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☆ SoftBank Vision Fund posts first annual gain in 3 years, up $4.6 billion
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-13 | by ( Arjun Kharpal | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

SoftBank's Vision Fund, the brainchild of the company's founder Masayoshi Son, has faced a number of headwinds including a slump in technology stocks as a result of rising interest rates, a tough China market and geopolitics. SoftBank posted a 7.24 billion Japanese yen ($4.6 billion) gain on its Vision Fund in the fiscal year ended March, the first time the flagship tech investment arm has been in the black since 2021. SoftBank's flagship tech investment arm, the Vision Fund, had a tough time in the fiscal year that ended in March 2023, posting a record loss of around $32 billion amid a slump in tech stock prices and the souring of some of the business' bets in China. However, in the June quarter of last year, the Vision Fund posted its first investment gain in five consecutive quarters, signalling early stages of a recovery. SoftBank's Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto said in the previous quarter that SoftBank had shifted from an "Alibaba to AI-centric portfolio."

Persons: Masayoshi Son, SoftBank, Masayoshi, Yoshimitsu Goto, Goto Organizations: Vision, Vision Fund Locations: China, Alibaba

Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is building an investor group to acquire ByteDance's TikTok, as a bipartisan piece of legislation winding its way through Congress threatens its continued existence in the U.S. "It's a great business and I'm going to put together a group to buy TikTok." There's no way that the Chinese would ever let a U.S. company own something like this in China," Mnuchin said. Last week, Mnuchin's Liberty Strategic Capital was a lead investor in a $1 billion capital raise to stabilize New York Community Bancorp. That administration also took an antagonistic stance toward TikTok, which ultimately resulted in ByteDance striking a data partnership with Oracle .

Persons: Steven Mnuchin, ByteDance's, ByteDance, Mnuchin, CNBC's, Masa, Joe Biden, Peter Thiel, Vinod Khosla, Keith Rabois, TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, Wang Wenbin, Bobby Kotick, Donald Trump, Trump Organizations: U.S, Liberty Strategic Capital, Vision Fund, Senate, Lawmakers, China Foreign Ministry, Financial Times, Street, Activision, Community Bancorp, Oracle Locations: Liberty, ByteDance, U.S, China, TikTok, New

☆ SoftBank leads TravelPerk's $104 million fundraising, in a bet that AI will reshape corporate travel
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-23 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

TravelPerkBarcelona-based startup TravelPerk, which helps automate corporate travel and expenses, has raised $104 million in fresh funding from Japanese tech investing giant SoftBank and a flood of other names, to invest in artificial intelligence development and new products. SoftBank invested $70 million in TravelPerk's latest round, which the company said was an extension of its "D-1" funding round. The fundraising round shows SoftBank is placing a major bet on a company driving disruption in corporate travel through new technologies, such as AI — which has seen significant buzz since the November 2022 launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT. Whereas many travel agents operate on low single digits gross margins, Meir says that TravelPerk's profit margin stood at 60% last year. TravelPerk competes with American Express, BCD Travel, SAP Concur and Navan in the corporate travel management space.

Persons: Avi Meir, TravelPerk, Felix, SoftBank, that's, Meir, Roy Hefer Organizations: SoftBank Vision, Felix Capital, American, CNBC, American Express, SAP Locations: TravelPerk Barcelona, Navan, U.S

☆ Bankrupt WeWork enters financing agreements with certain lenders
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A WeWork logo is seen outside its offices in the Queens borough of New York City, U.S., November 7, 2023. WeWork, once the most valuable U.S. startup, struggled to achieve profitability as a rise in work-from-home trends following the pandemic soured demand for its shared office spaces. The financing could be as much as $682.5 million but it could also be smaller than that depending on other conditions, WeWork said, adding that the parties have agreed to provide the financing individually and not jointly. The company also said the financing agreement was dependent on fulfilling certain conditions, including the approval of the Bankruptcy Court. WeWork entered bankruptcy with about $164 million of cash on hand, according to court filings.

