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Bloomberg
A top US partner at SoftBank Group Corp’s $100 billion technology fund is stepping down, after the company posted declining returns on its investments and struggled to raise capital for the next Vision Fund.
Michael Ronen, the outgoing managing partner, expressed concerns about “issues†at SoftBank in an interview with the Financial Times, which earlier reported his departure. Since joining in 2017 from Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Ronen led a series of investments, most notably a $2.25 billion deal for General Motors Co’s Cruise self-driving unit. He’s at least the second managing partner to leave in the last couple months.
The Vision Fund has reshaped the tech startup market with a flood of investments, but several of its bets on unprofitable companies quickly went south. SoftBank bid up the valuation of WeWork parent company We Co to $47 billion before a failed attempt at an initial public offering sent the value plummeting and forced the Japanese conglomerate to bail out the co-working startup. Another investment, Uber Technologies Inc, is trading below its IPO price and faces mounting pressure from governments.
The corporate culture inside the Vision Fund can be punishing. A Bloomberg Businessweek cover story in December reported on
allegations of harassment and recklessness. Another aspect of the culture pits technologists and financial industry veterans against one another.