Rakuten Launches $100M Global Investment Fund

June 30, 2014 | The Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten announced the launch of its new $100 million global investment fund in startups and companies in Israel, the United States and the Asia Pacific region. The new fund will be based in Singapore and will be run by Rakuten Ventures managing partner Saemin Ahn. Rakuten has its eye on startups with “strategic significance” that it may even consider acquiring. Just a few months ago, Rakuten acquired the Israeli-created messaging application Viber for $900 million as well as a number of other mobile-tech geared startups in Europe and the US.