SoftBank Group has significantly increased start-up investments this year, with the number of companies in its Vision Fund doubling fivefold in less than nine months.
According to Arab Net, Masayoshi Son, founder of the SoftBank Group, has concluded 115 deals this year, according to data released by the company, and this number is more than the total number of deals held by the First SoftBank Vision Fund since its inception in 2017, Masayoshi Son is still confident of His investment ability despite faltering his bets on office-sharing company WeWork and financier Greensell
SoftBank Group is stepping up its investments at a time when venture capital activity is at its peak. Startup funding reached a world record high of $156 billion in the second quarter, according to CB Insights.
In the meantime, Son increased the amount of money allocated to the Vision 2 fund from $10 billion at the start of the year to $40 billion in June. The billionaire also plans to invest up to $2.6 billion of his own money in the fund.
SoftBank's First Vision Fund deals have often hit billions - more than $10 billion in Didi Chuxing, $7.7 billion at Uber and $4.4 billion in WeWork -Vision Fund 2 made only three investments worth more than $1 billion, including a $1.3 billion bet on Chinese company KE Holdings Inc that operates online real estate service Beike.
In addition to the two Vision Funds, SoftBank has set up a $5 billion Latin American fund that has invested in 48 companies since its inception in March 2019. Sun previously bolstered This month, the region's capital allocated an additional $3 billion.
In its latest earnings briefing in August, the SoftBank founder said the group's portfolio totaled more than 300 companies across the three different funds. He said that the investment strategy remains the same, as it supports startups that rely on artificial intelligence to bypass traditional businesses.
