Rajeev Misra to head SoftBank $100-bn tech fund

By: Himanshu Modi

Masayoshi Son’s tech-and-telecom conglomerate and the Kingdom’s top sovereign wealth fund are preparing an investment vehicle that could total $100 billion to pump fresh air into the technology bubble. India-born Rajeev Misra will head the SoftBank Vision Fund that the Japanese investment company has set up with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. The “Vision Fund” could see Saudi's Public Investment Fund chipping in $45 billion over five years, while SoftBank will contribute $25 billion, with other big investors making up the remainder. Misra (54), a veteran banker, is the head of strategic finance at SoftBank Group. He joined SoftBank in October 2014, around the same time when Nikesh Arora joined the Japanese investor as a potential successor to its founder Masayoshi Son. Misra, who backs the Conservative party in the UK, has a non-profit outfit in India, Vahani, that helps fund under privileged youth to get higher education in global universities. Misra, who was hired from Fortress Investment Group, in London, will get to take the mantle of the fund, which will potentially have $100 billion to invest in technology companies globally. It’s not clear whether the fund will make venture-capital style minority bets on younger companies, or bid for control of bigger groups, like a buyout firm. Nor is it clear if the $100 billion target is all equity — if so, the addition of debt could potentially enable hundreds of billions of dollars of LBO-type deals. Citi analysts say it will invest in artificial intelligence and the internet of things. But Son’s interests are wide-ranging, so “tech” could also include other fields such as green energy. Last year, SoftBank teamed up with Bharti Enterprise and Foxconn to launch $20 billion worth of solar energy projects in India. f the focus is on start-ups, the timing is strange. Private valuations are already frothy and investors have grown more cautious. Venture capital funding in the three months to September slumped 39 per cent year on year to $24 billion, according to data from KPMG and CB Insights. Public markets are also trading on rich valuations, so big take-privates will also be expensive.