Rene Abe to be named CEO of Rakuten Brazil

USA - English

• Latin America - español

SAO PAULO, July 11, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Rakuten Inc., today announced that Rene Abe is to be named as President and CEO of its Brazilian subsidiary, effective August 1.

As president and CEO of Rakuten Brazil, Abe will leverage his significant local experience in the e-commerce and payments industry to translate the global vision of Rakuten, Inc. for the needs of the local market. He will bring together Rakuten's global strategy with Rakuten Brazil's local knowledge and strengths to enhance the Brazilian Digital Commerce ecosystem.

"Brazil is not only the largest e-commerce market in Latin America but also a country with the upside to become a global leader. The market is poised for growth and Rene Abe will bring valuable local knowledge and understanding to best identify and capture market share in Brazil," said Yaz Iida, President of Rakuten USA.

"Rakuten was established nearly 20 years ago in Japan with a mission to empower people and society through the Internet. Empower the market is something beautiful in words – but its actual implementation brings unparalleled evolution to everyone – and that's we are aiming to build in Brazil. I look forward to working with the team at Rakuten Brazil to transform the way we do Digital Commerce here and I'm honored to lead this initiative,"- said Rene Abe.

Abe has been Chief Operations Officer of Rakuten Brazil since 2015, when he oversaw the launch of Rakuten Brazil's innovative platform to develop MultiChannel Digital Commerce operations. The resulting award-winning Rakuten Genesis Digital Commerce Platform offers total integration with retailers' back-offices, unifying orders, inventory and sales information in one integrated framework through its Rakuten Nexus Middleware. The Rakuten Genesis Digital Commerce Platform is available to merchants at no cost for setup, maintenance, or monthly fees in an ecosystem that offers logistics, payments and access to all marketplaces in the market.

Abe has more than 20 years of experience in the banking, e-commerce, internet and FinTech industries. Abe was previously Vice President of BuscaPe, where he led financial services operations to be a key element to its acquisition by Naspers in 2009. Before that Abe was LatAm Head of Global Core Payments for PayPal, Inc. Abe is also an angel investor in the hi-tech, biotech and artificial intelligence (AI) industries.

Yaz Iida continued, "Rakuten Brazil has been successfully led by Ken Okamoto for the last five years, from the acquisition of Ikeda in 2011 and the official launch of Rakuten Brazil in 2012. He has built Rakuten Brazil into what it is today. Rakuten is thankful for his service and we welcome him back to Tokyo for another important role with Rakuten."

About Rakuten Brazil

Rakuten Brazil is a full subsidiary of Rakuten Inc., founded in 1997 with the mission to empower the society through the Internet. Established in 2011, Rakuten Brazil started its operations through the acquisition of the best ecommerce solution provider in Brazil – Ikeda Ecommerce – and in those 5 years in the market, Rakuten Digital Commerce brings together the experience of 20 years in the Brazilian market with the high technology from the global presence of Rakuten, Inc. offering high performance Digital Commerce solutions. As well as providing services to global multinational clients, Rakuten Brazil's ecosystem also offers solutions to empower medium size companies to reach their full potential through its payments, logistics and internet traffic generation solutions. Netshoes, considered special and successful e-commerce operation benchmarks started their operations with the Rakuten Brazil Ecosystem Solutions.

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SOURCE Rakuten, Inc.

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