SoftBank’s Vision Fund to hire China team, set up mainland office: sources – Reuters
What happened: Japanese conglomerate SoftBank is hiring an investment team in China to form part of Vision Fund, its advisory firm that makes investments in the technology sector. According to sources, an office will be set up in Shanghai, with the intention of expanding to Hong Kong and Beijing. The company plans to hire about 20 people.
Why it’s important: The Vision Fund is no stranger to China. Since May 2017, it has invested in truck-hailing Man Bang Group, Ping An Healthcare, and ByteDance, the company that runs new aggregator Jinri Toutiao and short video app Douyin (known as TikTok internationally). After expanding to India and Saudi Arabia, the Vision Fund has now set its sights on the Chinese tech market. SoftBank was also an early backer of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, investing as far back as 2000.