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This $50M Fund Is Connecting Latin America to Asia
00:08:33
Unveiling a new $50M Fund for RWAs with Onigiri Capital Managing Partner Qin En Looi.
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- [00:00]
A
Hey, everyone, I'm Jen Senasi. This is markets outlook on CoinDesk. This episode comes to you from Stellar Meridian 2025 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There is a new $50 million fund on the block, and it's called Onigiri Capital. Launched by Japan's Credit Cezanne, the fund is dedicated to connecting Brazilian and Latin American founders with Asia's institutional markets. Joining us now is Onigiri Capital Managing Partner Shin and Louis. Hello.
- [00:34]
B
Hi. Thanks for having me.
- [00:35]
A
Thank you for being here. Now, this is quite interesting. We've been talking a lot about what's happening here in Latin America. We've been talking a lot about the entrepreneurs and the builders, and what Onigiri Capital is doing is connecting those folks with institutional investors in Asia. Talk to me about that bridge.
- [00:52]
B
It's a bridge that is not obvious at first glance, but what really excites us is that today more than half of the global users of blockchain are in Asia. So if you are not looking at Asia as you grow, you're missing out on more than half of your potential total market. And what's unique about Latin America and Asia is that there are a lot of similarities. There are many economies that are rapidly growing. A lot of the infrastructure is maturing. But more importantly, we see blockchain providing an opportunity to leapfrog. Right. So we don't have to just go with the traditional evolution path of from paper to fintech to blockchain. We're going direct to blockchain. We see that happening in Asia. We see that happening here in Latam.
- [01:34]
C
I'm going to. I'm going to expose something which is last night we had one of the best Japanese meals I've ever had.
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A
Oh, my God.
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C
In Brazil.
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A
So delicious.
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C
And. And then in. In mentioning that some people were saying, there's a really vibrant Japanese community here.
- [01:47]
B
Exactly.
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C
And I'm wondering, yeah, what's the connection between Japan and Brazil?
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B
Yeah, absolutely. So outside of Japan, the largest Japanese expat population is right here in Sao Paulo. Right. So it's really insane because this really started two generations ago. And so far, Brazil and Japan has had this tie that cuts across culture, cuts across trade, and that's really something that we really want to bring to this new technology that we have here today. If you think about how money moves, it's still going through very traditional rails that existed five decades ago. So we see blockchain as a way of facilitating some of those connections at a whole different level.
- [02:23]
A
All right, what's your thesis? What kind of firms are you looking at?
- [02:27]
B
We believe in blockchain's potential to transform the future of finance. So we're really looking at any blockchain startup that's creating financial products and services. This includes stablecoins, payments, tokenized assets, DeFi and financial markets infrastructure.
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C
When you look at those, is there something you're looking for from a founder, from an idea that is, is it about uniqueness and never been done, or is it you're taking a proven case and you're actually just amplifying it?
- [02:57]
B
What we really look for is distribution advantage. So do you have specific access to customer segments, whether consumer or businesses that you have unfair advantage to? Because the fact of the matter is today when you talk about a stablecoin, a payment product, it's pretty much a dime a dozen, right? Creating these products are not technically diffic code anymore. And with stellar sort of support, the open infrastructure, it's just so easy, right? But what is a lot harder is to get distribution, is to get users, is to get customers. So that to us is what's truly important. We're looking for founders with the access to hard to reach customer segments and then we want to support them.
- [03:33]
A
I'm going to reveal some more. Sam and I are actually going to be in Asia next week and I know that you're also building a community with your on chain conference and this is going to be all around real world assets and I've been talking about real world assets at the desk today. Talk to us about that and, and building a community around this in Asia.
- [03:54]
B
So the community of on chain was actually what led to Onigiri Capital being started. What we saw is more and more Asian financial institutions, your banks, your asset managers, they were coming to us to say, hey, we want to understand this blockchain thing, right? We suspect it is going to disrupt our business, but we want to figure out a safe and reliable way to truly understand and get our hands in. So that's why we set up onchain as the platform where we can connect founders and builders to these institutions. And then that was actually how Onigiri Capital was born, where we invited these Asian institutions to come on board as our investors of the fund. With not just the purpose of making money, but more importantly to discover startups that they can bring in and innovate internally. And I think that to us is really exciting because startups bring the energy, bring the technology, but institutions bring the trust, they bring the customers. And we think that when both come together, that's where the magic Happens.
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C
And what is Onigiri's relationship with Stellar? How do you guys work together? Are they helping to bubble up ideas and deal flow? What's the relationship there?
- [04:58]
B
Yeah, so we're really excited to partner with Stellar because what we see, Stellar's mission is very aligned with what we're trying to do. Stellar was created to enable financial innovation to happen. They have been pioneers in bringing tokenized assets on chain. And what we have noticed is that Stellar has been especially strong in Western markets in terms of their collaborations and partnerships. So Onigiri Capital and Stellar are now working together to bring some of the same success, some of the same stories, the same technology to Asia. And what we're seeing is that in very key markets in Asia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, these are all markets that are hungry. Hungry for blockchains that are compliant, hungry for blockchains that have proven track record of large amounts of assets on chain.
- [05:41]
A
Clarify something for me. The investment is going to be made in startups that are largely founded in Latin America. Is that, is that correct?
- [05:48]
B
It's a global mandate. But I think we are particularly excited at backing founders in Brazil because what we have seen is that Brazil is one of the most advanced markets among emerging economies in terms of fintech innovation. We see a very high quality of talent over here, so we're going to back Latin American founders especially. And we have a special focus on Brazil in particular and we want to help them export their technology, their products to Asia.
- [06:12]
C
I'm interested in going back to Japan in the sense that, you know, next week is Korea Blockchain week Token is in Singapore. The next week our event is in Hong Kong. Is Japan where it needs to be in the, in the crypto market. What's the, what's the vibe and the sentiments in Japan itself?
- [06:27]
B
Yeah, Japan has always been a later mover, a slower mover, but when it moves, it moves large. Right. And the commitments are significant. We are seeing that already happen as we speak. In the past six months, we had not just the first US dollar stablecoin that's approved, we are the first Japanese yen stablecoin that has been approved. So what we're seeing is really a lot of influx of activity, a lot of support from multiple parties, the regulators, the startups, the investors, the financial institutions. So we think that Japan is a place that one cannot miss out on.
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A
You know, we talk a lot and we have talked a lot on this show about US dollar backed stablecoins. You mentioned Japan just got approval for a yen backed stablecoin.
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B
Yes.
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A
Talk to us a little bit about the significance of that because I think it's big.
- [07:14]
B
Absolutely. So if you think about the G3 currencies, the three most significant currencies, obviously number one is the US dollar and I think the US dollar, stablecoin has achieved product market fit. No debate about that. Right. And then the second currency is the euro and we are seeing that adoption start to pick up, especially with the MICA regulations in place. Then the question is, who is the third? The third is the Japanese yen. And so when you take into account that that a first Japanese yen, Stablecoin, is finally available, we think this is a huge move that will fundamentally change global markets.
- [07:48]
C
I'm interested, just last question. What got you personally interested in crypto?
- [07:53]
B
To me, it's really the potential of it being able to change how money moves. To me, it's insane that today if I want to contact either of you, I send a text message, you get it right away. But let's say I want to send $10 to you. Oh, look, the banks in Singapore are now closed. Right. So you can get the money. And if today is a Friday night, sorry, you only get the transfer on Monday. So I think what really excites me is Blockchain is presenting new rails for money to move. And finally we can put this whole financial world at the speed of Internet.
- [08:24]
A
Chen, thank you so much for joining us here at the desk.
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B
Thank you.