The SoftBank Vision Fund is a
venture capital
Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which h ...
fund founded in 2017 that is part of the
SoftBank Group
is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the Vi ...
. With over $100 billion in capital, it is the world's largest technology-focused
investment fund
An investment fund is a way of investing money alongside other investors in order to benefit from the inherent advantages of working as part of a group such as reducing the risks of the investment by a significant percentage. These advantages inc ...
. In 2019, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 was founded.
The total
fair value
In accounting and in most schools of economic thought, fair value is a rational and unbiased estimate of the potential market price of a good, service, or asset. The derivation takes into account such objective factors as the costs associated wi ...
of both funds as of 31 March 2021 was $154 billion.
History
The Softbank Vision Fund was created in May 2017 by the
Softbank Group
is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the Vi ...
and the
Public Investment Fund
The Public Investment Fund (PIF; ar, links=no, صندوق الإستثمارات العامة) is the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. It is among the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world with total estimated assets of $620 billi ...
(PIF).
$100 billion was raised with PIF contributing $45 billion, SoftBank contributing $28 billion, the
Mubadala Investment Company
Mubadala Investment Company PJSC ( ar, شركة مبادلة للاستثمار), or simply Mubadala, is an Emirati state-owned holding company that acts as a sovereign wealth fund. The company was established in 2017 when then-named Mubadala Dev ...
contributing $15 billion and the rest from other investors including
Apple. Through Softbank Vision Fund,
Masayoshi Son
Masayoshi Son ( ja, 孫 正義, translit=Son Masayoshi, ko, 손정의, translit=Son Jeong-ui) (born 11 August 1957) is a Korean-Japanese billionaire technology entrepreneur, investor, financier and philanthropist. A 3rd generation "Zainichi Kore ...
explained his intent to invest in all companies developing technologies in line with the global
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...
trends, including various sectors such as finance or transportation.
In July 2019, SoftBank announced the creation of SoftBank Vision Fund 2 with investors from technology companies such as
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
, Apple and Foxconn as well as financial service companies such as
Standard Chartered,
Mizuho Bank,
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and
MUFG Bank
is the largest bank in Japan. It was established on January 1, 2006, following the merger of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Ltd. and UFJ Bank Ltd. MUFG is one of the three so-called Japanese "megabanks" (along with SMBC and Mizuho). As such, ...
.
The
National Investment Corporation of National Bank of Kazakhstan was also an investor.
Saudi Arabia was not an investor in the second fund.
The fund was reported to focus on AI-based technology and reach an investment of approximately $108 billion, of which $38 billion would come from Softbank itself.
In January 2020, multiple Softbank-funded startups started cutting their staff, such as at
Getaround
Getaround is an online car sharing or peer-to-peer carsharing service that connects drivers who need to reserve cars with car owners who share their cars in exchange for payment.
As of 2019, the company was reported to have five million users and ...
,
Oyo,
Rappi
Rappi is a Colombian multivertical company headquartered in Bogotá, Colombia, and with main offices in São Paulo and Mexico City. It was founded in 2015 by Simón Borrero, Sebastian Mejía, Felipe Villamarín and Guillermo Plaza.
History
Ra ...
,
Katerra
Katerra was an American technology-driven off-site construction company. It was founded in 2015 by Michael Marks, former CEO of Flextronics and former Tesla interim CEO, along with Fritz Wolff, the executive chairman of The Wolff Co. Katerra was ...
and
Zume
Zume, Inc. is an American manufacturing-technology company headquartered in Camarillo, California. Founded in 2015 as an automated food delivery company, in 2020 the company shifted to food packaging and delivery logistics.
History
Zume was fou ...
. In February 2020,
Elliott Management, an activist hedge fund, bought a $2.5 billion stake in Softbank and pushed for restructuration and more transparency, especially regarding its Vision Fund. With many portfolio companies of the first fund not performing well and high profile debacles such as the buyout of
Wework
WeWork Inc. is a provider of coworking spaces, including physical and virtual shared spaces, headquartered in New York City. As of December 31, 2021, the company operated of space, including in the United States and Canada, in 756 locatio ...
after its failed
Initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...
, investor confidence in the Vision Fund fell.
In May 2020, Softbank announced the Vision Fund lost $18 billion leading to 15% of the fund's 500 staff being laid off. As a result, the Vision Fund 2 raised less than half of its $108 billion goal with all of it being funded by Softbank itself after failure to secure commitments from external investors.
