From Tokyo to Jakarta, from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur, one consistent challenge has surfaced across Asia: a growing imbalance between labor demand and supply in blue-collar industries. Aging populations in developed countries like Japan and Singapore are driving a desperate need for caregivers, housekeepers, and cleaners. Meanwhile, emerging nations like Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines are home to a surplus of eager, capable workers—often underutilized and undertrained.

Enter Ayasan Holdings, a Japan-founded startup with a bold vision: to become the leading tech-powered human resource platform for blue-collar workers across Asia, and to transform not just how labor is matched, but how it is trained, managed, and moved across borders.

👉 Visit Ayasan’s global platform

■ From Bangkok to the Region: Ayasan’s Growing Southeast Asian Footprint

Ayasan was founded in Bangkok in 2013 with a simple but powerful goal—to digitize and professionalize domestic worker matching in Thailand. Fast forward a decade, and Ayasan has expanded its operations to Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, and soon Cambodia and the Philippines, serving both B2C and B2B markets.

With over 150,000 service matches completed and more than 20,000 registered workers, Ayasan has positioned itself as one of the most trusted HR platforms in Southeast Asia—particularly among Japanese expats, foreign businesses, and middle to high-income local households.

But the company’s ambitions are far bigger than matching housemaids.

■ The Next Phase: Cross-Border Labor Mobility

Ayasan is now spearheading an initiative rarely seen in the region: cross-border labor dispatch.

Its upcoming services will connect skilled blue-collar workers—trained in countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, and Laos—to destinations including Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia, where shortages in eldercare, cleaning, and hospitality are reaching critical levels.

Let’s look at some numbers:

• Japan had over 2 million foreign workers in 2023, with over 30% in “Specified Skilled Worker” roles such as caregiving and construction.

• Singapore relies on foreign domestic helpers for over 75% of its households with dual-income families.

• Malaysia employs over 1 million foreign workers, mainly in services and manufacturing.

Ayasan aims to begin official deployments by 2025, backed by local partnerships and training academies that prepare talent with language skills, job-specific certifications, and cultural readiness. The company has already developed proprietary e-learning modules and in-house assessments, ensuring a quality-first dispatch system that meets the regulations of host countries.

■ Tech-Driven, People-Focused: Ayasan’s Platform Model

Ayasan is not just a dispatch agency—it’s a full-stack HR tech platform that handles everything from candidate onboarding to training, customer matching, schedule management, GPS tracking, digital contracts, and feedback scoring.

One of its most innovative components is its “career pathway system” for blue-collar workers. Workers can upskill through the app, receive performance-based bonuses, and even track their career progress. This system incentivizes long-term engagement and reduces churn—one of the biggest headaches in the low-skill labor industry.

From AI-based staff matching to multilingual customer support in Japanese, English, and local languages, Ayasan is combining trust and technology to lead what it calls a “Blue-Collar Revolution” in Asia.

■ Revenue, Scale, and Long-Term Vision

While Ayasan has not publicly disclosed its revenue figures, insiders suggest the company completed over 60,000 paid transactions in 2024. Assuming an average transaction value of $50 USD, that implies annual revenues of over $3 million USD.

With the addition of enterprise contracts (e.g., hotel and office cleaning) and international dispatch services in the pipeline, Ayasan is targeting $10 million USD in annual revenue by 2027.

But even more valuable than revenue is its exclusive access to trained, retained blue-collar labor pools—a moat that few competitors can replicate. In Southeast Asia, retention rates for domestic helpers and cleaners are notoriously low, often below 50%. Ayasan claims its own retention rate exceeds 75%, thanks to continuous engagement, incentives, and career support.

■ Building a Future Beyond Borders

What sets Ayasan apart is its borderless approach to employment. In a region where most HR platforms are focused on local job markets, Ayasan is creating a transnational labor pipeline—one that could reshape workforce mobility across Asia.

By 2030, Ayasan envisions becoming the largest blue-collar HR brand in Asia, connecting millions of workers with jobs both within and beyond their countries. Whether it’s a Vietnamese caregiver working in Tokyo, or an Indonesian housekeeper placed in Singapore, the company sees itself as the bridge.

In founder Kotaro Ise’s words:

“We don’t just want to give people jobs. We want to give them careers, dignity, and international opportunities. Our mission is to make blue-collar work respected, and to make it borderless.”

■ Final Thoughts: Ayasan’s Rise as a “Blue-Collar Tech” Unicorn

Southeast Asia is no longer just a source of cheap labor—it is a region with the potential to export highly skilled, trained, and tech-supported human capital. Ayasan is one of the few startups truly acting on that belief.

With a stronghold in B2C services, growing enterprise clients, and a vision aligned with demographic trends and labor policy shifts across Asia, Ayasan is on track to become a “Blue-Collar Tech Unicorn”—a category that barely existed until now.

For governments, families, and corporations struggling to secure talent, Ayasan offers a rare mix of reliability, ethics, and innovation. And for blue-collar workers across Asia, it offers something even rarer: hope for a better future.

🌐 Learn more or explore partnerships:
👉 https://www.ayasan-service.com/en