construction, manufacturing, finance, and medical industry and supervised the Kansai branch of the agency. He participated in Sight Visit in November 2018 and he has been primarily responsible for the Shikaku Square business as the corporate officer and manager since January 2019.

About Sight Visit Inc.

Headquarter Location: 2F Ohm Building, 3-1 Kanda Nishikicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0054, Japan
Representative: Masato Kito, Managing Director
URL:https://en.sight-visit.com/
Business: “Shikaku Square”, the Largest Qualification Exam Study Website in Japan; “Legal Engine” is a mediation service for legal staffing; “NINJA SIGN by freee” is an Electronic Contract Service
*The company is a 70% subsidiary of the freee Group.