SoftBank Group Corp. is lining up startup investments in Japan, aggressively pursuing entrepreneurs in its home market for the first time since its Vision Fund’s launch.
The Japanese startup scene is going through a revival, helped by an influx of young talent from private equity funds and consulting firms, said Kentaro Matsui, a managing partner at the Vision Fund who overseas Japan investments. Combined with a shift in strategy to invest smaller sums than its previous threshold of $100 million (¥12.8 billion), this has meant more opportunities for the world’s largest tech fund to invest at home, he said.
Japan’s weight in SoftBank’s overall portfolio will "definitely” increase, Matsui said in an interview in Tokyo. "The caliber of people in the companies we are investing in is clearly different” compared with 2018 or 2019, he said. "They’re way more sophisticated now.”