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List of acquisitions by Rakuten

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The following is a list of investments and acquisitions made by Japanese electronic commerce and online retailing company Rakuten.

Acquisitions

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (December 2023)
Date Company Business Country Value (USD) Comments References
2002 MyTrip.net Online auction  United States — Merged with Rakuten Travel
2005 LinkShare Online auction  United States — Rebranded as Rakuten Marketing then as Rakuten Advertising.
2010 PriceMinister Online retailer  France €200 million
2010 Buy.com Online retailer  United States US$250 million
2011 Ikeda E-commerce  Brazil — Renamed Rakuten Brazil
2011 Tradoria E-commerce  Germany — Rebranded as Rakuten Deutschland
2011 Play.com E-commerce  United Kingdom £25 million Converted into the points-based loyalty program Rakuten.co.uk
2012 Kobo E-book reader  Canada US$315 million Converted into the points-based loyalty program Rakuten.co.uk
2012 Wuaki.tv VOD service  Spain Rebranded to Rakuten TV in 2017
2012 Alpha Direct Services Online retail delivery  France
2012 Aquafadas Electronic publishing  France Rebranded as Rakuten DX in 2020
2013 Daily Grommet Online marketplace Rebranded as The Grommet
2013 Webgistix Service fulfillment  United States
2013 Viki Streaming media  Singapore
2014 Viber Media Voice messaging US $905million
2014 DC Storm Marketing technology Acquired by Rakuten Marketing.
2014 Slice E-commerce E-commerce company that provides online shopping services and sells business intelligence based on digital commerce measurement.
2014 Ebates Cashback website US $952 million Changed name to Rakuten Rewards
2015 OverDrive, Inc. Ebook wholesale distributor US $410 million Wholesale distributor of e-books and other digital content that serves libraries and retailers. Later purchased from Rakuten by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts in 2020.
2016 Bitnet Cryptocurrency wallet US $410 million Used the assets to form Rakuten Blockhain Lab, a research facility that studies the blockchain.
2018 Curbside Retail pickup  United States
2020 Seiyu Group Group of supermarkets  Japan Joint venture with KKR, acquiring 85% ownership.
2020 Voyagin Online travel booking  Japan Name changed to Rakuten Travel Experiences. Had previously invested US$3.48 million.
2021 Altiostar Radio access network US$1 billion Previous investor of US$114 million in 2019 and acquiring an additional 17% stake for US$45 million in 2020.

Investments

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (December 2023)
Date Company Business Country Value (USD) Comments References
2011 Ozon.ru Online Retailer  Russia — Unknown minority stake. Total of $100 million combined with other investors.
2012 Pinterest Social media service  United States — Led $100 million funding round with partners including Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital, and others.
2013 Carousell B2C and B2B marketplace  Singapore — Rakuten led a US$800,000 seed round of funding.
2015 Lyft Ridesharing company  United States — Led US$530 million funding round for 12% stake in company.
2015 Cabify Ridesharing company  Spain — Initial US$3 million investment in 2015 and additional US$92 million in 2016.
2017 Careem Super-app  United Arab Emirates — US$30 million in financing for the company.
2017 MetroResidences Real estate investing — US$4.2 million.

