Rakuten, the Japanese internet conglomerate, is planning to invest over $100 million and increase its India workforce by eight per cent. Currently, Rakuten employs around 4,000 people in India, with nearly 90 per cent of them working in technology roles.
This expansion is part of Rakuten’s larger effort to scale global operations, modernise infrastructure, and deepen its focus on artificial intelligence (AI).
The company is looking out for AI-savvy professionals to strengthen its innovation pipeline. It aims to hire individuals proficient in leveraging AI for enhancing business processes, customer experiences, and productivity.
India plays a central role in Rakuten’s global business. The country’s Global Capability Centre (GCC) is behind several of the company’s key products, including Rakuten Pay—a leading digital payments platform in Japan—and the SixthSense platform. SixthSense helps monitor the health of digital systems, flag issues, and even predict potential problems before they actually flare and disrupt. It is used by clients across industries such as banking, healthcare, aviation, and government.
Rakuten admits to AI being responsible for improving internal efficiency. In 2024, the company reported a profit of 10.5 billion yen (about $73.6 million), attributed to AI-driven optimisations. It now aims to double that figure in 2025. AI adoption has already helped reduce the time needed to create sales materials by almost half.
With offices in several Indian cities, including two centres in Bengaluru, Rakuten’s India GCC manages nearly half of the company’s 70-plus global businesses. This expansion is in line with the rapidly growing GCC ecosystem in India, which is projected to reach a market value of $105 billion by 2030.
