SoftBank announced that it would add five billion USD to its Latin America Fund. The additional investment would cover eCommerce, healthcare, and fintech industries. The added investment would also positively affect 650 firms operating in Latin America.
According to the managing partner and head of SoftBank's Southern Cone region Andres Freire, the company is focused on investing more in companies that could generate long-term profitability.
He said in a roundtable with reporters in Buenos Aries that the countries affected by the added investment include Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and Mexico. However, he claimed that there is no present amount for each region.
The report claimed that the Latin America Fund already has 1.6 billion USD and that the added five billion USD investment is for further development of startups in the region. These include the funding of Rappi in Columbia, Gympass in Brazil, and Uala fintech firm in Argentina.
The company's move into Latin America was also reported to include the development of artificial intelligence (AI) startups that operates in food-related businesses. The said investment would promote the better use of technology features of these firms including the production of plant-based food.
The report claimed that more than 50 percent of the SoftBank-funded startups were from Brazil. Furthermore, it was also revealed that the Japanese conglomerate is focusing more on companies operating in Brazil, and one for each in Peru and Chile as well.
Freire also said that the company would continue its direct investments into venture capital firms around the world. It was revealed that it could further its 130 million USD investments into Kaszek Ventures. Furthermore, SoftBank also purchased a 100 million USD stake in Valor Capital Group.
The company would also be partnering with the Correlation One foundation. The said partnership would start with an 11-week training course to equip AI experts for future ventures.
AlphaCredit, a Latin-American-based company, has also sought funding from Softbank and sough to raise the amount of 125 million USD through the Latin America fund. The said fund was referred to as one of the leading technology investors globally and has established an equity infusion with AlphaCredit.
The increase in funding was set to consolidate one of the leading financial technology platforms in Latin America and improves innovatively efforts of eCommerce, fintech, and healthcare developments in the region.
In other news, Financial Times reported that the head of SoftBank's 100 billion USD Vision Fund Rajeev Misra has been pushing to establish a multibillion-dollar fund for complex bets on publicly traded companies.
The report claimed that Misra has acquired support from Abu Dhabi's state fund Mubadala that has aided the company to acquire interest from the government of Kazakhstan. It was then presumed that the value for the two-state funds could reach four billion USD.
