SoftBank Vision Fund, which is SoftBank Group’s venture capital fund worth $100 billion, recently made headlines after investing $100 million in Globality, a platform that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) in helping companies find their desired services.
In a recent media release, Globality claimed that the deal with SoftBank Vision Fund propels the startup’s total financing to $172 million since its inception three years back.
Some of the previous investors in the company include Ken Goldman, Dennis Nally, and Al Gore, Yahoo!’s former chief financial officer, PwC’s former chairperson, and the former VP of the United States respectively.
Other investors on this list include John R. Joyce, IBM’s former chief financial officer and the current Chief Executive Officer of Andersen Tax, Mark Vorstaz.
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“This investment will accelerate our efforts to empower companies to find and select the best service providers at the right price for every project, while enabling greater economic inclusion around the world,” claimed the CEO, Chairperson, and Co-founder of Globality Joel Hyatt.
Globality, a US-based startup founded by both Lior Delgo and Joel Hyatt, offers a marketplace for enterprises that are seeking third-party services, primarily in areas like legal services, consulting and marketing.
The company said that it allows companies to locate the services they require by using machine learning, not only reducing the sourcing process to hours from months but also leading to savings of at least 20 percent.
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The latest financing round will help Globality in exponentially expediting its growth through investment in its artificial intelligence technology, boosting business capacity through recruiting more world-class talent within client, product and engineering teams.
What’s more, the funds will help Globality to expand its Marketing and Sales programs in a bid to buy new businesses and spearhead brand awareness.
By leveraging its artificial intelligence-driven platform, Globality is not only delivering digital disruption to the securing of B2B services but also transforming the RFP process.
The US-based company helps in efficiently matching organizations with services providers that can satisfy their needs.
“Professional services represent a multitrillion [dollar] global market, but procurement is mainly still a cumbersome manual process,” asserted a SoftBank Investment Advisers’ Managing Partner Jeffrey Housenbold.
Following SoftBank’s investment in Globality, both Ted Fike and Jeffrey Housenbold from SoftBank Investment Advisers are expected to join the startup’s board.
Vision Fund enjoys the support of Saudi Arabia’s independent wealth fund.
The deal involving Globality marks the fund’s first investment of 2019.
However, it did not take part in the $2 billion investment deal with WeWork, which was directly initiated by SoftBank Group.
The Chief Executive Officer and Chairperson of SoftBank, Masayoshi Son, is currently investing in new industries including ride-hailing, with the hope that technologies like artificial intelligence(AI) will transform business.
The recent investment in Globality falls at the lower end of any typical deal made by Vision Fund, which normally invests at least $100 million on businesses that it backs.
Vision Fund’s idea is to get a considerable minority stake and allow the startup to grow faster than its competitors.
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