Japan-based telecommunications and internet group SoftBank could begin investing out of its second Vision Fund as early as next month, founder and CEO Masayoshi Son revealed in a news conference yesterday.
The second Vision Fund was launched late last month with memoranda of understanding from investors to commit $108bn of capital. It comes in the wake of the first Vision Fund, which raised $98.6bn from SoftBank and a range of limited partners.
Corporates Apple, Foxconn, Microsoft and Dai-ichi Life are among the backers of Vision Fund II that have been named by SoftBank, and Son said this week that the Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds that anchored the first Vision Fund have displayed “high interest” in the second vehicle.
The news was revealed alongside figures that showed Vision Fund generated an operating profit of about $3.7bn for the three months ending in June this year, taking into account increases in the valuation of portfolio companies including Slack, Oyo and DoorDash.
The company claims that the $66.8bn it has invested in a total of 81 companies is now worth more than $82bn. The second Vision Fund will begin participating in deals when the first one has committed 85% of its capital.
SoftBank is increasingly focusing its business on the activities of Vision Fund and is in the process of selling telecommunications business Sprint to T-Mobile for roughly $54bn.
“It will not be an exaggeration to say that the future of our company will basically be the Vision Fund,” Son was quoted by the Financial Times as saying this week.
