New fund alert! Here’s Onigiri Capital. They’re a $50M blockchain investment fund launched by Saison Capital, the corporate venture arm of Japan’s Credit Saison. 

• The fund has raised $35M to date to help startups focused on real-world assets access Asia’s crypto community and established financial networks. 

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👀 The Asia POV

Onigiri Capital’s Managing Partner Qin En Looi saw a gap in the US market:

• A lack of specialized expertise needed to navigate and succeed in dynamic Asian markets like Japan, Korea, Indonesia, and Singapore. 

Not just $$$. The fund leverages Credit Saison’s deep network of financial institutions across Asian markets to provide portfolio companies with access to banks, asset managers, and insurance firms. 

• The fund’s institutional backing also offers companies access to major distribution channels, regulatory expertise and established credibility to accelerate time to market. 

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🪙 What the fund? 

The fund will focus on startups across five key sectors: stablecoins, payments, tokenized assets, DeFi, and financial markets infrastructure. 

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🍙 More on Saison

They’re an early-stage venture capital fund investing from pre-seed to Series B, focused on emerging markets. 

• Saison has invested in GrowSari (Series C), PickUp Coffee (Series A1), and Skorlife (seed).