SoftBank Capital

ActiveVenture Capital

Updated: Dec 5, 2025 ·

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Investments Made

Date	Company	Round	Lead Investor(s)	Co-Investor(s)
Sep 1, 2025	Normal Factory	$500K Seed	—	BoxGroup, General Catalyst, Y Combinator, Steve Martocci
Nov 1, 2023	Afterwork	$400K Seed	—	Hustle Fund, KohFounders, Mark Goines, Stephen Dash
Mar 1, 2023	IVO Systems	$2.0M Seed	—	645 Ventures, Afore Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Banana Capital, BoxGroup, Chaac Ventures, Craft Ventures, Gaingels, Infinite Niches, Pareto Holdings, Pelion Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Reform Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Seven Seven Six, Spark Capital, Thirty Five Ventures, TitletownTech, Baron Davis, Carmelo Anthony (Melo7 Tech Partners), Gregory Waldorf, Pau Gasol
May 1, 2022	OxeFit	$8.0M Series A	—	645 Ventures, Afore Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Banana Capital, BoxGroup, Chaac Ventures, Craft Ventures, Gaingels, Infinite Niches, Pareto Holdings, Pelion Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Reform Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Seven Seven Six, Spark Capital, Thirty Five Ventures, TitletownTech, Baron Davis, Carmelo Anthony (Melo7 Tech Partners), Gregory Waldorf, Pau Gasol
Apr 1, 2022	Trace	$47.0M Series C	—	645 Ventures, Afore Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Banana Capital, BoxGroup, Chaac Ventures, Craft Ventures, Gaingels, Infinite Niches, Pareto Holdings, Pelion Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Reform Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Seven Seven Six, Spark Capital, Thirty Five Ventures, TitletownTech, Baron Davis, Carmelo Anthony (Melo7 Tech Partners), Gregory Waldorf, Pau Gasol
Jan 1, 2022	Wonderschool	$25.0M Series B	—	645 Ventures, Afore Capital, Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Banana Capital, BoxGroup, Chaac Ventures, Craft Ventures, Entrepreneur First, f7 Ventures, G20 Ventures, Gaingels, Infinite Niches, NextView Ventures, Owl Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Pelion Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Reform Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Seven Seven Six, Sound Ventures, Spark Capital, Spero Ventures, Stride VC, Thirty Five Ventures, TitletownTech, Uncork Capital, Webb Investment Network, Y Combinator, Aron Gelbard, Baron Davis, Carmelo Anthony (Melo7 Tech Partners), Eric Ries, Farzad Nazem, Gregory Waldorf, Ian Hogarth, Luca Ascani, Mandeep Singh, Osama Bedier, Pau Gasol, Sam Altman, Somdip Dey
Jan 1, 2022	Patient Pattern	$2.0M Seed	—	Atreides Management, Bessemer Venture Partners, Cupule Ventures, Plug & Play Ventures, Tribeca Venture Partners
Jan 1, 2022	Sayata	$35.0M Series A	—	83North, Adjacent, B Capital Group, Hanaco Ventures, H.I.G. Capital, Innovation Endeavors, Insight Partners, M12, Norwest Venture Partners, Pitango Venture Capital, Sapphire Ventures, Spark Capital, Team8, Matt Garratt, Vertex Ventures Israel, Anshu Sharma, Yuval Shahar, Ziv Kop
Nov 1, 2021	Procurated	$10.0M Series A	—	Afore Capital, Atreides Management, Bessemer Venture Partners, Coughdrop Capital, Cupule Ventures, Earl Grey Capital, Industrious Ventures, LAUNCH, Primetime Partners, Ride Home Fund, Tribeca Venture Partners, Dharmesh Shah, Immad Akhund, Narendra Rocherolle, Rob May
Oct 1, 2021	Pulsora	$9.0M Seed	—	Act One Ventures, Bow Capital, Compound, FINTOP Capital, Lazerow Ventures, M13, Miramar Ventures, Ragovin Ventures, TenOneTen Ventures, Workday Ventures, Clark Landry, Eytan Elbaz, Kim Perell
Aug 1, 2021	Polywork	$13.0M Series A	—	20VC, 645 Ventures, Kevin Hartz, Across Capital Partners, Addition, Afore Capital, Aglae Ventures, Amplo, Andreessen Horowitz, Jana Messerschmidt, Audrey Capital, BackBone Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Banana Capital, BoxGroup, C2 Investment, Chaac Ventures, Chapter One Ventures, Craft Ventures, Dreamers VC, Earl Grey Capital, Electric Capital, Fifth Down Capital, Flourish Ventures, Friends & Family Capital, Gaingels, General Catalyst, Hyper, Infinite Niches, Innovation Endeavors, Interlock Partners, Khosla Ventures, KRM Interests LLC, Lerer Hippeau, Menlo Ventures, monashees, Luke Pappas, NewFund, Northzone, Glenn Solomon, Pareto Holdings, Pelion Venture Partners, Placeholder, Propel Venture Partners, Quona Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Reform Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Sarona Ventures, Seven Seven Six, Snowflake Ventures, Sound Ventures, Spark Capital, The Hit Forge, Thirty Five Ventures, TitletownTech, Trajectory Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Volt Capital, Weekend Fund, Y Combinator, Adrian Aoun, Balaji Srinivasan, Baron Davis, Ben Davenport, Ben Porterfield, Brad Bao, Bradley Horowitz, Carmelo Anthony (Melo7 Tech Partners), Casey Neistat, Charlie Cheever, DROdio - Daniel R. Odio, Florian Huber, Fredrik Hjelm, Gregory Waldorf, Jared Leto, Jeff Morris, Joshua Reeves, Kevin Weil, Odell Beckham Jr., Pau Gasol, Paul Yacoubian, Roland Brack, Sahil Lavingia, Sahin Boydas, Sam Altman, Scott Belsky, Tobias Lutke, Varsha Rao
