Telecommunications and internet group SoftBank’s Vision Fund took part in a $138m series E round yesterday for Globality, the US-based developer of an online marketplace for business services.
Vision Fund was joined by investment group Groupe Bruxelles Lambert’s Sienna Capital subsidiary, and the round pushed the company’s overall funding to $310m since it was founded in 2015. The capital was raised at a valuation near $1bn, a person familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal.
Globality operates an artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning-equipped online platform that lets companies identify professionals to which they can outsource tasks in areas such as IT, legal compliance, marketing, recruitment and advisory services.
The series E cash will be used to further improve Globality’s AI technology, sell its products internationally, increase headcount across its engineering, product and customer services teams, and ramp up sales and marketing efforts.
SoftBank Vision Fund had already invested $100m in the company in early 2019, following a $35m round two years before featuring Raine Group, THK Equities and individual investors Al Gore, John Joyce, John Danilovich and Dennis Nally.
Globality had closed a $27.3m series B round in 2016 led by multiple private backers and family trusts that included returning angel investors from a $10m series A round the previous year, such as Gore and Joyce, Ron Johnson and Michael Marks.
Joel Hyatt, Globality’s co-founder, chairman and chief executive, said: “Enterprise customers are looking for an innovative solution that will deliver the value, cost savings and efficiency they need for their services sourcing.
“The pandemic this past year has greatly accelerated a shift we have seen evolving for the last few years – turning what was previously important into an imperative – to be able to immediately and effectively source the best supplier for every service.”
