By Cory Weinberg

October 31, 2019

Source: The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal paints a bleak picture of the inner workings of SoftBank’s Vision Fund, where investment decisions are often made in minutes. Employees told outside consultants last year about a “chaotic” culture where investors are “incentivized to gamble to look good” and build their personal brands.

Another related detail in the story is perhaps more damning: Startup executives seeking money from the Vision Fund were “taking advantage of the fund’s disorganization,” one executive told the consultants.

SoftBank says the culture has improved in the year since that report, but there are more reasons for scrutiny, aside from the fund’s write-downs on its investments in Uber and WeWork. Indoor farming startup Plenty, dog-walking app Wag and robot pizza maker Zume are all worth less than what SoftBank invested, the Journal notes. 

As for SoftBanks’s second Vision Fund, key investors like Singapore’s GIC sovereign wealth fund and the investment arm of Koch Industries, have pulled out of their initial commitments.

Trying to right the ship is Vision Fund leader Rajeev Misra, a former Deutsche Bank executive who ingratiated himself with SoftBank boss Masayoshi Son by knowing how to find cash when it needed to buy cell phone carriers and controversial bets. He says the company will spend its money more slowly next time it raises its giant tech fund.