Apart from its multi-billion dollar Vision fund, Japanese conglomerate SoftBank has now revealed that it will be starting a new fund aimed at technology companies in Latin America. The new US$5 billion investment fund, called the SoftBank Innovation Fund, is the company's way of ramping up its global reach outside of its current investment runs.
According to the company's Chief Operating Officer, Marcelo Claure, the new fund will have an initial budget of US$2 billion, which SoftBank has already set aside. Claure has been assigned to manage the new fund, which will extend his responsibilities beyond overseeing the company's other firms. SoftBank currently has stakes in several multi-billion dollar firms including the world's leading mobile chip manufacturer, ARM, which Claude manages.
The Bolivian-born SoftBank executive mentioned in a recent statement that the company has seen great potential in the growing tech industry in Latin America. Claure explained that there is currently a lot of innovation in the region, which SoftBank believes will offer them great business opportunities. SoftBank's founder and CEO, Masayoshi Son, also explained in a statement that he believes that Latin America is in the brink of becoming one of the biggest economic regions in the world.
Similar to its other investments across the globe, the new SoftBank Innovation Fund will be focusing on investing in tech companies working on concepts in industries such as e-commerce, finance tech, and healthcare. According to Vision Fund's head Rajeev Mishra, should the Innovation Fund require any additional financing, his fund can co-invest on worthy prospects. Both Mishra and Claure are seen as potential successors to the company's founder.
The fund meant specifically for the Latin American markets is relatively smaller when compared to the company's US$100 billion Vision Fund. The fund, which had received massive backing from Saudi Arabia, had made huge waves in the technology sector with its recent investments in tech startups such as the ride-hailing firm Uber among other companies.
Despite being smaller than the Vision Fund, The Wall Street Journal points out that the size of the new investment fund is actually larger than the total venture capital investments made in the region for the past two years. As far as its presence in the Latin American region is concerned, SoftBank has made big bets in a number of startups.
Most recently, the company made a US$100 million stake in a ride-hailing startup company called 99, which was later acquired by a company SoftBank had also invested in called Didi Chuxing. SoftBank's Innovation Fund will mainly be focusing on major regions such as Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, and Chile.
