Softbank partners launching new fund with over $6 billion AUM
My buddy in tech growth equity mentioned this new launch by former Softbank partners, but I am pretty shocked at the level of assets they have been able to gather for a hybrid public and private investment strategy. According to the Bloomberg article below they are launching with "more than $6 billion from the likes of Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds Mubadala, ADQ and Royal Group" which would mark one of the largest first time fund launches of all time.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-0…
The partners are clearly well-known and highly tenured investors, but this size of commitment is still surprising given their weak performance actually investing in both private and public markets. As the article notes, this team contributed to Vision Fund's private investments (which are reportedly marked at gross MOIC of ~1.3x over 5 years). On the public side, this team ran Softbank's public investment strategy, SB Northstar, which lost $4.8 billion over the last fiscal year (including, reportedly, $2.4 billion from Masa personally). Both strategies seem to have trailed all reasonable broad market and tech-oriented indices.
These guys don't seem to be able to generate compelling investment returns, which leads me to ask: are pedigree and LP relationships all it takes to launch a fund these days, or am I missing something?
There has to be more to it. A track record like that would be a struggle for an IC to approve. Even if they claim to have learned lessons you could start them off with a much smaller fund.
Agreed. I will concede though that the environment for deploying capital into tech has improved a lot over the past year.
As Mr. Show says: it’s all a sophisticated series of blow jobs.
Quis est vel dolor dolorem laborum. Nihil totam delectus fuga consequatur accusantium molestias. Culpa debitis architecto expedita eaque. Repellat voluptas explicabo esse non. Voluptate similique quidem rem voluptate.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...