Rakuten Creates $100m Fintech Fund

Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten officially launched a new $100 million financial technology investment fund late last week.

The Rakuten FinTech Fund will search for investment opportunities in financial technology disruptors, with a particular focus on rate of return and strategic opportunities. The fund also mentioned that most investments will be made in the US and Europe, although Asia will also receive some focus as well.

Considering Rakuten’s position as Japan’s largest e-commerce company, it’s no surprise that it would launch an investment fund into other fintech sectors. So far Rakuten has launched other fintech themed services, including Rakuten Card, Rakuten Securities, Rakuten Bank and Rakuten Life Insurance.

The fund is also not the first Japanese company to make a major jump into the fintech scene. Previously, Japanese companies were seen lagging behind in fintech investment, but over the past several months many Japanese firms have stepped up investmentss in a major way. For example, SoftBank recently announced a $1 billion investment into US online lender Social Finance (SoFi).

Like other established companies, Rakuten is hoping to get its foot inside the door of the rising fintech sector. “Rakuten is committed to empowering great entrepreneurs around the world and Rakuten’s new FinTech Fund represents another milestone in our global expansion of the financial services business,” said Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani.

Managing Partner of the fund Oskar Mielczarek de la Miel reiterated this sentiment on the announcement of the Rakuten FinTech Fund. “If you just look at the last couple of years, companies like Currency Cloud, WePay or Bitnet are great examples of disruption changing the landscape in payments and providing innovative solutions that address fundamental needs of global customers.”