Japan­ese bil­lion­aire Hi­roshi Mik­i­tani bankrolls As­pyr­i­an with a $150M mega-round, back­ing a glob­al roll­out plan for PhI­II can­cer ther­a­py

Among the world’s bil­lion­aires, Hi­roshi Mik­i­tani is one of the most promi­nent en­thu­si­asts. Start­ing with 6 staffers and a small sum of cash, he turned Rakuten in­to an on­line pow­er­house in Japan that is ranked among the world’s top e-tail­ers. An icon­o­clast in an econ­o­my dom­i­nat­ed by tra­di­tion­al­ists, he’s man­dat­ed that every­one in his com­pa­ny learn and speak Eng­lish as their first lan­guage. His re­cent ven­tures in­clude a part­ner­ship with Wal­mart for an on­line su­per­mar­ket in Japan. 

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER