Japan-based telecommunications and internet group SoftBank has raised about $2bn for the first close of its second Vision Fund, two people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg on Friday.
The vehicle is following the first Vision Fund, which secured $98.6bn of a $100bn target for its last public close.
Vision Fund II had received memoranda of understanding from investors including corporates Apple, Foxconn, Microsoft and Dai-ichi Life for a total of $108bn in capital as of July this year.
The huge gap between the amount of MOUs and actual capital secured for the first close can partially be accounted for by the failure of WeWork – one of Vision Fund I’s biggest bets – to go public earlier this year, leading to a $9.5bn rescue package from SoftBank last month.
Other Vision Fund investments that have failed to take off include dogsitting service Wag, which looks likely to be acquired at a cut price, in addition to on-demand ride provider Uber and enterprise messaging platform Slack which are both trading down from their public markets debuts.
The sources did not specify whether the capital for Vision Fund II has been committed by SoftBank itself or any external backers, but said it is in talks with the Saudi Arabia government’s Public Investment Fund, the biggest investor in the first fund, over a second investment.
Vision Fund II’s first investment is in Beike Zhaofang, the China-based online real estate portal also known as Ke.com. The company had raised $800m in a Tencent-led series D round in March this year.
