History
The recruitment industry has been resistant to change for a long time. Traditional companies are reluctant to adapt their methodologies to meet the evolving challenges their clients face, and as such, quality of service has suffered. After witnessing this reality firsthand, the founders of Spotted K.K. resolved to create a recruitment and HR consulting firm where quality service is the priority.

“With every new step, Spotted remains committed to ensuring that quality service underpins all of our ventures.”
Since first working together at Intelligence, now Persol Career, the founders of Spotted have held to a vision of building a leading company where we could always be entrepreneurial and innovative, where technology plays a key role, and where client satisfaction is the main KPI. In 2016, we put our ambitious business plan into action and started offering recruiting and HR consulting services. Spotted K.K. was incorporated in April of the following year.
Initially placing top-level sales and engineering leaders at international software companies that were breaking into the Japan market, Spotted quickly expanded its focus to an area we’re deeply passionate about: supporting Tech Startups with contingency and retained search services.
Through our main brand Spotted Recruit, we believe Tech Startups are changing the world. Our consultants — who are all entrepreneurially minded — value every opportunity to work alongside founders, help them find great people who can bring them closer to realizing their goals, and watch their businesses grow and thrive. Spotted Recruit is a pioneer of startup recruitment in Japan, and our success and strength in the segment is unparalleled. While the brand started by offering its services specifically to Tech Startups, it has grown to support the entire Startup Ecosystem, as well as Private Equity and Venture Capital firms.
In 2019, we executed the next phase of our plan and expanded into staffing solutions. Spotted Staffing, our haken temporary employment recruiting service, now benefits many major international firms working in IT and Finance by connecting them with the skilled staff they need on a contract basis. Then, in 2021, we further extended our service offering to include senior level retained search solutions for Japanese and Global corporations under the brand Spotted Executive.
With every new step, Spotted remains committed to ensuring that quality service underpins all of our ventures. Adoption of new technology and a strong emphasis on creativity are at the heart of this commitment.
Our sights are set on further expansion and new business ventures. As we continue to grow, everything we do will be rooted to our belief in the importance of providing only the highest quality service for everyone we work with.
“Our consultants value every opportunity to work alongside founders, help them find great people who can bring them closer to realizing their goals, and watch their businesses grow and thrive.”
Milestones
June 2016
Spotted Recruit begins offering services focused on permanent recruiting for Tech Startups
April 2017
Spotted K.K. is established
January 2018
Development begins on the direct recruiting platform RepoTenshoku
September 2018
Spotted becomes a Qiita Community Sponsor
February 2019
Spotted participates as a Startup at Slush Asia showcasing the beta version of RepoTenshoku
August 2019
The subsidiary Spotted Staffing K.K. is established
January 2020
Spotted Staffing launches a haken recruiting service for Tech and Finance companies
February 2020
RepoTenshoku is incorporated as an internal cloud application to streamline and improve Spotted’s recruiting services
January 2021
Spotted Recruit begins a permanent recruiting service for Venture Capital and Private Equity firms
Executive team

Callum McGovern
Co-Founder & CEO
Originally from the UK, Callum has recruited for Tech companies in Japan since 2011. He worked for one of Japan’s largest recruiting companies, Persol Career, where he was a founding member of its global division. A highly successful recruiter, specialised in Startup and Market Entry recruitment, Callum has a deep understanding of Japan’s startup and tech sectors, and has successfully supported over 100 companies to hire for their startup teams.

Diego Utiyama
Co-Founder & COO
Diego is an entrepreneur who was born in Brazil and raised in Japan. Spotted is the third company he has established. One of the other companies he founded, an e-commerce business, he ran for five years then sold to a major retailer. He has also worked in the global division of the recruitment firm Persol Group. As someone who is himself trilingual, Diego specializes in helping domestic and international companies — including IT startups, venture capital firms, and private equity funds — find qualified bilingual and multilingual professionals.
Corporate information
Company name
SPOTTED, Inc.
Recruitment license number
13-ユ-308682
Established
April 2017
Capital
5,000,000 JPY
Executive board
Callum McGovern
Diego Utiyama
Primary business
Permanent Recruitment
HR Consulting
Software Development
Number of employees
17 (as of April 2021)
Address
6F The Royal Bldg, 3-8-7 Irifune, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0042
Tel 03-6869-4800
Bank
Tokyo City Shinkin Bank
Rakuten Bank