SoftBank closes first round of Vision Fund at $93 billion

SoftBank’s $100 billion investment fund has announced its first close at massive $93 billion from a slew of investors including  Apple, Qualcomm, UAE-based Mubadala Investment Company, Saudi Arabia’s PID public fund, Foxconn, and Foxconn-owned Sharp.

The investment vehicle christened Vision fund will be headed by Rajeev Misra, a veteran 54-year-old Wall Street finance executive, who joined SoftBank in 2014 after stints with UBS, Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch. SoftBank said the fund will get the balance $7 billion within six months.

Vision Fund

SoftBank announced a new global tech investment fund in October with $25 billion seed capital and backed by Saudi Arabia’s main sovereign wealth fund. The fund is committing to a minimum of $100 million deal checks, with a focus on both minority and majority deals with companies that are either private or public. The specific domains of focus include internet-of-things, AI, robotics, infrastructure, telecoms, biotech, Fintech, mobile apps and more.

“Technology has the potential to address the biggest challenges and risks facing humanity today,” Son said in a statement. “The businesses working to solve these problems will require patient long-term capital and visionary strategic investment partners with the resources to nurture their success. SoftBank has long made bold investments in transformative technologies and supported disruptive entrepreneurs. The SoftBank Vision Fund is consistent with this strategy and will help build and grow businesses creating the foundational platforms of the next stage of the Information Revolution.”

Son sees himself as the biggest investor in the technology industry over the next five years and he has already been working on it. Some of the recent deals from the fund include Indian Fintech unicorn Paytm, virtual reality Improbable Worlds, China’s Uber killer Didi Chuxing, and global connectivity company OneWeb.