A look at SoftBank's global start-up investments in 2015

Ola from India, Cybereason from the US, Coupang from South Korea - these are some of the investments the firm has made this year, reports Tech in Asia

Japanese telco SoftBank is one of the biggest investors both from Asia and in Asia these days. Founder and CEO Masayoshi Son largely handed the reins over to his India-born successor Nikesh Arora, who was named president back in May. Arora even put $482 million of his own savings back into the SoftBank pot last summer.

SoftBank’s 2015 portfolio includes a variety of verticals spanning fintech, medtech, adtech, and more – but nascent ecommerce platforms featured prominently.

Here are all of SoftBank’s disclosed investments from 2015, in reverse chronological order.

Grofers (India), November

Logistics start-up, Grofers, partners with local merchants to deliver goods to your doorstep within 90 minutes from placing on order. It raised three funding rounds in 2015, including a $120 million series C led by SoftBank.

 

Ola (India), November

Uber’s hottest rival in India raised an impressive $500 million series F round from a host of investors including Didi Kuaidi and SoftBank.

Cybereason (US), October

SoftBank’s most recent investment in the US was leading a $59 million series C round for Cybereason, a start-up that leverages artificial intelligence to provide cyber security. Though currently based in Massachusetts, Cybereason was founded by members of the Israeli military’s elite cyber security unit.

Coupang (South Korea), June
This was a big one. SoftBank’s only investment in Korea was for the country’s largest and fastest-growing ecommerce portal, Coupang – to the tune of $1 billion. The start-up was founded as a Groupon competitor, but is now more akin to Amazon. Its CEO likes basketball and, apparently, skipping court dates.

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