Why SoftBank Is Investing in Brazil, and Why Nobody There Seems to Care About WeWork
SoftBank has made plenty of headlines lately, but for all the wrong reasons (like the downfall of WeWork, its once-darling investment in the United States). In other regions, though, the Japanese investment firm is managing to quietly dole out its mega-bucks—minus the intense level of scrutiny that follows its fund or other investments.
The growing middle class and fast adoption of new technologies has made Latin America—and in particular countries like Brazil and Mexico—a prime target for SoftBank. The firm has already made bets on 10 different startups in the region, according to André Maciel, managing partner of the SoftBank Innovation Fund. The exec spoke at this week’s Fortune Global Forum in Paris, where he talked about the various reasons why this region is so attractive to SoftBank. (In total, SoftBank is committing $5 billion in investments in Latin America.)
By Michal Lev-Ram via Fortune