SoftBank Ventures Asia, a corporate venture capital vehicle for telecommunications and internet group SoftBank, reached a $341m second close of its latest fund earlier this month, DealStreetAsia reported today.
In addition to SoftBank itself, the limited partners of the Growth Acceleration Fund include state-backed fund-of-funds Korea Venture Investment Corp and South Korea’s National Pension Service.
Growth Acceleration Fund will concentrate on early-stage investments in developers of artificial intelligence-related services or products that are located in the Asia-Pacific region.
The vehicle’s remit that does not include China-based companies, which are served by a $300m fund formed with private equity fund TPG Growth. It had raised $270m for its first close in July this year and will provide roughly $2m to $15m per deal across series A to C rounds.
SoftBank Ventures Asia rebranded from its previous moniker of SoftBank Ventures Korea in January this year. It oversees 15 funds with a total of $1.1bn of assets under management, according to its website.