Persons: Shannon Stapleton, WeWork, Bhanvi, Devika Organizations: REUTERS, Goldman Sachs International Bank, JPMorgan Chase Bank, SoftBank, Thomson Locations: Queens, New York City, U.S, Bengaluru

☆ SoftBank-backed gifting startup Sendoso just completed its fourth round of layoffs in the last 16 months
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-03 | by ( Samantha Stokes | Madeline Stone | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

SoftBank-backed gifting startup Sendoso laid off an undisclosed number of employees in its latest round of job cuts on Tuesday. This is the fourth time in the last 16 months that Sendoso has axed its headcount: the marketing startup in June 2022 laid off around 100 employees from its then 700-employee workforce, Insider previously reported . Sendoso most recently raised $100 million in a Series C funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund. Better, which went public in August via a long-delayed SPAC deal, conducted another round of layoffs last month . Do you have information about job cuts at tech startups?

Persons: Sendoso, SoftBank, it's, —, Samantha Stokes, Madeline Stone Organizations: LinkedIn, U.S, Sendoso, SoftBank Vision, Greensill, Stock Locations: Ireland, sstokes@insider.com, mstone@insider.com

☆ Nvidia Competitor SambaNova Launches New AI Chip
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailNvidia Competitor SambaNova Launches New AI ChipSambaNova CEO Rodrigo Liang joins Tech Check's Deirdre Bosa on the launch of a new chip that the startup says is more efficient and cost-effective than those on the market. The company is seen as a competitor to chip giant Nvidia with its newest fourth-generation chip and full-stack platform, and most recently raised $676 million at a $5 billion valuation in a 2021 round led by Softbank Vision Fund 2.

Persons: Chip, Rodrigo Liang, Deirdre Bosa Organizations: Nvidia, SambaNova, Tech, Softbank Vision

☆ Prosus CEO exit leaves Tencent elephant in room
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-18 | by ( Karen Kwok | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko Acquire Licensing RightsLONDON, Sept 18 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Bob van Dijk is passing an unsolved problem to his successor. The Tencent stake that it owns made up about 75% of the group’s $130 billion portfolio value as of Sept. 15. His workaround was to instead sell little chunks of Tencent shares, and use the proceeds to buy back Prosus stock. Still, the gap reflects shareholders’ ongoing struggles to value Prosus. Neither Prosus nor the 50-year-old van Dijk gave a reason for his exit, but the persistence of the discount won’t have helped.

Persons: Bob van Dijk, Siphiwe, Ervin Tu, Africa’s, Van, van Dijk, It’s, Goldman Sachs, Prosus, Naspers, van Dijk’s, George Hay, Streisand Neto, Oliver Taslic Organizations: REUTERS, Reuters, Prosus, HK, Interim, Vision, Thomson Locations: Johannesburg, South Africa, Amsterdam, India, Brazil, Tencent

☆ Tencent investors Naspers and Prosus announce abrupt departure of CEO Bob van Dijk
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-18 | by ( Arabile Gumede | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Bob van Dijk Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesThe immediate and mutually agreed departure of Naspers and Prosus CEO Bob van Dijk underscores a complicated few years for a firm seen riding on the coattails of its holdings in Chinese tech giant, Tencent . The South African Reserve Bank gave Naspers the greenlight to begin buying back more of its shares from Prosus. 'Getting rid' of the cross holdingPrior to the current structure, Naspers (headquartered in South Africa) owned a third of Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings. Van Dijk oversaw the decision to split off its holding of Tencent and other tech holdings into Prosus in 2019. But that crossholding offered little value to investors with van Dijk telling Reuters at the time: "They [shareholders] said we don't like this cross holding, it creates complexity.

Persons: Bob van Dijk, Naspers, Koos, Van Dijk, Prosus, crossholding, van Dijk, We've, we're, Erwin Tu, Tu, Goldman Sachs Organizations: Bob van Dijk Bloomberg, Bloomberg, Getty, South, Naspers, South African Reserve Bank, Tencent Holdings, Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Euronext, Reuters, Citi, SoftBank Group Locations: Dutch, Prosus, South Africa, Johannesburg, Naspers

But a person who worked closely with Ramaswamy said, "He thinks people are put on this earth to serve him." Roivant attracted investors including Masayoshi Son's SoftBank Vision Fund, Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, and the hedge fund Viking Global Investors. Former Roivant employees said Ramaswamy worked hard and expected the same of others. McLaughlin called the employee's recollection "inaccurate," adding that Ramaswamy "has never once raised his voice or used bad language with employees." At Roivant, Ramaswamy kept his politics largely to himself, former employees said.

