SoftBank Capital Creates $25OM Venture Capital Fund For ‘Growth’ Companies With Alibaba, MediaTek

By David Zielenziger | February 07 2013 4:04 PM

Japan’s SoftBank Corp. (TYO:9984) said it had raised $250 million for a new venture capital fund to invest in growth-stage companies that have already gotten off the ground but need more cash for expansion.

Reuters

Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank Corp., at a ceremony to roll out the iPhone 4 in Japan for SoftBank Mobile

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The new PrinceVille Investment Fund will look at about a dozen companies that need extra cash and could use an additional $10 million or $15 million or $20 million more” to get to another level of growth, Matt Krna, a principal of the fund in its New York office, said.

The cash will be invested “selectively over several years,” he said, and will complement other investments by SoftBank’s investment arm, SoftBank Capital, in early-stage companies.

PrinceVille, named for a Hawaii resort, has also received funds from China’s Alibaba Group and MediaTek Inc. (TPE:2454), the Taiwan semiconductor maker, and may guide some cash into promising Asian investments.

One of Japan’s leading mobile providers and content companies, SoftBank, under CEO Masayoshi Son is best-known in the U.S. as an early backer of Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), the No. 3 search engine. The company now is seeking approval to acquire control of Sprint-Nextel Corp. (NYSE:S), the No. 3 telecommunications company.

Earlier SoftBank Capital investments have been acquired by Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM), AOL Inc. (NYSE:AOL) and Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA).