Internet and telecommunications group SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 has led funding rounds for two North American companies in as many days, with the company showing no sign of slowing down its investment activities in 2022.
The unit led a $150m series C1 round for Canada-based e-commerce software provider Shoplazza, which provides direct-to-consumer (DTC) e-commerce companies with software to help set up their brand, establishing their website, email marketing, global payments and logistics.
SoftBank was joined in the round today by Chimera, Stepstone Group, Sequoia Capital China, Qianhai FOF, Sky9 Capital and Beijing Pantheon Asset Management, the last four having also taken part in Shoplazza’s $10m series B round in late 2020.
Shoplazza will use the new funding to grow its team, support research and development, develop its cloud computing architecture and grow its business in Europe and North America.
Eric Chen, a managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, which runs Vision Fund 2, said: “Shoplazza has built an extensive tech platform for DTC e-commerce. It provides easy-to-use site-building tools and a systematic management platform for global merchants and thereby pushing for the online-offline development of global trade.”
Vision Fund 2 also led a $75m series C round yesterday for US-based Big Health, which offers digital treatments for mental health conditions. Its offering is designed to provide an alternative to medication, thereby avoiding undesired side effects, as well as therapy or telehealth resources which are sometimes unavailable.
Healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente’s corporate venturing unit, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, also participated in the around, along with ArrowMark Partners, Octopus Ventures, Gilde Healthcare and Morningside Ventures.
Big Health plans to use the series C proceeds to grow commercially and expand its product line, with a view to launching six new digital therapeutic products by 2024 to complement its existing Sleepio and Daylight products, which are aimed at insomnia and anxiety respectively.
Peter Hames, Big Health’s co-founder and chief executive, said: “Although studies show that three-quarters of people prefer a non-drug approach to mental health care, the vast majority of mental health patients today receive medications, often associated with substantial risk of harm or side effects.
“Our digital therapeutics offer an equitable, safe and effective non-drug alternative at a huge scale, and our products are backed by leading clinical evidence, with more than 28,000 participants across our clinical studies.”
SoftBank dug deeper into the Latin American market earlier this month, leading a $48m series B round for Colombia-based pet product supplier Laika that included food delivery service Delivery Hero and co-leading a $40m debt and equity round for Brazil-based rural credit provider TerraMagna.
A few days later, the company supplied $146m for South Korea-based financial management software provider Qraft Technologies, which develops deep learning-based algorithms which it also uses for its exchange-traded funds.
Vision Fund 2 also invested $100m in UK-based meal kit subscription service Gousto through a primary and secondary deal earlier this month, valuing it at $1.75bn.
