Published , by Donovan Erskine
Published , by Donovan Erskine
Vision Fund, a venture capital fund owned by Softbank. It’s got sizable investments in several apps and tech start-ups, including Slack and Uber. While Softbank Vision Fund seemingly has its hands all over the tech world, its financial results have been disappointing for some time now, and that streak has continued as of the latest quarter. Softbank Vision Fund has officially posted a loss on its investments for four quarters straight.
We learned of Softbank Vision Fund’s investment news through a CNBC report. As of the latest financial quarter, which ended in December 2022, Vision Fund lost 660 billion yen ($5 billion USD). Factoring in taxes, this brings its loss total to 730.35 billion yen ($5.5 billion USD). Softbank blames the loss streak on an “overall decrease in the fair value of portfolio companies, mainly reflecting markdowns of weaker-performing companies and share price declines in market comparable companies.”
Softbank’s claim about the decrease in value of its portfolio companies is accurate, given the financial performance of some of its biggest investments over recent periods. This includes SenseTime, the Chinese AI company that’s valuation is down 57 percent over the past year. GoTo, an Indonesian tech company that Vision Fund is also heavily invested in, has seen the value of its shares drop by 65 percent.
The previous quarter was just the latest to include unfortunate news for Softbank Vision Fund. Back in the fall of last year, we reported on the news that Softbank had lost $9.8 billion on investments in Q2 2023. 2022 also saw the company dump its stock in Uber as an attempt to recuperate some massive losses. We’ll continue to monitor the performance of Softbank Vision Fund, so stick with Shacknews for any important updates.