Persons: Vivek Ramaswamy, Ramaswamy, He's, Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Trump, George Soros, didn't, Taco Bell, he's, —, Vivek, Tricia McLaughlin, he'd, McLaughlin, takeout, Forbes, Vivek doesn't, they've, Roivant, Masayoshi, Peter Thiel's, Thiel, JD Vance, Bill Ackman, who'd, . Ramaswamy, Erik Gordon, Vance, John Phillips, Joyce Rosely, Phillips, Anson Frericks, they'd, Rosely, Frericks, They're, they're, Eric Balchunas, Todd Rosenbluth, Rosenbluth, Christopher Lenzo, Brandon Bell, Vivek Ramaswamy's, Katherine Long, Jack Newsham, Meghan Morris Organizations: pharma, Army Rangers, Biotech, Republican, nab, GOP, of Education, FBI, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Federal Reserve, Florida, Roivant Sciences, General Electric, Yale Law School, Army, Rangers, Harvard, Yale, Fund, Viking Global, Leerink Partners, GlaxoSmithKline, Forbes, Big Pharma, Japan's Sumitomo Pharma Co, ., University of Michigan, FDA, US, Yale Law, ESG, The, Texas, Indiana, BlackRock, Vanguard, Bloomberg Intelligence, Fair, SEC Locations: Mexico, FiveThirtyEight, Roivant, Patagonia, Iowa, New York, Ohio, The Lever

☆ Arm IPO: Should you buy shares? Here's what 4 analysts are saying
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-14 | by ( Ganesh Rao | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

China risks Analysts have also noted Arm's limited control over its China joint venture, Arm China, which contributes 24% of revenue. "Plus, Arm can only sell to China customers via the Arm China channel, and they can offer competing product. With no direct stake in Arm China, they currently have very little control over their only means to sell in China." Valuation Analysts at New Constructs have also challenged Arm's valuation. Growth Analysts at Bernstein were also cautious, while expecting cloud, automotive, and mobile royalties to drive healthy top-line growth for Arm.

Persons: Rohit Kulkarni, Roth, SoftBank, Bernstein, Sara Russo, Russo, it's, Timm Schulze, Schulze, Melander, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Apple, Nvidia, SoftBank Locations: British, New York, SoftBank, China, Arm China

FILE PHOTO: An Aramco employee walks near an oil tank at Saudi Aramco's Ras Tanura oil refinery and oil terminal in Saudi Arabia May 21, 2018. Riyadh says it aims to stabilise the oil market by extending a voluntary oil output cut of 1 million barrels per day until the end of 2023. Declining oil production and revenue this year could see Saudi Arabia's economy shrink for the first time since 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, although a hefty dividend from state oil producer Saudi Aramco (2222.SE) should provide a cushion for public finances. Last year the Saudi economy grew 8.7% and generated a fiscal surplus of 2.5% of GDP, its first surplus in nine years as oil soared to highs near $124. "Certainly, we see no signs that the Public Investment Fund's acquisition streak is cooling," RBC Capital Markets said in a note.

Persons: Ahmed Jadallah, Justin Alexander, Monica Malik, Alexander, James Swanston, PIF, Neil Quilliam, Quilliam, Rachna Uppal, Yousef Saba, Ahmad Ghaddar, Susan Fenton Organizations: REUTERS, Saudi Aramco, OPEC's, Khalij Economics, Abu, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, PMI, GlobalSource Partners, Capital Economics, International Monetary Fund, IMF, Public Investment Fund, Saudi, Public Investment, RBC Capital Markets, Reuters, Chatham House, Aramco, Riyadh bourse, Thomson Locations: Aramco, Saudi, Saudi Arabia, DUBAI, Riyadh, Ukraine, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Aramco, London, PIF

☆ Robinhood rival eToro agrees $120 million share sale at discounted valuation
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-31 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Pedro Fiúza | Nurphoto | Getty ImagesStock trading platform eToro agreed to a $120 million secondary share sale, giving the company a slightly lower valuation than the $3.5 billion it was valued at in a primary funding round earlier this year. The round is a secondary share sale, meaning the company hasn't issued any new shares and won't net any income from the transaction. eToro is not raising money — rather it is a moment for some long standing shareholders and employees to take some liquidity. EToro most recently raised $250 million from investors at a $3.5 billion valuation, far lower than the $10 billion it was seeking in its bid to float via SPAC. EToro agreed it would convert the investment to equity on the condition that the SPAC deal doesn't go ahead — which it didn't.

