SoftBank To Soon Start Investing From Its $108 Bn Vision Fund II

SoftBank’s mammoth Vision Fund II will start making investments in the next month or two, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son reportedly said yesterday (August 7). The Japanese conglomerate recently reported high gains on its first technology-focused vision fund.

Just yesterday, SoftBank was reported to be exploring investments in the shared mobility space in India, including two-wheeler rentals, and self-driving vehicle rentals among others.

SoftBank has recently announced the $108 Bn Vision Fund II, with commitments from tech majors such as Microsoft and Apple, along with banks like the National Bank of Kazakhstan, and Standard Chartered Bank.

Further, SoftBank’s first fund investors, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi are showing high interest in participating in the SoftBank’s second fund, Son reportedly said. 

SoftBank Vision Fund and Delta fund together raked in income of $3.76 Bn (¥397.6 Bn). This included unrealised gain on valuation of investments of $3.86 Bn (¥408.5 Bn), based on the increase in fair values of hospitality major OYO and its affiliate, enterprise software maker Slack, Doordash, and other investments.

The gain on investments at SoftBank Vision Fund and Delta Fund was reported to be $3.92 Bn (¥414.4 Bn), a 67.6% Y-o-Y growth. Launched in 2017 by SoftBank, Vision Fund is a $100 Bn investment fund, and has a portfolio of 81 investments, as at the end of Q1 2019.

The total cost of these investments is $66.3 Bn, with fair value amounting to $82.2 Bn (excluding exited investments). During the first quarter, SoftBank Vision Fund’s two investments, Uber and Slack have gone public.

SoftBank Vision Fund was set up in 2017 with a total corpus of $100Bn. Most of this vision fund was raised from Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. Overall, the company has invested around $10 Bn so far in Indian startups.

SoftBank’s other key investments in India include Ola, OYO, Hike, Paytm, FirstCry, Grofers, Delhivery, Automation Anywhere, and Paytm Mall. Earlier this month, SoftBank was said to be in talks to launch an initial public offering of its $100 Bn SoftBank Vision Fund.

SoftBank Vision Fund was recently reported to be looking to hire a dozen executives in its India operations team over the next few months. “while the operating team will focus on helping our portfolio companies grow globally, they will also be actively investing. The investing and operating teams will work very closely,” the managing partner of SoftBank Investment Advisers, Munish Varma had reportedly said earlier.

During his visit to India in April 2018, CEO Son had reiterated his commitment to invest further in the Indian landscape. Sharing his vision for SoftBank’s portfolio, he said, “Making local companies go global while global to go local’.