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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
