Softbank Vision Fund
Chinese online learning app Zuoyebang raises $750M
Zuoyebang, a Beijing-headquartered startup that runs an online learning app, said on Monday it has raised $750 million in a new financing round as investors demonstrate their continued trust in —
SoftBank confirms it may sell some of its T-Mobile stake
SoftBank Group confirmed today it is considering selling its T-Mobile U.S. shares. Bloomberg reported last month that SoftBank was nearing an agreement to sell about $20 billion of its T-Mobile U.S. s
SoftBank’s Q1 2020 earnings presentation mixes comedy and drama
Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. Today we’re digging into SoftBank’s latest earnings slides. Not only
Cruise lays off 8% of workforce amid COVID-19, puts resources toward engineering
Cruise, the self-driving car subsidiary of GM that also has backing from SoftBank Vision Fund, automaker Honda and T. Rowe Price & Associates, is laying off nearly 8% of its more than 1,800-member
Cruise hires PG&E board chairman Jeff Bleich as chief legal officer
Cruise, the subsidiary of GM that also has backing from SoftBank Vision Fund, automaker Honda and T. Rowe Price & Associates, is turning to a heavy hitter to head up its legal team. The autonomous
View, the dynamic glass company that raised $1.1 billion from SoftBank in 2018, is laying people off
View, a 13-year-old, Milpitas, Calif.-based company that makes dynamic glass designed to reduce heat and glare as well as lessen eyestrain, has cut an unknown number of employees, including at a plant
SoftBank expects $24 billion in losses from Vision Fund, WeWork and OneWeb investments
The Japanese technology conglomerate SoftBank Group said it would lose a staggering $24 billion on investments made through its Vision Fund and bets on the co-working real estate company WeWork and sa
SoftBank’s debt outlook turns negative
Japanese telecom conglomerate SoftBank Group has faced a litany of bad news in recent weeks, including reported revelations from the Wall Street Journal that the head of its Vision Fund was using corp
Investors in LatAm get bitten by the hotel investment bug as Ayenda raises $8.7 million
Some of Latin America’s leading venture capital investors are now backing hotel chains. In fact, Ayenda, the largest hotel chain in Colombia, has raised $8.7 million in a new round of funding, a
Startups Weekly: Oyo has issues + A farewell
In this week's newsletter: India's growing pains, Brazil's latest venture funding and how to pitch journalists.
As Indian startups raise record capital, losses are widening
Indian tech startups secured nearly $14 billion in 2019, more than they have raised in any other year. This is a major rebound since 2016, when startups in the nation had bagged just $4.3 billion. But
After 2019’s reality check, what’s ahead for driverless cars in 2020?
If 2018 was when the industry was shocked into sobriety, 2019 would be a year when pragmatism and the challenges of trying to develop and scale a technology got a lot more real. The upshot: the indu
VCs from Accel and SoftBank talk Europe’s startup scene, what they expect in 2020, and the future of SoftBank
If you haven’t noticed, Europe’s startup scene is in full bloom, with more than $30 billion deployed in startups across the continent over the last 12 months and more than 20 countries now
SoftBank Vision Fund invests $275M in India’s Lenskart
Lenskart, an omni-channel retailer in India that sells eyewear products, said on Friday that it has raised $275 million in a new financing round from SoftBank Vision Fund as it looks to expand its bus
India’s financial services firm Paytm raises $1B
Paytm said on Monday it has raised $1 billion in a new financing round as the Noida-headquartered firm, which once dominated the local mobile payments market, attempts to fight back giants Google, Wal
SoftBank Vision Fund’s Carolina Brochado is coming to Disrupt Berlin
SoftBank’s Vision Fund has single-handedly changed the game when it comes to tech startup investment. And that’s why I’m excited to announce that SoftBank Vision Fund investment director Carolin
WeWork confirms an up to $8 billion lifeline from SoftBank Group; names new executive chairman
Confirming earlier reports, The We Company and SoftBank Group agreed to a new capital infusion which will see SoftBank committing $5 billion in new financing and issuing a tender offer for another $3
Naspers CEO Bob van Dijk on SoftBank comparisons: ‘They’re broad, we’re focused; we invest in what we know’
Naspers, a South African internet company that has become a major investor in a wide range of digital commerce companies, has in recent years drawn comparisons to the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank. F
Energy Vault raises $110 million from SoftBank Vision Fund as energy storage grabs headlines
Imagine a moving tower made of huge cement bricks weighing 35 metric tons. The movement of these massive blocks is powered by wind or solar power plants and is a way to store the energy those plants g
Real estate platform Compass raises another $370M on a $6.4B valuation en route to an IPO
The real estate market regularly goes through ups and downs, but today comes big news for a startup in the space that has built a platform that it believes can help all players in it — buyers, s