Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp recently posted a $23.1 billion quarterly investment lost at its Vision Fund investing arm. Consequently, SoftBank has decided to cut headcount at Vision Fund.
Vision Fund supports the world of venture capital with bets on startups such as Uber and Didi. They posted the mentioned loss in the April-June quarter citing evaporation in value from its investments in the market rout.
Vision Fund faced a quarterly loss of $26.2 billion in the month of May. This happened because SoftBank was caught out by rising interest rates and political instability that hammered markets globally.
Masayishi Son stated in an earnings news conference that the world is in great confusion. Son is executing scaling back of investment activity. In the new investments in the first quarter, Vision Fund has approved just $600 million. In the same period last year, the investment was $20.6 billion.
The billionaire on Monday has pledged to limit the second fun to manage its current portfolio of investments. Parallel to it, it is being planned to cut workforce at Vision Fund and execute cost reduction across the group.
Son asserted that they need to cut costs with no sacred areas.
Son has already faced series of high-profile reversals after bets by later stage startups soured. WeWork is one such startup. This prompted Son to tighten investment controls with the second fund.
