Challenge the two giants Benewan and Lilo. Welfare venture starts new business using AI: “Existing services are not up to date with the times.”

“The welfare service model has not changed at all for 20 years.80% of current welfare benefits are used for entertainment such as movies, and only one in four people are satisfied with their company’s welfare benefits.It’s very disorganized.”

At a new service presentation held on April 17, 2024, Shoji Sakamoto, CEO of startup HQ, which provides welfare services specializing in remote work, pointed out the problems with the current welfare agency services as follows.

Benefit One, which operates “Benefit Station,” and Relo Club, which operates “Welfare Club,” are the two leading welfare agency services that have gained market share.

Regarding Benefit One, Dai-ichi Life Holdings announced in March 2024 that it had successfully made a takeover offer (TOB). In May, it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Dai-ichi Life Holdings, and the environment surrounding the industry is changing.

HQ CEO Sakamoto”New services are emerging, and the seeds of change are emerging in an industry that has remained unchanged for a long time.”Regarding the current situation of major services,”I’m not sure if it fits the current trends in human capital management.”criticized.

At the press conference, although he did not mention the names of the competing companies Benefit One and Relo Club, he did show a graph showing the stock prices of the two major welfare companies.”In contrast to the search trend for human capital history, average stock prices are at their lowest in three years.”He took a confrontational stance by pointing out the following.

AI suggests welfare benefits tailored to each individual

HQ was founded by Mr. Sakamoto, who served as CFO at LITALICO, in March 2021 during the coronavirus pandemic.

With the spread of remote work as a tailwind, the company developed “Remote HQ”, a service in which a concierge proposes necessary products such as desks and chairs to each employee according to their budget, and sales exceeded 400 million yen on an annual basis.

On April 11th, the company announced a new benefit platform, “Cafeteria HQ,” which will be a powerful service to Benefit One and Relo Club.

The features of Cafeteria HQ are:In addition to using AI to propose benefits tailored to each employee, we have improved the convenience of usage.At the point.

To use it specifically, first select “gender and age,” “occupation,” “frequency of remote work,” “age of children, if any,” etc., and then select “housekeeping” or “exercise” as the problem you want to solve. Select items such as “Insufficient”, “Massage device”, “Online learning”, or “Meal kit”. The AI ​​will then suggest welfare services suitable for that person.

“For example, if a woman is raising a child, we will offer a massage device or housekeeping services. If we are a young male employee, we will offer completely different proposals for each individual employee, such as online learning.The UI design is based on Amazon and Netflix. ”

The content of the proposed benefits can be customized by the company, and employees can use the points allocated to them to exchange them for products like on e-commerce, or depending on the service, they can pay their own expenses once on e-commerce. Take the form of a request.

“Currently, welfare benefitsIt took a lot of time to find the PDF or manual, and the reality was that no one was using it. We have created a UI that allows you to easily submit claims, even in the form of expense claims.”

The competition has 16 million corporate members, will they be able to make inroads?

Cafeteria HQ aims to completely differentiate itself from major services.

The average price for major services is about 500 yen per person per month, but HQ offers it for less than half the price, 200 yen, and also emphasizes the visualization of the return on investment.do.