Headed by CEO Masayoshi Son, the SoftBank Vision Fund continues to soar, as they recently capped a $93 billion-dollar fund. 45% of this fund is backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), thus making them the largest investor. For the sake of comparison, Sequoia Capital, one of the largest and most reputable American venture firms, is set to raise an $8 billion-dollar fund, which is considered monstrous for venture capital firms in the US.
The Rise of Private Equity Advisory Firms
While the growth of the private equity industry is phenomenal, the introduction of differentiated private equity advisory firms has slowly been developing. One such example of this type of firm is Franklin Park, located in West Philadelphia. Franklin Park has been around for over 15 years, currently has over $13.3 billion under management, and has global representation in both Dublin and Hong Kong.
How VC Plays it Safe in Germany
With strict data regulation laws like the GDPR introduced in the EU and the outdated GiroCard debit system that prevents card-not-present online payments, it doesn’t come as a surprise that Germany lacks startups and lags behind in the development offuture technologies like fintech, artificial intelligence or blockchain.
ByteDance: The Road to Becoming the World’s Most Valuable Internet Startup
The Chinese unicorn ByteDance has become the world’s largest internet startup after recently closing a $3 billion round of funding on October 25th. Backed by the Softbank Group, KKR, General Atlantic and China-based investment firm Primavera, the company is now valued at $75 billion — surpassing Uber’s current valuation at $72 billion, according to CB Insights. Launched in 2012, ByteDance is a Chinese internet technology company that owns a number of machine learning based-social media apps such as Toutiao, a news aggregator app, and Duoyin, a platform that allows users to record and share short videos.
Apple Considers Stake in Bankrupt iHeartMedia
iHeartMedia is a mass media company that owns iHeartRadio, which is a free broadcast and internet radio platform. iHeartMedia aggregates 850 local iHeart radio stations across the United States and it is the biggest US radio station owner. In 2008, iHeartMedia was taken private by Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners through an $18bn leveraged buyout.