Softbank’s plans for new mega fund hit
BENGALURU/TOKYO/LONDON: Softbank Group founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Masayoshi Son is struggling to raise money for a second massive technology investment fund in the wake of the failed public offering of office-rental company Wework and sliding valuations of other major investments, according to two people familiar with the situation.
Son is still determined to go ahead with Vision Fund 2 even though some lieutenants have urged a delay, the two people with knowledge of Softbank’s internal discussions told Reuters. But it is likely to be far smaller, at least at the outset, than the $108 billion that Softbank said it had lined up when it announced the fund in July, these people said.
Major investors have yet to sign on, leaving a $38 billion pledge from publicly traded Softbank Group itself as the only large commitment, according to the sources. And the size of that pledge may itself be in doubt given some of the recent investment setbacks it has suffered and the lack of available cash on its balance sheet, according to a Reuters analysis.
Vision Fund and Softbank Group declined to comment on the progress of Vision Fund 2.
The implosion in the valuation of Wework and questions about its business model have dented Son’s reputation as a savvy investor and point to a big writedown by the first Vision Fund. Softbank and the Vision Fund together poured more than $10 billion into the company, investing some of that at a valuation of $47 billion in January. But Wework recently abandoned plans for an initial public offering that would have pegged the company’s worth at just $10-12 billion.
If the second fund comes in well short of Son’s goal or gets scrapped it will have broad implications for Silicon Valley venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and Wall Street financiers.
The first Vision Fund, which raised $97 billion, upended the tech investing world with massive bets on fast-growing but unproven companies. It was bigger than the aggregate amount raised by the entire US venture capital industry in 2018, giving Son a massive influence over the start-up market.
Sceptics say the troubles at Wework and the poor public market performance of moneylosing companies such as Uber Technologies Inc. and Slack Technologies Inc. will trigger a big decline in the value of numerous so-called “unicorn” startups worth more than a billion dollars.