How SoftBank’s Vision Fund turned losses into gold | Solving the Puzzle

Do you need an AudioBook Narration, or do you want someone to Narrate your YouTube/podcast script, then please do check out: https://www.linktr.ee/unitynarrator

It's hard to think back to the vision fund era today, given the oddities that 2020 has brought. But SoftBank's gravity bending investment vehicle only stopped investing last September, ending its disbursement of huge blocks of cash from a total committed capital pool worth nearly $99 billion. 

The Vision Fund was a wrecking ball, smashing into any company it chose with a big check and demands for rapid growth. By the time it was done investing, the first Vision Fund had deployed around $100 million every day of its existence. 

But even before SoftBank and eccentric leader Masayoshi Son were done cutting checks, things were going awry. that cropped up inside the portfolio in 2019, including layoffs at the overstuffed Wag, Uber’s lackluster IPO, turmoil at Brandless, the enormous WeWork IPO fiasco and its ensuing chaos, executive changes at Compass, layoffs at Fair and Katerra and OneConnect’s IPO fizzle. 

2020 picked up where 2019 had left off, with more issues at OYO, layoffs at Zume Pizza and some public flak for breaking terms sheets.

By this April, SoftBank admitted that it was on track to take stiff losses from its Vision Fund portfolio, which, when combined with other investing losses, pushed the company into a rare loss for the year.

And then things got better: SoftBank’s Vision Fund had a much better last six months than you probably guessed, and we need to understand why.