Investing with Softbank
As large Korean companies began to expand their investment in start-ups with Softbank Ventures, a Korean investment subsidiary of Softbank Japan, a lot of attention is being paid to what has been kindling this move.
According to related industries on June 5, Korean information, communication and technology (ICT) companies such as LG U+ and Naver are strengthening investment cooperation with Softbank Ventures. Unlike direct start-up locations in the form of CVC by Samsung, CJ and Lotte among others, these ICT companies are investing in tech startups through specialized organizations.
Softbank Ventures is a subsidiary of Softbank Korea, the holding company in Korea of the Softbank Group in Japan. LG U+, which decided to participate in the “121-billion-won SB Global Camp Fund” recently established by Softbank Ventures, invested 10 billion won (US$9 million) and participated as a strategic investor. In order to strengthen competitiveness in the AI and IoT sectors where the company is currently fiercely competing with SKT and KT, LG U+ started to locate related start-ups.
In particular, they are employing “time machine” strategy. Time machine strategy famous as strategy of Masayoshi Son, CEO of Softbank, is to evaluate and discover successful cases in late-coming markets like Indonesia based on Korea’s experience and technology trends in its ICT development process.
On top of that, Naver invested in the US's AI-based voice modulation technology startup, ObEN, through SB Next Media Innovation Fund raised jointly by Naver and Softbank. Last month, the Korean search giant added 50 billion won (US$45 million) to SB Next Media Innovation Fund, increasing its amount to 97.3 billion won (US$87 million) in order to expand the scope of investment in advanced service sectors such as AI basic and convergence technology.
They aim to actively bring in related technologies and talent to Korea as more than 1,000 AI start-ups were founded and more than US$5 billion invested mainly in Silicon Valley.