References

  1. "Rakuten Launches Rakuten Advertising as a Premier Destination for Brands to Discover Customers and Engage Audiences". MarTech Series. 12 February 2020. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  2. Toto, Serkan, "Japan's Rakuten: Can The Biggest E-Commerce Site You Never Heard Of Become a Threat for Amazon Globally?", TechCrunch, Sunday, July 5th, 2009
  3. Wauters, Robin (2010-06-17). "Rakuten to acquire France's PriceMinister for approximately €200 million". TechCrunch (Eu.techcrunch.com). Retrieved 2011-10-04.
  4. "Japan's Rakuten to Acquire Buy.com", The Wall Street Journal, May 21, 2010
  5. Published Wednesday, Sep 21 2011, 12:43 BST (2011-09-21). "Play.com bought by Japanese firm Rakuten for £25m — Media News". Digital Spy. Retrieved 2011-10-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. Strauss, Marina (8 November 2011). "$315-million Kobo takeover deal a windfall for Indigo". The Globe and Mail.
  7. Rakuten Acquires Alpha Direct Services, Rakuten corporate blog, 7 November 2012.Retrieved 27 December 2012
  8. "Kobo Acquires Aquafadas to bring more Comics and Kids Books into Digital Form". goodereader.com. 2012-10-10. Retrieved 2015-06-01.
  9. "Rakuten Launches 'Rakuten DX' to Drive Creativity and Innovation in Digital Experiences Ahead of Expected App Boom". MarTech Series. 23 November 2020. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
  10. Swisher, Kara (2013-05-14). "Japan's Rakuten Ups Its Stake in the Rebranded Grommet". allthingsd.com. Retrieved 2013-09-19.
  11. Online Marketplaces - Don’t call me ‘daily’: The Grommet drops the chronological element in its rebranding. Internet Retailer. Retrieved on 2013-09-21.
  12. Rakuten Acquires U.S.-based Logistics Company Webgistix | | Fulfilling eCommerce. Webgistix.com (2013-06-05). Retrieved on 2013-09-19.
  13. "Rakuten extends its focus on entertainment after buying Singapore-based video service Viki". The Next Web. Retrieved September 2, 2013.
  14. "Japanese Internet Giant Rakuten Acquires Viber For $900M". TechCrunch. February 13, 2014. Retrieved February 14, 2014.
  15. "Rakuten Marketing Acquires DC Storm for Omni-channel Attribution, Measurement and Tag Management". Reuters. May 29, 2014. Archived from the original on June 1, 2014. Retrieved June 4, 2014.
  16. Bensinger, Greg (November 11, 2014). "Japan's Rakuten Buys Startup as It Mulls U.S. Entry". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  17. Mayumi Negishi, "Japan's Rakuten Set to Buy U.S. Shopping Website Ebates", The Wall Street Journal, September 7, 2014.
  18. "Rakuten Sells Overdrive to Private Investment Firm". The Digital Reader. 2019-12-25. Retrieved 2021-04-09.
  19. "Rakuten to Buy OverDrive". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2017-02-26.
  20. Jon Russell, "Rakuten buys struggling bitcoin startup to create a 'blockchain research lab'", TechCrunch, August 18, 2016.
  21. Schubarth, Cromwell (8 June 2018). "Japanese e-commerce giant buys Palo Alto retail pickup startup". Silicon Valley Business Journal. American City Business Journals. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  22. "KKR and Rakuten to buy 85% of Seiyu from Walmart". Nikkei Asia. Retrieved 2020-11-17.
  23. Lee, Terence (1 July 2015). "Rakuten buys tour marketplace Voyagin to gear up for 2020 Tokyo Olympics travel bonanza". Tech in Asia. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  24. Le Maistre, Ray (4 August 2021). "Rakuten acquires Altiostar at $1B+ valuation". Televcom TC. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  25. Phadnis, Shilpa (11 August 2021). "After acquisition by Rakuten, Altiostar to further expand in India". Times of India. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  26. "Internet Retailer Ozon.ru Gets Record $100M Investment". The Moscow Times. 2011-09-08. Retrieved 2020-09-07.
  27. "Exclusive: Japan’s Rakuten Wins the Heart of Pinterest in $100M Funding Race With $1.5B Valuation", All things digital, 17 May 2012
  28. Catherine Shu, "Marketplace App Carousell Raises $800K Seed Round Led By Rakuten", TechCrunch, November 13, 2013.
  29. Mike Isaac, "Hiroshi Mikitani, Rakuten Founder, Joins Lyft's Board", The New York Times, June 23, 2015.
  30. Yoko Kubota, "Rakuten Raises Investment in Latin America Ride-Hailing App Cabify", The Wall Street Journal, April 19, 2016.
  31. Katie Roof, "PayPal leads $30 million round in Acorns investing app", TechCrunch, April 21, 2016.
  32. Jon Russell, "Rakuten invests $2.8M in 'Airbnb for business travel' startup MetroResidences", TechCrunch, April 10, 2017.

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