In May 2021, SoftBank announced the total
fair value
In accounting and in most schools of economic thought, fair value is a rational and unbiased estimate of the potential market price of a good, service, or asset. The derivation takes into account such objective factors as the costs associated wi ...
of both funds as of 31 March 2021 was $154 billion and the Vision Funds made a record profit of $36.99 billion due to its successful investment in
Coupang
Coupang ( ko, 쿠팡) is a South Korean e-commerce company based in Seoul, South Korea, and incorporated in Delaware, United States. Founded in 2010 by Bom Kim, the company expanded to become the largest online marketplace in South Korea. I ...
.
After announcing the success, SoftBank raised the size of Vision Fund 2 to $30 billion and stated it plans to continue self funding the second fund although it might consider trying again to secure funding from external investors.
Also in May 2021, Bloomberg reported that Vision Fund could become public through a $300 million
SPAC in 2021, listing in Amsterdam.
In 2022, SoftBank Vision Fund posted a record 3.5 trillion yen loss ($27.4 billion) for its financial year ended on 31 March 2022 as the valuation of its stock portfolio plummeted.
In July 2022, CEO
Rajeev Misra
Rajeev Misra is a London-based banker and executive. He is the CEO of SoftBank Investment Advisers which oversees the firm’s Vision Funds.
Early life and education
Misra was born in 1962 in Balasore, Odisha, India. He attended Delhi Public S ...
announced he would be stepping back from some of his main roles including the management of SoftBank Vision Fund 2.
Several other executives stepped down from their roles in the same year.
In August 2022, the Vision fund announced a loss of $23.1 billion for the April-June quarter and that it would be planning to cut headcounts. Eric J. Savitz, associate editor for technology at
Barron's Barron's or Barrons may refer to:
*Barron's Educational Series, a publisher of books, as well as college entrance exam preparation classes and materials, now an imprint of Kaplan Test Prep
** B.E.S. Publishing, the former owner of Barron's
* ''Barr ...
, characterized the SoftBank Vision Fund as a failed experiment. Masayoshi Son said at the time he was “embarrassed” and “ashamed” when he was confronted with SoftBank Vision Fund's dismal performance and
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
called SoftBank a “big loser"
while
Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to:
People
* Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer
* Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian
* Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and m ...
elaborated on “Masayoshi Son’s broken business model." Son's investing strategy in the first and second SoftBank Vision Funds established in 2017 and 2019, was being described as one reliant on the
greater fool theory
In finance, the greater fool theory suggests that one can sometimes make money through the purchase of overvalued items with a purchase price drastically exceeding the intrinsic valueif those assets can later be resold at an even higher price.
I ...
and the lackluster performance of its investments and Masayoshi Son’s presentations in face of that, have been ridiculed by specialized media.
Business overview
SoftBank Vision Fund is managed by SoftBank Investment Advisers and SoftBank Vision Fund 2 is managed by SoftBank Global Advisors.
Both are subsidiaries of the SoftBank Group.
The firm has an investment team that will evaluate and select companies for the funds to invest in.
Investments made mostly are either
venture capital
Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which h ...
or
private equity
In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a t ...
type ones. Most of the investments in Silicon Valley companies have been more than $100 million.
SoftBank Investment Advisers is headquartered in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
with additional main offices in
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...
and
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
. It also has other offices in
Abu Dhabi,
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
,
Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...
,
Riyadh
Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of th ...
,
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
and
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
. The current CEO is
Rajeev Misra
Rajeev Misra is a London-based banker and executive. He is the CEO of SoftBank Investment Advisers which oversees the firm’s Vision Funds.
Early life and education
Misra was born in 1962 in Balasore, Odisha, India. He attended Delhi Public S ...
, who was previously SoftBank's head of strategic finance.
The largest investor of the first Vision Fund is the
Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia
The Public Investment Fund (PIF; ar, links=no, صندوق الإستثمارات العامة) is the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. It is among the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world with total estimated assets of $620 billion ...
contributing $45 billion of the $100 billion fund.
Other investors include
Softbank
is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the Vi ...
