Japan’s SoftBank is reportedly planning to move its stakes in companies such as Uber, Ola, Grab, 99, and Didi Chuxing into its $100 billion Vision Fund.
The transfer of the stakes would allow the ride-hailing startups access to the fund’s resources, according to The Financial Times. In the last year, the Vision Fund has become a dominant force in the venture community as it continues to aggressively pump capital into some of the most prominent startups in the world.
So far, SoftBank’s stakes have been reportedly kept separate from the Vision Fund because of the direct investments in Uber by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, Public Investment Fund (PIF). The PIF invested approximately $3.5 billion directly into Uber, while SoftBank invested a total of $9.3 billion.
As a result, the restructuring would allow the companies to “work more closely and create synergies in businesses that span much of the world,” according to the FT.
And the move complements the ambitions of Masayoshi Son, the founder and CEO of SoftBank. It’s been previously reported that SoftBank’s investments in ride-hailing firms fit a pattern of creating “synergies” by bringing competitors together to share technology, learnings, and resources.
“Masayoshi Son understands the value of consolidation,” GGV Capital managing partner Hans Tung told The Japan Times.
