SoftBank plans to expand Japan investment team

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SoftBank plans to expand Japan investment team

SoftBank Group Corp. plans to expand the Japan investment team for its Vision Fund, adding staff and stepping up deal-making after putting little money into its home country in the past.

Founder Masayoshi Son raised about $100 billion 11 trillion for his first Vision Fund and has allocated $51 billion for a second, but he has made most of his investments overseas, particularly in the United States and China. The two investments he has been involved in have been in domestic startups.

That is beginning to change. The Vision Fund team in Japan, overseen by Kentaro Matsui, is actively hiring to expand beyond its current size of four members. A spokesman for SoftBank Investment Advisers said that it was looking to fill positions for analysts, associates and vice presidents, but there is no fixed target for the number of hires in the future.

The regional breakdown of SoftBank's portfolio is 42% in the Americas, 28% in Europe and 15% in China. SoftBank will probably need to diversify its investments in the future due to the tightened regulations on technology companies, as the Chinese government has tightened regulations on technology companies.

Japan is the world's third largest economy and presents a compelling opportunity for high-growth tech companies to respond to questions, Matsui said. We believe that Japan is poised to drive growth in the modern economy due to the fact that there are sectors such as biotech and frontier tech that are poised to drive growth. We are watching the growth closely and will continue to look for opportunities to grow our team and presence in the region. SoftBank invested in Japan by taking a stake in the pharmaceuticals startup Aculys Pharma LLC. It also invested in SODA Inc., a startup that operates an online marketplace for sneakers and streetwear.

Aculys CEO Kazunari Tsunaba said the investment by the Vision Fund was important and valuable for the startup, as stated in an interview with Bloomberg. He said the firm is considering an alliance with a U.S. sleep-focused company that Vision Fund has invested in, without specifying the target name.