Persons: Pedro Fiúza, hasn't, eToro, Fintech, doesn't Organizations: Nurphoto, Getty Images Stock, CNBC, Investors, Vision, ION Investment Group, Velvet Sea Ventures, Twitter Locations: Lisbon, Portugal, eToro

☆ TikTok Shop strikes 'buy now, pay later' partnership in Malaysia as part of e-commerce push
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Sheila Chiang | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

TikTok struck a partnership with "buy now, pay later" service Atome to offer installment payments on its e-commerce marketplace in Malaysia, the latest in the company's e-commerce push into Southeast Asia. TikTok Shop will include Atome as a payment option, which would allow customers to spread deferred payments over three or six months. Atome is the BNPL arm of Singapore-based fintech firm Advance Intelligence Group, which is backed by major investors like SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Warburg Pincus. The partnership is expected to "drive growth" and "enable merchants and small businesses to offer their customers a convenient and flexible payment option," Jonathan Low, e-commerce lead of strategy and special projects at TikTok Shop, said in a statement on Friday. "By integrating Atome as a payment option on TikTok Shop, we're excited to help drive ecommerce growth and support brands of all sizes," said William Yang, head of commercial at Atome.

Persons: TikTok, Atome, Warburg Pincus, Jonathan Low, William Yang Organizations: Advance Intelligence Group, SoftBank Locations: Malaysia, Southeast Asia, Singapore, Atome

☆ One of the world’s richest self-made men started as a motel janitor—now he has a net worth of $1.2 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Megan Sauer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

He now has a net worth of $1.2 billion, which comes from owning nearly a third of Yanolja with his wife and two daughters, according to Forbes . Yanolja founder and chairman Lee Su-jin started his lucrative career in the travel industry as a motel janitor. He saved his money, invested in stocks and even started a salad business, according to Bloomberg. So he decided to rebrand love hotels. "If all the motels relied on love, they'd starve to death," Lee told Bloomberg.

Persons: Lee, Lee Su, Yanolja, Kim Jong, yoon, Kim, SoftBank Organizations: Forbes, Bloomberg, CNBC, SoftBank Vision, Reuters Locations: Korea, Yanolja

☆ Microsoft's venture capital arm, M12, has faced months of turmoil over a change in strategy and pay, insiders say
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Microsoft's M12 changed its strategy to become less like a VC and more like a business development team. "As with any leadership and strategy change, we aligned our team in a way that helps us meet our future direction. The problem with that shift, sources said, is that a corporate fund needs people who have very different career goals than an independent venture fund does. "Over the last year and half, we brought on new leadership at M12 and intentionally changed our corporate VC strategy. Employees who went along with the strategy change are generally happy at the fund, two of the people said.

☆ Pharmacy startups are losing their battle with giants like CVS and Walgreens
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Pharmacy startups like Capsule and Truepill are crumbling in the fight against pharmacy giants. But in the past year, the pharmacy startups have begun to crumble. Plus, each chain has thousands of stores across the country, providing the convenience that the pharmacy startups seek to replicate with tech. The digital-pharmacy shakeoutAnalysts suggested that healthcare startups with pharmacy components, rather than pure-play pharmacy startups, are best positioned to succeed. Truepill CEO Sid Viswanathan TruepillBut the pharmacy startups that have attempted to offer additional services have largely shelved those efforts in recent months.

☆ This fish farmer-turned-entrepreneur runs a profitable start-up. Here are his tips
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Sheila Chiang | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Now at 33, Farizy runs Indonesia-based startup eFishery, which developed products such as automatic feeders that help local seafood farmers save costs and improve productivity. Automatic feeders eliminate the problems of manual feeding, which could result in over-feeding or under-feeding. Say no to high cash burnMany startups focus on blistering growth, which usually means a high cash burn rate. When asked about how he runs a successful company, he said: "We don't burn cash unnecessarily." Cash burn refers to a company spending its cash reserves when it is not yet generating profit.

☆ Troubled mental-health startup Cerebral is cutting 15% of staff as it fights to stay afloat
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Cerebral plans to cut 15% of its staff, or 285 employees, Insider has learned. Cerebral has been struggling to stay afloat following scrutiny of its prescription practices. Mental-health startup Cerebral is laying off 15% of its workforce, or about 285 employees, as the company reels from a tumultuous year of public scrutiny and federal investigations into its prescribing practices. Impacted employees will be notified through March 1, per Mou's email to Cerebral staff. Cerebral's rocky futureIn 2021, Cerebral called itself the fastest-growing mental-health company.

