7 key things to know about SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund

Japanese tech conglomerate Softbank has pput its money behind 7 unicorns in India, including Paytm, OYO Rooms and Ola Cabs, among others. (Image: Reuters)

Moneycontrol News 

Japan’s SoftBank on Thursday has become the largest shareholder of Bangalore based Flipkart after it announced a massive infusion of funds through its newly closed USD 100 billion Vision Fund.

Vision Fund is giving sleepless nights to smaller VCs globally as they fear that it will cannibalise the alluring large deals across continents in the technology space.

The investment in Flipkart by Vision Fund is estimated to be the tune of USD 2.5 billion.

Here are seven things to know about the world’s largest tech fund:

1) The largest contributors to the USD 93 billion dollars fund are:

-Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund with USD 45 billion

-SoftBank with USD 28 billion

-Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company with USD 15 billion

-The fund also included limited partners such as Apple, Qualcomm, Sharp, Foxconn and Oracle in the fund. (Source: Techcrunch)

2) The fund was first announced in October 2016, when it was slated to be USD 100 billion fund. However, according to the SEC filing in June 2017, it is reported to be USD 7 billion less than the intended amount.

3) The Fund is being headed by an Indian. IIT Delhi alumnus and former Deutsche Bank’s employee Rajeev Misra, who also looked after strategic finance division of Softbank is the CEO of the fund. Misra joined SoftBank in November 2014.

Watch||Explainer: Why are Indian Startups Stumbling?

4) The SoftBank Vision Fund team is expected to be about 100-strong who will take decisions on investments in tech sector around the world. The Vision Fund is expected to be based in West London.

5) The Vision Fund will enable long-term, large-scale investments to fund growth in the technology sector, investing up to USD 100 billion over the next five years. The fund will invest across technologies from virtual reality to autonomous driving and the Internet of Things.

6) The Fund will invest through minority/majority stakes in companies and public equity investments of USD 100 million or more. It will aim for a minimum investment horizon of ten years.

7) According to a Bloomberg report, Softbank Chairman Masayoshi Son has named the investment vehicle as the ‘Vision Fund’ as it will help the company’s ambition to a ‘future where satellite networks cover every inch of the Earth and a trillion devices connected to the internet disgorge data into the cloud where it is analyzed by artificial intelligence.’

“The Vision Fund is not about taking on the world with one specific technology, business model or brand. It’s about people sharing the same vision coming together to start a revolution,” says Masayoshi Son.