Nomura Targets Crypto Venture Space with Laser Digital

Japan-based financial giant Nomura is looking to expand its digital asset ambitions with a new crypto-focused company that will invest in the world’s innovators, as well as offer trading and other investment products to institutional clients.

Called Laser Digital, the company is set to initially concentrate on venture capital – investing in companies focused on DeFi, centralized finance, Web3 and blockchain infrastructure, the investment bank revealed on Wednesday.

The company intends to also focus on secondary trading and investor products as it seeks to launch more services in the coming months.

Steven Ashley and Jez Mohideen will become chairman and CEO of the new business respectively. Nomura has incorporated Laser Digital’s holding company in Switzerland.

“Staying at the forefront of digital innovation is a key priority for Nomura,” Nomura CEO Kentaro Okuda said in a statement. “This is why, along with our efforts to diversify our business, we announced earlier this year that Nomura would establish a new subsidiary focused on digital assets.”

Nomura had first revealed plans for the business in May – a month after it formed its digital company as part of a reorganization of its future innovation division.

“The new company will enable us to build a lead in providing institutional clients with access to a broad range of new products and services and contribute meaningfully to responsible innovation in the digital asset ecosystem,” Ashley said at the time.

Ashley, formerly head of Nomura’s wholesale division, has stepped down to help lead Laser Digital. Christopher Willcox, former chief executive of JPMorgan Asset Management, will replace him in that role on October 1, Nomura said in a statement.

Now Laser Digital’s CEO, Mohideen joined Nomura in 2018 as a global digital chief. Prior to Nomura, he had led the development of systematic trading opportunities at hedge fund Brevan Howard.

Nomura is not new to the crypto space. It partnered with crypto asset manager CoinShares and digital asset security company Ledger in 2020 to launch crypto depository Komainu.

A Nomura spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.

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