,
Mubadala
Mubadala Investment Company PJSC ( ar, شركة مبادلة للاستثمار), or simply Mubadala, is an Emirati state-owned holding company that acts as a sovereign wealth fund. The company was established in 2017 when then-named Mubadala Dev ...
as well as technology firms,
Foxconn
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., trading as Hon Hai Technology Group in China and Taiwan and Foxconn internationally, is a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer established in 1974 with headquarters in Tucheng, New ...
,
Qualcomm,
Sharp
Sharp or SHARP may refer to:
Acronyms
* SHARP (helmet ratings) (Safety Helmet Assessment and Rating Programme), a British motorcycle helmet safety rating scheme
* Self Help Addiction Recovery Program, a charitable organisation founded in 19 ...
and
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...
.
The second Vision Fund is solely funded by Softbank itself after failure to secure commitment from external investors due to underwhelming performance of its predecessor.
Notable investments
*
Arm Ltd.
*
Automation Anywhere
*
ByteDance
ByteDance Ltd. () is a Chinese internet technology company headquartered in Beijing and incorporated in the Cayman Islands.
Founded by Zhang Yiming, Liang Rubo and a team of others in 2012, ByteDance developed the video-sharing social network ...
*
C2FO
*
Cohesity
Cohesity is an American privately held information technology company headquartered in San Jose, California with offices in India and Ireland. The company develops software that allows IT professionals to backup, manage and gain insights from t ...
*
Compass
A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself wit ...
*
Coupang
Coupang ( ko, 쿠팡) is a South Korean e-commerce company based in Seoul, South Korea, and incorporated in Delaware, United States. Founded in 2010 by Bom Kim, the company expanded to become the largest online marketplace in South Korea. I ...
*
Cruise
*
DiDi
Didi may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* "Didi" (song), a song by Khaled
* Didi, the principal character in ''Didi's Comedy Show'', a German comedy television show
* Didi Pickles, mother of Tommy and Dil in the cartoons ''Rugrats'' and ''All ...
*
Digits
*
DoorDash
DoorDash, Inc. is an American company that operates an online food ordering and food delivery platform. The company is based in San Francisco, California. It went public in December 2020 on NYSE and trades under the symbol DASH.
With a 56% m ...
*
eToro
eToro is an Israeli social trading and multi-asset investment company that focuses on providing financial and copy trading services. Its headquarters are located in Central Israel, and the company has registered offices in Cyprus, the Unite ...
*
Fanatics
Fanaticism (from the Latin adverb ''fānāticē'' ren-''fānāticus''; enthusiastic, ecstatic; raging, fanatical, furious is a belief or behavior involving uncritical zeal or an obsessive enthusiasm.
Definitions
Philosopher George Santayana ...
*
Flipkart
Flipkart Private Limited is an Indian e-commerce company, headquartered in Bengaluru, and incorporated in Singapore as a private limited company. The company initially focused on online book sales before expanding into other product categorie ...
*
Flexport
Flexport Inc. is an American multinational corporation that focuses on supply chain management and logistics, including order management, trade financing, insurance, freight forwarding and customs brokerage. The company is headquartered in San ...
*
Fungible Inc.
*
Getaround
Getaround is an online car sharing or peer-to-peer carsharing service that connects drivers who need to reserve cars with car owners who share their cars in exchange for payment.
As of 2019, the company was reported to have five million users and ...
*
Improbable
*
Kabbage
Kabbage, Inc., is an online financial technology company based in Atlanta, Georgia. The company provides funding directly to small businesses and consumers through an automated lending platform. American Express acquired the company in 2020.
Hi ...
*
Katerra
Katerra was an American technology-driven off-site construction company. It was founded in 2015 by Michael Marks, former CEO of Flextronics and former Tesla interim CEO, along with Fritz Wolff, the executive chairman of The Wolff Co. Katerra was ...
*
Klarna
Klarna Bank AB, commonly referred to as Klarna, is a Swedish fintech company that provides online financial services such as payments for online storefronts and direct payments along with post-purchase payments.
The company has more than 4,000 ...
*
Lenskart
Lenskart is an Indian multinational optical prescription eyewear retail chain, based in Faridabad. Lenskart had 900+ stores in over 46 cities in India. Its manufacturing facility in New Delhi manufactures 3 lakh glasses a month.
Lenskart is ...
*
Mapbox
Mapbox is an American provider of custom online maps for websites and applications such as Foursquare, Lonely Planet, the ''Financial Times'', The Weather Channel, Instacart Inc. and Snapchat. Since 2010, it has rapidly expanded the niche of c ...
