Scaling AI Mobility in Japan — 80+ Employees in 7 Months
UK-based Wayve, a global leader in embodied AI for autonomous driving, began its Japan market entry in June 2025. By January 2026, Six Sigma Talent had helped scale the organization to 80+ employees across commercial, engineering, and operations — building the foundational team required for successful market entry.
About the Client
Founded in 2017 in the United Kingdom, Wayve is a global leader in embodied AI for autonomous driving, replacing traditional rule-based systems with end-to-end machine learning. In February 2026, Wayve raised a $1.2B Series D, bringing total funding to approximately $2.5B at an $8.6B valuation, backed by SoftBank, Microsoft, Nvidia, and leading OEMs.
The Challenge
Wayve needed to stand up its Japan operation from zero, hiring commercial leadership, engineering talent, and operations infrastructure simultaneously — while maintaining the cultural and technical bar expected by the global HQ and a world-class investor base. The timeline was aggressive: a full functional team within less than a year.
Our Approach
Six Sigma Talent began supporting Wayve's Japan entry in June 2025. One dedicated senior consultant managed the full RPO engagement, including market mapping, candidate pipeline, interview coordination, ATS management, and offer negotiation across commercial, engineering, and operations functions in parallel.
Results
By January 2026 — seven months into the engagement — the Japan organization had scaled to 80+ employees. The foundational team is now in place across all critical functions. Recruitment cost was reduced by approximately 40% versus a traditional agency-only approach.
Services delivered
In their words
I had the opportunity to work with Akio while he was supporting Wayve Japan as part of Six Sigma Talent, and I appreciated the contribution he made to our hiring efforts.
Akio supported us during an important second phase of hiring in Japan, when we needed to continue building momentum with strong talent. In that environment, his speed, persistence, and flexibility stood out.
He moved quickly, followed up consistently, and stayed close to the process even when searches were not straightforward. Hiring strong bilingual talent in Japan for a global deep tech company is not easy, but Akio was responsive to feedback and willing to adjust his approach as our needs evolved.
I especially appreciated his ability to adapt to Wayve's way of working and remain practical and positive throughout the process.
I would be happy to recommend Akio to companies building or scaling teams in Japan.
I was introduced to Tony through my network, and it quickly became a very valuable introduction.
After I joined as the first employee in Japan and as we were building Wayve's Japan organization, I came to appreciate firsthand how challenging it can be to attract strong bilingual talent in Japan, particularly in deep tech at startup. Bringing Six Sigma Talent in as an embedded talent partner was a very helpful decision for us.
Tony and his team supported us in identifying and engaging high-quality candidates for key early roles in Japan. They were thoughtful, responsive, and persistent, and they took the time to understand the type of talent we needed — not only in terms of skills and experience, but also in terms of fit for an ambitious, fast-moving technology organization.
What I have appreciated most about working with Tony is his practical understanding of the Japan talent market and his ability to find strong bilingual candidates who can operate effectively across technical, commercial, and global contexts. This is a difficult talent segment to access, and Tony and Six Sigma Talent brought real value in helping us build momentum.
For any company building or scaling its business in Japan and looking for high-quality bilingual talent, I would strongly recommend Tony and Six Sigma Talent.
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