FinTech news in Softbank category

Less than one year after Upload Ventures spun out of SoftBank investment arm, the Latin American-focused investment arm is seeking to raise a $250 million fund, filings show.

SoftBank Corp, the telecom operator arm of SoftBank Group, has joined Oasys, a blockchain designed for video games, as a validator.

This is the fourth consecutive quarter in which SoftBank Group has lost money, prompting many to challenge the fundamental thesis of the giant, which has deployed more capital in the tech markets globally than anyone else in the past decade. SoftBank Group investment vehicles posted a loss of nearly $6 billion in the quarter that ended in December as the Japanese tech investor continues to bleed through the market downturn. In 2021, SoftBank was one of the most prolific investors globally, cutting checks worth over $20 billion in just one quarter as many investors aggressively scrambled to win large deals. SoftBank said it lost $5.8 billion across Vision and Latin America funds in the quarter.

Notably, former SoftBank COO Marcelo Claure, who stepped down in late January after a reported battle over pay, had this to say about the FTX fiasco: journalist has reached out to SoftBank for comment on its investment in FTX. Also among FTX’s long roster of investors are: NEA, IVP, Iconiq Capital, Third Point Ventures, Tiger Global, Altimeter Capital Management, Lux Capital, Mayfield, Insight Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Ribbit Capital, Temasek Holdings, BlackRock and Thoma Bravo. The notorious Japanese investment conglomerate SoftBank, for example, is just one of many such firms that backed FTX after the startup raised a $400 million funding round in January, valuing the company at a staggering $32 billion. FTX files for bankruptcy, CEO Sam Bankman-Fried steps down

This week, we’re getting a look at what SoftBank is doing to diversify how it deploys capital with a little less direct risk to itself: DTCP says that SoftBank has taken a major stake in its next fund, part of a $300 million tranche that it has raised to double down on growth rounds in Europe. DTCP’s first fund in 2015 and second fund in 2018 totaled $410 million and was invested in 32 enterprise software companies across Europe, Israel, USA and Asia, and DTCP notes that 11 of those investments have been acquired or gone public so far. This fund, DTCP’s third, is a mark of how far the European ecosystem has come along when it comes to growth rounds: once it would have been a rarity to raise growth rounds in this region, with the more promising startups founded in Europe decamping to the U.S. to tap investors there if they wanted to scale. While SoftBank is likely to continue making direct investments, investing in a fund like DTCP helps it source more deal flow, both as an indirect backer and to vet more companies that it might want to pursue directly as well.

InfStones, which aims to help clients build applications across a number of blockchain platforms, closed a $66 million round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and GGV Capital, the company announced on Wednesday.

Specifically, an S-4 filing by Aurora states: The Better Founder and CEO, in his personal capacity, has agreed to enter into a side letter with SoftBank, pursuant to which he may be liable for realized losses or receive payments in certain circumstances from SoftBank in connection with the Post-Closing Convertible Notes, which could divert the resources and attention of the Better Founder and CEO from our business and have a negative impact on his personal financial situation.

Over the past year, Habi says it has worked on building out its services and proprietary database, so that it can offer customers a full stack of services including iBuyer, brokerage, financial services and a marketplace. With this latest raise, Habi says it has become the second unicorn in Colombia and only LatAm unicorn with a female founder and CEO.

Clearco co-founder Andrew D’Souza tells journalist that he has stepped back from his role as chief executive at the fintech company.

Polygon has raised $450 million in a new venture financing round as the firm, with a market cap of about $13 billion, aggressively expands its portfolio of Ethereum scaling solutions and works to attract the larger developer ecosystem.