Softbank To Shutdown Early Stage Funding Arm; Will Do Big Ticket Investments Only

Softbank is shutting down Softbank Capital business and will now instead focus on big ticket investments.

What this implies is that Softbank will not raise any new fund for early stage investments.

“As we look at the future for the next tens of years, we believe that the way to preserve the long-term sustainability of SoftBank is to be large minority shareholders of many assets,” Arora told Recode in an interview.

Post these changes, SoftBank Capital will transfer management and administration of its 2010 and 2014 early-stage funds to Lerer Hippeau Ventures.

How this decision impacts Softbank’s India portfolio is still unclear. We will update as and when we hear from Softbank.