Telecommunications and internet group SoftBank has provided $200m of a $400m fund raised by Abu Dhabi-owned investment vehicle Mubadala, the Financial Times reported yesterday, citing people with direct knowledge of the fund.
The fund in question will invest in Europe-based startups, and SoftBank’s involvement comes after Mubadala provided $15bn in capital for the corporate’s Vision Fund, which is sized just short of $100bn, in 2017.
Sources told the FT the fund will invest between $5m and $30m in Europe-headquartered startups which could theoretically then turn to Vision Fund for funding at later stage.
Such an arrangement would of course throw both entities open to conflicts of interest, particularly considering Vision Fund’s tendency to make large-scale investments that often represent significant leaps in portfolio companies’ valuations.
A source close to SoftBank however told the FT that since the funds’ thematic and geographical focuses do not cross over, an overlap in activity would be unlikely.
Investors at the new fund are currently operating out of SoftBank’s offices in London, before switching to a dedicated headquarters in the city slated to open later this year.
Plans for the fund, then known as Mubadala Ventures Fund I, were originally announced in October 2017, at which time it was characterised as an early growth-stage investor that would target portfolio companies in Europe and the US.
Mubadala already has a venture capital team in place that largely operates out of bases in Abu Dhabi and San Francisco. It has reportedly already made several investments but has not disclosed details.
