Hike to Oyo: Here are SoftBank's top 10 investments in 2016

Here are ten of SoftBank's top investments this year, reports Tech in Asia

Japanese telco SoftBank had another active year as one of the continent’s most prolific investors. From seed stage to series F, SoftBank funded startups in ride-hailing, virtual reality, real estate, and more.

Here are ten of SoftBank’s top investments this year, pulled from the Tech in Asia Database, ordered by funding size. Note that these are total investment amounts, not SoftBank’s individual contribution.

Didi Chuxing

$7.3 billion

China’s ride-hailing king also attracted Apple largesse

In June, SoftBank joined Didi’s posse of investors, participating in a round worth $7.3 billion. It’s Didi’s biggest ever capital boost, with one billion of it coming from Apple.

OneWeb

$1 billion

Needs the cash to battle Elon Musk’s Space X

Grab

$750 million

More ammunition for Uber battle

SoftBank continued its support of Grab this year, leading a $750 million series F for the Singaporean ride-hailing startup in September.

Hike

$175 million

Part of SoftBank’s growing portfolio of Indian startups, messaging app Hike raised a $175 million series D round in August from Tencent, Tiger Global, SoftBank, and Bharti Enterprise – founded and chaired by the father of Hike’s CEO.

Baidu Video

$144 million

Alibaba has made China’s streaming war even more expensive

Oyo Rooms

$162 million

Oyo Rooms raised an undisclosed amount of capital from InnoVen Capital, as well as two rounds totaling $162 million from SoftBank.

NextVR

$80 million

Partnered with CNN, NBC Sports

BigCommerce

$30 million

Helps companies sell online

EdCast

$16 million

Honing training material for employees

Housing

$15 million

Troubled Indian startup clearing up much publicized mess

From sacking 600 employees to firing its own CEO, Indian real estate portal Housing hasn’t seen stability – or profitability – these past few years. SoftBank has been one of the startups’ most steady supporters.

This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here