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Indonesia in Softbank’s $108b Vision Fund radar

Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company SoftBank Group Corp

Marchio Irfan Gorbiano (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, July 30, 2019

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Indonesia in Softbank’s $108b Vision Fund radar

J

apanese multinational conglomerate holding company SoftBank Group Corp. has set its eyes on Indonesia as an investment target in its US$108 billion Vision Fund.

The technology fund, namely SoftBank Vision Fund 2, was launched last week and followed the first round of funding worth $100 billion announced in 2017. The second Vision Fund, with the financial backing of technology giants Apple and Microsoft, among other investors, will focus on financing companies in the artificial intelligence sector.

The first Vision Fund supports several big start-up names, including US-based ride hailing firm Uber and workspaces-sharing firm WeWork as well as UK-based start-up Improbable.

Now, SoftBank’s founder and CEO Masayoshi Son turns to Indonesia with plans to invest in the country’s digital economy landscape. He is starting by investing $2 billion through Singapore-based ride-hailing firm Grab, which also operates in Indonesia, and meeting President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo at Merdeka Palace on Monday.

“We will create a second headquarters of Grab in Indonesia and become the fifth unicorn [in the country] and also invest $2 billion through Grab,” he told reporters after the meeting.

Currently, Indonesia has four homegrown unicorn start-ups with a valuation $1 billion or more, namely Gojek, Traveloka, Tokopedia and Bukalapak.

Grab said in a statement it would invest the capital it got from SoftBank in Indonesia over the next five years to set up a second headquarters in the country and to create a next-generation transportation network based on electric vehicles, Bloomberg reported. The firm has raised a total of around $3 billion from SoftBank’s Vision Fund.

Several tech giants and investors have their eyes on Indonesia considering the rapid growth of the country’s internet economy. A report by Google and TemasekHoldings Pte. projected Indonesia’s internet economy to grow to $100 billion by 2025 from only $27 billion last year.

“Turns out, Masayoshi Son wishes to add his investment in the technology sector and unicorn development in Indonesia,” Jokowi wrote in an Instagram post after the meeting. “At the same time, SoftBank is also willing to pour more investment into local unicorn Tokopedia, and help it to grow even further.”

Previously, the e-marketplace platform had raised $1.1 billion in a financing round led by Softbank and Alibaba Group in December.

“Tokopedia is also very important, we’ll increase our investment in Tokopedia and help it grow,” said Son.

Son, the second-richest person in Japan, also pledged to invest more money in the country’s renewable energy sector, electric vehicle ecosystem as well as artificial intelligence development.

“We have already invested $2 billion in Indonesia. We would invest another $2 billion as a new investment. And my friend minister Luhut is asking me to add more. So, I’d like to invest more,” he said.

“We are definitely interested in electric vehicles, the batteries and the charging system. We will invest in the ecosystem. We would like to get the blue sky back to Jakarta,” he went on to say.

Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said Son planned to invest $5 billion in total over the next three years.

Luhut said the government would set up a pilot project in the electric vehicle ecosystem in Jakarta and he expected the supporting infrastructure for the project could be completed in the next three years.

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