Japan-headquartered internet and telecommunications group SoftBank plans to cut staff at SoftBank Investment Advisers, the subsidiary that operates its Vision Fund, by 15%, Nikkei reported yesterday.
SoftBank announced Vision Fund in 2016 and although it failed to make its $100bn targeted close, it did raise $98.6bn that has since been invested largely in highly-valued technology companies leveraging artificial intelligence or a mobile-facing business model.
However, the failure of workspace provider WeWork to go public in September 2019 combined with paper losses at ride hailing portfolio companies like Uber that have been hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, and those that have gone bankrupt such as Brandless or OneWeb, have led to a $16.8bn loss in the last fiscal year.
The company had already lowered expectations for the second Vision Fund pre-coronavirus, and has begun moving some staff members to other parts of the SoftBank group, but the 15% figure is higher than the 10% cuts described by sources to Bloomberg last month.
SoftBank Investment Advisers has about 500 staff members and its activities cover both investment and portfolio management and assistance. It maintains offices in the UK, United States, Japan and Singapore.
Two managing partners at SoftBank Investment Advisers, Akshay Naheta and Kentaro Matsui, recently took senior roles within SoftBank, while key executives including founding partner David Thévenon and Michael Ronen have already left this year.
SoftBank did however hire Taiichi Hoshino, formerly of financial services firm Japan Post Bank, to head up a newly formed investment unit in April, which perhaps points to a reorganisation of its investment strategy, as opposed to simply a reduction.
