SoftBank Group announced the launch of the SoftBank Latin America Fund II, its second investment fund focused on technology companies in the Latin American market with an initial $3 billion commitment.
Fund II will explore options to raise additional capital.
SoftBank in March 2019 announced the $5 billion SoftBank Latin America Fund. SoftBank has invested $3.5 billion in 48 companies with a fair value of $6.9 billion as of June 30, 2021.
SoftBank Latin America Fund invested in 15 out of 25 LatAm unicorns, including QuintoAndar, Rappi, Mercado Bitcoin, Gympass and MadeiraMadeira, as of September 14, 2021.
SoftBank Latin America Fund participated in significant value uplift for portfolio companies in USD, including 4.4x for Kavak, 4.4x for VTEX, 2.6x for QuintoAndar and 3.5x for Banco Inter, as of June 30, 2021.
Marcelo Claure, Chief Operating Officer of SoftBank Group Corp. leads the SoftBank Latin America Funds, with an investment team – run by Managing Partners Shu Nyatta and Paulo Passoni – and an operations team led by Alex Szapiro, Operating Partner and Head of Brazil.
The investment and operations teams operate out of Miami, Sao Paulo and Mexico City, with a total of more than 60 people.
SoftBank Latin America Fund II intends to invest in technology-enabled companies across countries and industries at every stage of their development, from seed to public, throughout the rapidly developing region, identifying prospective investments that are utilizing emerging technologies and AI to define and reshape new industries, with a focus on e-commerce, digital financial services, healthcare, education, blockchain, and enterprise software, among others.
“There is so much innovation and disruption taking place in Latin America, and I believe the business opportunities there have never been stronger,” Masayoshi Son, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of SoftBank Group Corp., said.
“Over the past two years, we have seen tremendous success and returns from the SoftBank Latin America Fund that far exceeded our expectations. We expect that 2022 will be the biggest IPO year in Latin America’s history,” Marcelo Claure said.