Vestiaire Collective, an online fashion platform, recently raised capital from investors including SoftBank Group Corp., increasing the company’s worth to $1.7 billion.
SoftBank Vision Fund 2, a private-equity arm of the Japanese IT behemoth, and other investors provided the French company with a total of 178 million euros ($209 million).
Existing shareholders like Conde Nast and Eurazeo are joined by new investors like Generation Investment Management. Collective Vestiaire stated on Wednesday
French 200m Series Softbank 1b Dillettechcrunch
Japanese multinational business and investment management firm SoftBank Group Corp is headquartered in Minato, Tokyo.
The majority of the Group’s holdings are made up of companies in the information technology, energy, and finance industries. Additionally, it manages the Vision Fund, which has over $100 billion in assets and is the largest technology-focused venture capital fund in the world. Middle Eastern governments’ investment vehicles are among the fund’s backers
Masayoshi Son, the company’s founder and main shareholder, is widely regarded as a visionary business leader.
The company has a wide range of business operations including but not limited to fixed-line telecommunications, broadband internet access, online retail, information technology, banking, media, and marketing.
Its subsidiary and previous flagship company, SoftBank Corporation, is now Japan’s third-largest wireless carrier by customer count (as of March 2021).
In 2017, SoftBank was rated #36 on Forbes’ Global 2000 list, making it the second largest publicly traded business in Japan after Toyota.
The flag of the Kaientai, a naval commerce corporation established in 1865 by Sakamoto Ryma near the end of the Tokugawa shogunate, served as inspiration for the design of SoftBank’s emblem.
Despite not being a part of a traditional keiretsu, SoftBank has strong ties to Mizuho Financial Group, its principal lender.
SoftBank’s Vision Fund, which is continuing to place huge bets on India’s burgeoning digital economy, led the deal, which is the largest in India’s online grocery sector to date. Along with KTB, previous investors Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital also took part in the round.
TechCrunch’s Top Favorite Three
- Google has released a bunch of new search features: The Alphabet Inc. Google may be the undisputed leader in search, but rivals are closing the gap, so the corporation is constantly improving its infrastructure.
- The company has just revealed some redesign work, improved wildfire tracking, and an initiative to build more context into findings. Although these improvements are certainly appreciated, they do little to address the underlying problem of ever-increasing ad loads on valuable search real estate.
- It’s trendy to list directly: Amplitude and Warby Parker’s recent IPOs show that direct listing is a viable option for gaining access to public market liquidity. This is excellent news for unicorns that are reluctant to go the IPO route.
- While Tiger is grabbing all the headlines at the moment, SoftBank is busy making transactions, including a $200 million investment in Andela.
- In a transaction announced today, the Japanese telecommunications giant and investment firm SoftBank Group Corp. will invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Andela, a startup that introduces African IT professionals to employers in other parts of the world.
- The funding coincides with the rising worldwide esteem for Africa’s digital landscape, as evidenced by VC results, and the talent crunch story that has been so prevalent among companies in recent quarters.
Last Words
BigBasket, which funded its round earlier this month from Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund, the United Kingdom’s CDC Group, and Alibaba, is just one of several competitors to the firm.
Additionally, the pair must contend with hyperlocal player Dunzo and delivery upstart Swiggy, both of which have lately entered the grocery delivery market. Thanks for reading French 200m Series Softbank 1b Dillettechcrunch.
