Japan's Rakuten launches $100m global VC fund

According to a release, the global fund will focus on early-stage investments in tech businesses with strategic relevance that can deliver financial returns. In particular, the investments are intended to provide Rakuten with access to technologies with e-commerce applications.

The fund will be run out of Singapore, with Saemin Ahn, the managing partner of Rakuten Ventures, acting as fund advisor. While the company's chief focus is Asia Pacific, Israel and the US, the fund plans to take an aggressive approach in expanding operations around the globe.

"If you just look at the last couple of years, companies like Waze and Viber are great examples of companies taking on massive issues like transportation and communication, breaking them down to their basics, and providing an engaging and sticky user experience that people have come to love and depend on," said Ahn. "More Asia-based VCs are venturing out into different regions to look at investment as long-term growth vehicles."

The new vehicle follows on from the firm's Southeast Asia fund which launched last year with a corpus of $10 million. Its portfolio includes flea market app Carousell, e-commerce analytics firm Visenze, e-payments start-up Coda Payments and file transfer service Send Anywhere.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• North Asia
• Southeast Asia
• Fundraising
• Early-stage
• Japan
• Singapore
• Fundraising