*
Nvidia
Nvidia CorporationOfficially written as NVIDIA and stylized in its logo as VIDIA with the lowercase "n" the same height as the uppercase "VIDIA"; formerly stylized as VIDIA with a large italicized lowercase "n" on products from the mid 1990s to ...
*
OneWeb
OneWeb (legally Network Access Associates Ltd) is a communications company that aims to build broadband satellite Internet services. The company is headquartered in London, and has offices in Virginia, US and a satellite manufacturing facility ...
*
Opendoor
Opendoor Technologies Inc. is an online company that buys and sells residential real estate. Headquartered in San Francisco, it makes instant cash offers on homes through an online process, makes repairs on the properties it purchases and relists ...
*
OurCrowd
OurCrowd is an online global venture investing platform that empowers institutions and individual accredited investors to invest and engage in emerging technology companies at an early stage while still privately held. Based in Jerusalem, the co ...
*
Oyo Rooms
OYO Rooms (stylised as OYO), also known as OYO Hotels & Homes, is an Indian multinational hospitality chain of leased and franchised hotels, homes, and living spaces. Founded in 2012 by Ritesh Agarwal, OYO initially consisted mainly of budget ...
*
Ping An Good Doctor
*
PolicyBazaar
Policybazaar is an Indian insurance aggregator and multinational financial technology company based in Gurgaon. The company was founded in June 2008 by Yashish Dahiya, Alok Bansal and Avaneesh Nirjar. It provides a digital platform - website an ...
*
Rappi
Rappi is a Colombian multivertical company headquartered in Bogotá, Colombia, and with main offices in São Paulo and Mexico City. It was founded in 2015 by Simón Borrero, Sebastian Mejía, Felipe Villamarín and Guillermo Plaza.
History
Ra ...
*
Revolut
Revolut is a British financial technology company that offers banking services, but did not have a UK banking licence. Headquartered in London, it was founded in 2015 by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko. It offers accounts featuring currency ...
*
Roivant Sciences
Roivant Sciences is a healthcare company focused on applying technology to drug development. Roivant builds subsidiary biotech and healthcare technology companies.
History
Vivek Ramaswamy founded Roivant Sciences in 2014. Focused on aligning in ...
*
Slack
*
Swiggy
Swiggy is an Indian online food ordering and delivery platform. Founded in July 2014, Swiggy is based in Bangalore and operates in 500 Indian cities as of September 2021. Besides food delivery, Swiggy also provides on-demand grocery deliveries ...
*
The Hut Group
THG plc, formerly The Hut Group, is a British e-commerce retail company headquartered at Manchester Airport, England. It sells own-brand and third-party cosmetics, dietary supplements, luxury goods, and licensed and personalised products onlin ...
*
Uber
Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), packa ...
*
Unacademy
Unacademy is an Indian educational technology company that provides online educational platform with its headquarters in Bangalore, Karnataka. It prepares students for various competitive exams(like JEE, NEET, UPSC, CA, GATE, UPSC NDA, CUE ...
*
View, Inc.
*
Wag
*
WeWork
WeWork Inc. is a provider of coworking spaces, including physical and virtual shared spaces, headquartered in New York City. As of December 31, 2021, the company operated of space, including in the United States and Canada, in 756 locatio ...
*
Wiliot
Wiliot is a startup company developing Internet of Things technology for supply-chains and asset management, founded in 2017 and based in Caesarea, Israel, with customer operations in San Diego, US.
Wiliot develops battery-free printable ...
*
ZhongAn
ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance Co. Ltd. is a Chinese online-only insurance company. Founded in 2013, the company's headquarters are based in Shanghai, China. ZhongAn's chairman and executive director is Yaping Ou who is also an executive director. ...
*
Zume
Zume, Inc. is an American manufacturing-technology company headquartered in Camarillo, California. Founded in 2015 as an automated food delivery company, in 2020 the company shifted to food packaging and delivery logistics.
History
Zume was fou ...
*
Zymergen
Zymergen is an American biotechnology company based in Emeryville, California. The company applies genomics and machine learning to research and design chemical producing genetically modified organisms. Shortly after going public in 2021, it was ...
References
External links
www.visionfund.com(Company Website)
{{authority control
Financial services companies established in 2017
Financial services companies based in London
Public Investment Fund
SoftBank Group
Venture capital firms of the United Kingdom