Hiroshi Mikitani, founder and chief executive of the Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten, will join the board of Lyft, the company announced on Tuesday.
Mr. Mikitani, often called Mickey by his peers, will join the five people already on Lyft’s board, who include the co-founders John Zimmer and Logan Green, as well as investors from Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund and Icahn Enterprises.
It is not Mr. Mikitani’s first introduction to Lyft, the ride-hailing start-up popular in cities like San Francisco and Austin, Texas. In March, Lyft announced a $530 million round of venture financing, led in large part by Rakuten, an 18-year-old online retail company widely known for its dominance of the Japanese e-commerce market.
Rakuten, and Mr. Mikitani in particular, has had an intense interest and desire to participate in Western technology markets in recent years. Rakuten has made significant investments in companies like Pinterest, as well as in smaller start-ups like Apcera and Slice.
“Passion and empowerment are core to Rakuten’s values, and we admire that Mickey has managed to firmly maintain those values as the company has grown into a global leader,” Lyft said in a company blog post.
Lyft has focused entirely on growing within the United States since it began in 2012. Mr. Zimmer, Lyft’s president, said in March that the company had grown by a factor of five over the last year, though he did not state revenue or user numbers.
With Mr. Mikitani’s appointment, Lyft noted in its blog post that it is continuing to explore expansion opportunities. In the past, Lyft has hinted at expanding internationally, though the company has never announced any formal plans to do so.
Lyft’s competition remains stiff, both domestically as well as abroad. Uber, the ride-hailing behemoth, has raised more than $6 billion in private venture capital, and it continues to grow rapidly in the United States, as well as in potentially lucrative markets like China and Southern Asia. And competitors like Didi Kuaidi and Ola have large footprints in Asia.
To date, Lyft has raised around $1 billion in venture capital.