Japan’s SoftBank Group plans to transfer its investment in top ride-hailing companies to Saudi-backed US$100 billion Vision Fund in an effort to consolidate resources to prop up already fast-growing ride sharers, including Uber, India’s Ola, Singapore’s Grab, China’s ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing and Brazil’s 99. SoftBank Group funneled in total $20 billion into these firms.
The Vision Fund is the largest PE fund in the world. The upcoming consolidation mirrors a previous saying that in the ride-hailing sector SoftBank is acting less like a VC and “more like a private-equity buyout firm that’s looking to consolidate the market.”
This consolidation of SBG’s investment in ride-hailing is in line with the investment strategy of the Vision Fund. The Fund’s portfolio spreads across an array of technology sectors, and the fund has the right to acquire investments already acquired by the Softbank Group, as according to Softbank.