☆ How Cerebral went from a hyped $4.8 billion mental-health startup to fighting for its survival
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

It called itself the fastest-growing mental-health company. Some Cerebral clinicians told Insider they were uncomfortable treating the patients assigned to them and felt their licenses were at risk. In the past few years, highly funded startups have tried to disrupt mental-health care and struggled. Cerebral's next steps will dictate its future, and its story could influence what's ahead for online mental-health care. A former Cerebral provider told Insider the ban was frustrating because many patients who were improving on the drugs lost access to care at Cerebral.

☆ Why marginalized content creators will likely be the most affected by tech industry turmoil
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

But today, we're talking about another group of people who will be affected by the recent tumult: content creators. The chaos at social media companies is hurting the most vulnerable content creators. Tumult is sweeping Big Tech, with thousands of full-time employees affected by industry layoffs. But some of the biggest losers from the shake-up will be the content creators who have fashioned careers on social media. That's particularly the case for marginalized creators, says Duffy, who's spent more than a decade studying the working lives of digital cultural producers.

☆ Inside SoftBank Vision Fund's awful, terrible, really bad year. How the venture fund tumbled, according to former employees, investors and rival VCs.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | Ben Bergman | Samantha Stokes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

SoftBank's Vision Fund just experienced one of its most dismal years in its history. SoftBank's Vision Fund was once a power broker, having raised a jaw-dropping $100 billion in 2017, followed by plans to raise $108 billion for Vision Fund 2 in 2019 — two of the largest venture-investing vehicles ever established. But insiders are now questioning if it will ever regain influence, according to 11 ex-Vision Fund investors, former employees, VCs, and industry analysts who weighed in on the future of the Vision Fund. One ex-Vision Fund investor described Son, now taking the reins of Vision Fund 2, as someone who is "not a manager." Given its investing performance so far, the obvious question is what happens once Vision Fund 2 has reached full investment.

☆ Forget smartwatches, consumers are buying up these quirky, alternative wearable devices
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

People turned to activity trackers, smartwatches and other devices to keep tabs on their steps, vital statistics and more. Rather than sitting inside or on top of the ear canal, bone conduction headphones rest in front of the ear, leaving it uncovered. Bone conduction headphones by Shokz. Shokz ($125) pioneered bone conduction headphones, but the market has since expanded with other brands offering similar designs. But some audiophiles say the sound quality on bone conduction headphones and open earbuds is less than stellar.

☆ The collapse of crypto firm FTX and its superstar founder explained: Here's what happened and what it all means
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-12 | by ( Avery Hartmans | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Two years later, Bankman-Fried and his team launched FTX, a crypto exchange platform with perks like low trading fees and advanced options for traders. At his peak, Bankman-Fried was worth $26 billion, though his net worth had dropped to $16 billion before this week. In early November, crypto publication CoinDesk released a bombshell report that called into question just how stable Bankman-Fried's empire really was. Now, the FTX drama is creating a ripple effect throughout the crypto industry. Industry experts told Insider that the saga might encourage regulators to try to crack down on the crypto industry, or make big banks wary of letting customers trade crypto.

☆ Sequoia Capital took a $213 million bath on FTX after the crypto exchange imploded. That's not that bad, VCs say.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

FTX investor Sequoia Capital has marked down its position to $0 as the crypto exchange crumbles. Sequoia Capital now views its $213.5 million investment in FTX as worthless as the crypto exchange teeters on the brink of collapse after an eleventh-hour deal to salvage the business fell apart. "Somehow Sequoia capital turned a FTX write down to zero into a humblebrag. It invested $150 million into FTX through its third growth fund, which Sequoia said totaled less than 3% of that fund's capital commitments. In its letter to investors, Sequoia said it does "extensive research and thorough diligence" on every investment it makes.

The initial public offering of the ride-hailing-to-online-shopping giant at a $28 billion market capitalisation in April was a landmark deal on the back of relaxed listing rules. Now GoTo will have to manage a big contortion in the $570 billion stock market. At a stretch, GoTo’s involvement might prevent a further price slump on the company’s current $15 billion market value. The company sold nearly $1 billion of stock at a multiple of 17 times forecast revenue for 2023. The meddling in the secondary market looks like a necessary evil.

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