SoftBank increases Vision Fund sizeJapan's SoftBank Group today released its latest quarterly earnings, which included a note that its tech-focused Vision Fund had secured $97.7 billion in commitments through the end of September. That's up from the $93.2 billion first close announced in May, and comes just weeks before SVF is slated to hold its final close on at least $100 billion. It appears that the extra $4.5 billion between May and September all came from the parent company.
World's happiest country is becoming a startup meccaSilicon Valley is known as the startup capital of the world. It's where entrepreneurs go to raise money, develop their tech platforms, and find investors.But one city known for the maritime industry is emerging as one of the fast-growing tech scenes outside the U.S. Oslo, Norway's capital city, experienced a 160% uptick in startup investments in the past year, according to Oslo's 2017 State of the City report. That's the second biggest jump in the Nordic region behind Sweden, up 171%. [ CNN Money ] Masayoshi Son Says SoftBank Could Ditch Uber Investment for LyftMasayoshi Son sure loves a curve ball. As SoftBank Group Corp.’s negotiations for a stake in Uber Technologies Inc. head into the final stretch, Son said on Monday he could still walk away, and perhaps even invest in Uber’s rival Lyft Inc. “Depending on the price and conditions, it is wholly possible we could shift our investment to the other main company Lyft. It is wholly possible,” Son said at a press conference following SoftBank’s second-quarter earnings. "We won’t know until the very end." [ Bloomberg ] Kobalt raises $600M to buy up (and monetize) more music copyrightsKobalt, the music tech startup that has built a platform for rights holders to track incremental and full plays of music across a wide sea of platforms (in order to collect royalties on those plays), is announcing another big step in its bid to put its money where its mouth is. The company’s fully owned subsidiary Kobalt Capital is unveiling a $600 million music royalties fund to buy up music copyrights to collect royalties themselves. The fund’s lead investor is the RPMI Railpen, the UK workers’ pension fund, along with other institutional investors. Railpen had also been an investor in Kobalt Capital’s previous $350 million fund, raised in tranches to help the company buy into music copyrights. [ Tech Crunch ] Ron Conway, the 'Godfather of Silicon Valley,' has been sued by his former partner for millions of dollars
Mega-rounds drive renewed VC interest in US fintech After a lull in 2016, the US fintech industry may set a record this year. Partly due to mega-rounds, such as SoFi's $500 million fundraise in February, VC investment in the US fintech space is on track to hit $7.58 billion in 2017, per the PitchBook Platform. The billion-dollar coworking community’s founding partner and chief brand officer, Rebekah Neumann, is launching a micro school called WeGrow to serve Generation We.Like so many entrepreneurs, Rebekah Neumann’s impetus for her new venture was solving a problem for herself. As her oldest daughter’s kindergarten class progressed, “it just wasn’t the right environment,” recalls Neumann, a mother of five young children and the founding partner and chief brand officer of WeWork, the world’s most successful coworking community. When she and her husband Adam Neumann, WeWork’s founder and CEO, evaluated first-grade options for their daughter—”looking at schools both here [in New York City] and on the West Coast, by the way”—their dissatisfaction grew. [ Fast Company ] E775: CoinList, behind Filecoin $205m ICO, compliance/srvcs platform for all ICOs; CEO Andy BrombergHow Midas List Investor Klaus Hommels Became Europe's Startup Secret WeaponThe tourists at the rooftop café in Lisbon ignore the businessman sitting nearby, bespectacled and neatly dressed. For the past 17 years, that’s how Klaus Hommels, arguably Europe’s best individual venture capitalist, has liked it. With an investment history that includes Facebook, King.com, Skype and Spotify among many more, Hommels stands at No. 3 on this year’s first-ever Midas List Europe, the ranking of the top tech investors in Europe and Israel published by Forbes in partnership with TrueBridge Capital Partners and launched at Venture. Unlike his peers in the top 5, Hommels has done it mostly alone. [ Forbes ] Just How Disruptive Are ICOs To The Classic VC Model?Initial Coin Offerings, a fundraising mechanism for companies using cryptocurrencies as a mechanism to buy their service, seem to be upending the world of venture capital. Filecoin raised $250M through an ICO. Tezos raised $232M. Bancor raised $153M. These are massive amounts of money. Recently, I’ve been wondering how prevalent ICOs are and whether they could potentially be a substitute for venture capital. The chart above shows the number and size of ICOs since the beginning of this year. Though November 6, 130 ICOs have raised $2.7B. 18 have raised more than $100M, while 120 have raised up to $50M. That’s an enormous amount of money. [ TOMASZ TUNGUZ ] Meet the startups fighting Silicon Valley’s soaring housing costsMoviePass Backer Soars on Plan to Raise $100 Million in FundingWill.i.am's startup raises $117 million, enters enterprise marketChallenger bank Monzo raises another £71M from Goodwater Capital, Stripe and Michael MoritzThe first Silicon Valley ambassador is out to make nice with tech giantsNextBlock, a cryptocurrency venture-capital fund, scraps IPO planFacebook, WeWork and others use this startup to make swag |