SoftBank Corp. is currently in talks with potential investors in both Canada and the Middle East to raise $7 billion to add to its $100 billion fund.
In Canada, the Japanese company is in talk with pension funds and in Kuwait and Qatar, it is discussing matters with sovereign wealth funds as well as technology funds. All companies have asked to remain anonymous as the deal hasn’t been signed yet. If the new commitments work out, SoftBank will reach its goal of $100 billion, it is currently standing at a massive $93 billion.
The SoftBank Vision Fund is currently planning to charge a performance fee of 20% and a management fee of 0.5-1% which is similar to private equity firms that charge the same percentage of profits and 2% of the assets they look over.
In order to manage its future investments, SoftBank is also looking to hire about fifty new employees. Representatives have declined to comment.
SoftBank in collaboration with Saudi Arabia announced the first round of capital commitments for the largest technology fund, last month. This has given the company’s founder Masayoshi Son the requirements needed to start making faster investments in startups as well as new technology.
The Vision Fund has already secured over $93 billion from the company’s backers as well as backers led by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. Other investors include Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Co., Apple Inc, Qualcomm Inc, Foxconn Technology Group, and Sharp Corp.
Masayoshi Son has promised to become the biggest investor in technology within the next ten years, and so far has already starting fulfilling it. Recently, in May, SoftBank invested $5 billion in Chinese company Didi Chuxing as well as $1.4 billion in digital payments business Paytm. This took the latter’s valuation to over $8 billion.
The Japanese company also became the fourth largest shareholder in graphic chipmaker Nvidia Corp. after making a $4 billion investment in the company a few weeks ago.
