SoftBank launches $5B Latin America fund led by former Sprint CEO

SoftBank is launching a $5 billion fund to invest in technology startups across Latin America.

Marcelo Claure, the former CEO of Sprint and a partner in the David Beckham-led venture to build a Major League Soccer complex in Miami, will run the fund. The new fund will focus on investments in e-commerce, health care, digital financial services and others industries throughout Latin America, according to CNBC.

Investors in SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund have grown disgruntled as of late. The sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi have complained about SoftBank’s practice of buying stakes in companies and then passing them onto the Vision Fund at a premium.

SoftBank has invested billions into startups like Uber and Compass over the past few years. Investors are concerned that its CEO Masayoshi Son is buying shares of companies at valuations that are at market-peak pricing, citing SoftBank’s most recent $2 billion investment into The We Company, previously known as WeWork. [CNBC] – Katherine Kallergis