Vision Fund, the $98.6bn fund operated by Japan-headquartered telecommunications and internet group SoftBank, plans to double its headcount from about 400 to 800 in the next two years.
Rajeev Misra, chief executive of SoftBank Investment Advisors, revealed the news to attendees at the Milken Institute Global Conference on Monday.
Vision Fund’s initial offices were located in the UK, Japan and California, but it has since began building teams in China and India.
Although it is yet to formally reach the $100bn targeted close for its first fund, Vision Fund is reportedly looking to add $15bn in capital to the $3bn capital call facility supplied by Goldman Sachs, Mizuho Financial Group, Citigroup, Samba Financial Group and Mitsubishi UFJ in March 2019.
SoftBank is also putting together a $5bn fund that will invest in the Latin American startup sector, though that will operate independently to Vision Fund, which has committed about 70% of its capital, Bloomberg reported last month.
The increase in staff would presumably precede the raising of a second fund, for which SoftBank would likely seek capital from the same Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds that backed the first, though it has not revealed when it intends to begin that process.
Vision Fund’s largest exit has been from e-commerce marketplace Flipkart, when Walmart paid $16bn for a majority stake in August 2018. It is in line for further exits in forthcoming IPOs and direct listings for portfolio companies Uber, Slack and The We Company, each of which are valued in excess of $15bn.
