Rakuten Ventures, the corporate venturing fund owned by e-commerce company Rakuten, launched a $100m fund yesterday that will target startups outside its home country of Japan.
The fund follows Rakuten’s $10m Southeast Asia fund, launched in 2013. Rakuten is pursuing a larger international fund to give it more space for growth opportunities in the internet startup ecosystem outside Japan.
The company plans to make early-stage investments in technology startups that can deliver both financial and strategic benefit, and which can offer innovative solutions to problems.
Managing partner Samein Ahn cited past portfolio companies such as social traffic and navigation app Waze and mobile messaging app Viber as companies that fit this bill.
Rakuten Ventures will initially seek out investments in Israel, Asia Pacific and the US, but said in a statement it intends to “take an aggressive approach in expanding operations around the globe”.
The fund was announced at roughyl the same time as Rakuten confirmed it has acquired an 18% stake in AirAsia Japan, a regional subsidiary of Malaysia-based budget airline AirAsia, for an undisclosed sum.