ITOCHU Announces Signing of Capital and Business Alliance Agreement with INTLOOP Inc, Which Has Strengths in Freelance IT Talent Utilization

October 24, 2024

ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it has formed a capital and business alliance with INTLOOP Inc., (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Hirofumi Hayashi, Representative Director; hereinafter “INTLOOP”), a consulting and human resources support company with strengths in highly skilled freelance IT talent*1 utilization.

It is believed that there will be an up to 800,000 person shortfall in the number of IT workers in 2030*2 as digitalization accelerates, and the demand for IT solutions rises in Japan. In particularly, there is expected to be an up to 460,000 shortfall in highly skilled IT workers by that time.
However, the number of freelancers is increasing (9.12 million in 2015 and 16.7 in 2021)*3 as more people are working without belonging to organizations amid the diversification of workstyles. There is a growing need to match freelancers with clients for projects implemented by IT freelancers, including system engineers. In this environment, there appear to be good prospects for the business of matching freelancers with corporates.

Since its foundation in 2005, INTLOOP has been an intermediary between highly skilled freelance IT talent and corporates seeking professionals earlier than others as a leading company in the industry. Using knowledge accumulated in the consulting business, the business INTLOOP has been in engaged in since its foundation, INTLOOP has established a business model of providing services leveraging the combination of their employees and over 40,000 registered freelancers. Their strength is their readiness to engage in system development and other projects of different scales.

ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and BELLSYSTEM24 Holdings, Inc. play leading roles in ITOCHU's digital business group to fulfill functions that are necessary for the use of IT and digital technology. Through this group, ITOCHU has been working to provide optimal services tailored to customers' diverse needs. Since INTLOOP became a CTC Alliance Partner in April 2023, it has jointly promoted system development projects originated by digital business group companies, shared advanced technology information and exchanged opinions about development environments and quality standards, developing a relationship with ITOCHU.
Through the newly formed alliance, ITOCHU will further reinforce and accelerate INTLOOP's cooperation with ITOCHU's digital business group, enhance and expand existing businesses, create new businesses, and increase corporate value over the medium- to long-term through INTLOOP establishing a dispatching-dedicated organization for ITOCHU so that both ITOCHU and INTLOOP can provide higher quality IT solutions.

ITOCHU will continue to promote the IT solutions business to contribute to the realization of a sustainable digital society based on a market-oriented approach to solve issues faced by the market and our customers.

  • *1Human resources who are capable of solving various corporate issues using IT and designing optimal systems based on corporate business strategies.
  • *2Reference: Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Report on survey of IT human resource
  • *3Reference: LANCERS, INC., Survey of freelancers

INTLOOP company profile