A member of the top 100 from the Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist
There might be relatively few non-Japan-based corporate venturers investing in the world’s third-biggest economy, according to analysis by GCV Analytics in the May issue of Global Corporate Venturing, but one of the most interesting to do so is Saemin Ahn, managing director of Rakuten Ventures.
That Singapore-based Ahn runs the corporate venturing unit for Japan-based Rakuten, a media to financial services internet group, might seem a moot point but the distance does give him perspective as well as independence of the structure he has set up.
Asked why Rakuten launched its own flea market app Rakuma, which is apparently a rival of Carousell, in which Rakuten Ventures has backed, Saemin told news provider Tech In Asia: “Whatever Rakuten HQ [headquarters] does, we do not have control over, [just] as Rakuten HQ has zero influence over Rakuten Ventures. We did not know about the Rakuma thing until they announced it. That is how firewalled we are and we are very comfortable with it.”
But Rakuten has more than happy with Ahn’s returns and has been committing more to his team over the past year.
Last month, Rakuten doubled the size of its Global Investment Fund to $200m and promptly led the $120m round for Spain-based ride hailing app Cabify.
In January, Rakuten launched a ¥10bn ($85m) Rakuten Ventures Japan Fund to fund invest in startups in its home country.
In November, it set up a $100m fintech fund, run by managing partner Oskar Mielczarek de la Miel, with a deal last month for US-based Acorns.
These new commitments are all built on Rakuten Ventures originally $10m Southeast Asian-focused fund launched in 2013 when Ahn joined from search engine provider Google (now Alphabet), which was joined the following year by the original $100m Global Investment Fund for investments in startups based in the US, Israel and Asia Pacific region.
A native of Korea, Ahn had joined Google as an online partnership manager in Korea after some marketing work and following degrees at Sogang University. He then moved to Singapore with Google in 2009 and from there stepped up to cover the whole Asia-Pacific region.
This partnership approach has worked wonders in corporate venturing. When his global fund was doubled, Ahn said: “Rakuten Ventures has been given the opportunity to work with some amazing founders who have created great products and businesses.
“With the continued progress and growth of those very leaders, we are happy to be able to dream a little bigger and push even further by partnering up with more core technology and service providers. We will work continuously to support invested companies and organisations in taking the next step to meaningful gains and execution.”
Companies to have so far received investments from the Global Investment Fund include mobile advertising platform PocketMath, the aforementioned mobile marketplace Carousell, file-sharing technology developer SendAnywhere, image recognition firm Visenze and push notifications service OneSignal.
Ahn told Tech In Asia Rakuten Ventures would keep the same approach even with the extra cash: “We will continue to invest in [few] companies and give them more liquidity. We want to give them at least two to 2.5 years of runway with the investment we are giving them.”
