US and Europe will be the primary geographic focus of the fund with particular attention to fintech in London, San Francisco, New York and Berlin. However, as stated in the press release, the Rakuten fintech Fund plans to expand operations globally.
The fund is aimed to support entrepreneurs in the financial services industry along with providing them access to its divisions in online banking, credit cards, insurance, securities and asset management in Japan and internationally.
Managing Partner Oskar Mielczarek de la Miel, who will run the fund, commented on the importance of the emerging FinTech in the official press release, The Rakuten FinTech Fund is dedicated to helping these businesses accelerate disruption and innovation in historically more traditional and conservative markets.”
In 2015 alone, Rakuten has made four acquisitions, adding to the portfolio WTS, Fits.me, Voyagin and OverDrive and, in 2014, it established New Technology Research Centers in Singapore and Boston to dive deep into research on mobile and social innovations and AI.
The USD 100 million Rakuten Venture fund launched in 2014 by Rakuten Ventures is another initiative to enlarge investments in startups across Israel, Asia-Pacific and the US to continue the success of Southeast Asia fund that had companies like Carousell, Visenze, Coda Payments and Send Anywhere in its investment portfolio.
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