Qin En Looi, partner at Saison Capital, is one of our top 50 Rising Stars in corporate venturing for 2025.
“Saison Capital is one of the few CVC units that can directly invest in and hold digital assets,” says Qin En Looi, a partner at the corporate venture capital arm of Japanese credit services provider Credit Saison.
When Looi joined Saison Capital in 2021 as a principal, one of his projects was to set up a dedicated digital asset investment unit. “This was not easy because Credit Saison is a financial institution that is publicly listed in Japan,” he says.
Formed in 2019, Saison Capital is a $150m evergreen fund, with an agile investment team of five. It works closely but independently from Credit Saison and is able to move quickly.
The unit backs pre-seed to series B-stage financial, ecommerce and web3 technology startups, initially targeting Asia before expanding to Latin America in July 2024.
“As a parent, it is challenging to figure out how to balance the fast-paced dynamism of tech with parental responsibilities”
Last year, Looi led investments across more than 50 companies globally across Southeast Asia, India and Brazil.
“I am especially excited about stablecoins in 2025,” says Looi, who points out that payment services company Stripe acquired stablecoin technology platform Bridge for $1.1bn in October 2024, making it the largest cryptocurrency deal to date.
Before Saison Capital, Looi was a venture architect for more than two years from 2019 at BCG Digital Ventures, the investment unit affiliated with management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group. Prior to that, Looi co-founded and served as chief operating officer at Glints, a Singaporean job recruitment services company.
In addition to his venture role, Looi runs Parents in Tech, a podcast providing tips to Southeast Asian ecosystem builders to achieve work-life balance. “As a parent, it is challenging to figure out how to balance the fast-paced dynamism of tech with parental responsibilities,” Looi says. “That is why I started this platform to exchange perspectives with other parents in the industry.”
See the full list of Rising Stars 2025 here
