Telecommunications and internet group SoftBank is partnering Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala Investment Company, to form a $400m investment fund called Mubadala Ventures Fund I, they announced on Wednesday.
The plans were announced shortly before SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son told Nikkei Asian Review that the firm intends to raise successors to the Vision Fund, which reached a $93bn first close earlier this year, having attracted $15bn from Mubadala.
“The Vision Fund was just the first step, ¥10 trillion ($88bn) is simply not enough,” Son said, adding: “We will briskly expand the scale. Vision Funds 2, 3 and 4 will be established every two to three years.
“We are creating a mechanism to increase our funding ability from ¥10 trillion to ¥20 trillion to ¥100 trillion.”
Son said he expects the initial Vision Fund to exhaust its capital allocation in roughly two years, and claimed the funds may have invested in “least 1,000 companies within 10 years”.
Mubadala Ventures Fund I will target investments in what Mubadala referred to as the “early growth” stage, and intends to build a 25-strong portfolio of North America and Europe-based companies that span a wide range of technologies.
The vehicle will form part of a drive by Mubadala to set up a dedicated venture capital arm in San Francisco that will also oversee a $200m fund-of-funds that will commit between $50m and $70m a time to US and European VC funds.
Rajeev Misra, chief executive of SoftBank Vision Fund, said: “Mubadala is a strategic partner to SoftBank, and this initiative will be an important part of the Vision Fund’s ecosystem of companies and entrepreneurs.
“Mubadala’s approach to venture capital and their San Francisco office indicates a long-term commitment to the technology community.”