Founding & Managing Partner at Rakuten Capital · Joined 2013
View Live Interactive Profile →Saemin Ahn founded Rakuten Ventures - now Rakuten Capital - in 2013, and has run its international investment strategy from Singapore ever since, taking positions across machine learning, new energy, robotics, and aerospace on behalf of one of Japan's largest internet conglomerates. His clearest and boldest move came in 2015, when he led Rakuten's $300 million commitment to Lyft's $530 million Series E, buying an 11.9% stake in the ride-sharing company years before it went public. That willingness to write outsized, conviction-driven checks into American consumer technology - unusual for a Japanese ecommerce company at the time - has defined Rakuten Capital's identity as a genuinely global corporate investor rather than a firm limited to backing Rakuten's own strategic interests.