Jun 1, 2021	NexHealth	$31.0M Series B	—	20VC, 2xN, 645 Ventures, Kevin Hartz, Afore Capital, AirAngels, Altair Capital Management, Andreessen Horowitz, Angel investor, AngelList, Anti fund, Asylum Ventures, Banana Capital, Bond, BoxGroup, Brainchild, Buckley Ventures, C2 Investment, Catalio Capital, Chaac Ventures, Chapter One Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Craft Ventures, Curious Capital, Earl Grey Capital, Fathom Capital, Founders Fund, Gaingels, Greylock, Haun Ventures, Heavybit, Highbury Group, Homebrew, Hustle Fund, Infinite Niches, KAAN Ventures, LAUNCH, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Not Boring Capital, Paradigm, Pareto Holdings, Pelion Venture Partners, Plaid, Point Nine Capital, Positive Sum VC, Proton Enterprises, Redpoint Ventures, Reform Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Seven Seven Six, Shrug Capital, Sound Ventures, Spark Capital, Streamlined Ventures, SV Angel, The Hit Forge, Thirty Five Ventures, TitletownTech, Todd and Rahul's Angel Fund, Trust Fund, Ulu Ventures, Vibe Capital, Alex Rodriguez, What If Ventures, WndrCo LLC, Y Combinator, Anthony Pompliano, Babak Nivi, Baron Davis, Carmelo Anthony (Melo7 Tech Partners), Casey Neistat, Claire Hughes Johnson, David Hauser, Evan Williams, Gokul Rajaram, Gregory Waldorf, Jason Lemkin, Jeff Morris, Jonathan Forster, Josh Hannah, Karim Atiyeh, Kevin Hart, Kyle Vogt, Liron Petrushka, Lisa Dolan, Marcy Simon, Mark Pincus, Mats Diedrichsen, Matthew Dellavedova, Moshe Lifschitz, Ott Kaukver, Paolo Negri, Pau Gasol, Paul George, Robert Muñoz, Sahil Lavingia, Sahin Boydas, Scott Belsky, Shishir Mehrotra, Tobias Lutke
May 1, 2021	Nomad	$2.0M Seed	—	645 Ventures, Afore Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Banana Capital, BoxGroup, Chaac Ventures, Craft Ventures, Drive Capital, Gaingels, General Catalyst, Infinite Niches, Kickstart Fund, Pareto Holdings, Pelion Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Reform Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Seven Seven Six, Spark Capital, Thirty Five Ventures, TitletownTech, Baron Davis, Carmelo Anthony (Melo7 Tech Partners), Jonathan Bush, Pau Gasol
Dec 1, 2020	HyPoint	$350K Seed	—	Jerry Jacobs Jr.
Nov 1, 2020	Hiki	$170K Seed	—	645 Ventures, Afore Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Banana Capital, BoxGroup, Chaac Ventures, Craft Ventures, Gaingels, Infinite Niches, MATH Venture Partners, Pareto Holdings, Pelion Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Reform Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Seven Seven Six, Spark Capital, Thirty Five Ventures, TitletownTech, Baron Davis, Carmelo Anthony (Melo7 Tech Partners), Gregory Waldorf, Pau Gasol
Nov 1, 2020	Encantos	$6.0M Seed	—	2045 ventures, 645 Ventures, 75 & Sunny, Afore Capital, Altalurra Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Backstage Capital, Banana Capital, Black Jays Investments, Bowery Capital, BoxGroup, Brainchild, C2Ventures, Chaac Ventures, Chingona Ventures, Craft Ventures, Creandum, Curie.Bio, Jenny Fielding, Scott Hartley, FirstMark Capital, G20 Ventures, Gaingels, Ganas Ventures, Glasswing Ventures, IA Ventures, ICONIQ Capital, Infinite Niches, Intel Capital, Khosla Ventures, Kohala Ventures, L'ATTITUDE Ventures, Lazerow Ventures, M13, Math Capital, Mayfield, Operator Partners, OVO Fund, Pareto Holdings, Passion Capital, Pelion Venture Partners, Point72 Ventures, Precursor Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Reform Ventures, Samsung NEXT Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Scribble Ventures, Seven Seven Six, Shine Capital, Spark Capital, Supply Change Capital, Thirty Five Ventures, TitletownTech, Trajectory Ventures, True Ventures, Ulu Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Vamos Ventures, Vitalize Venture Group, XSeed Capital, Ben Porterfield, Carmelo Anthony (Melo7 Tech Partners), Chris Ahearn, Elie Seidman, Gregory Waldorf, Hugh Browne, Jennifer Lum, Kim Perell, Moshe Lifschitz, Neill Occhiogrosso, Pau Gasol, Peter Read
Aug 1, 2020	proteanTecs	$45.0M Series C	—	Aleph VC, Atreides Management, Bessemer Venture Partners, Cupule Ventures, Redline Capital, Samsung NEXT Ventures, Tribeca Venture Partners, Addition, Dave Munichiello, Greylock, In-Q-Tel, Lightspeed Venture Partners, QBE Ventures
Jun 1, 2020	Squire	$27.0M Series B	—	645 Ventures, Afore Capital, Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Banana Capital, Battery Ventures, BoxGroup, CapitalG, Cedar Capital Group, Chaac Ventures, Clear Ventures, Craft Ventures, CRV, FirstMark Capital, FPV Fund, Gaingels, Infinite Niches, Insight Partners, Pareto Holdings, Pelion Venture Partners, Prosperity7 Ventures, Rally Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Reform Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Seven Seven Six, Singular, Snowflake Ventures, Spark Capital, Telescope Partners, Thirty Five Ventures, TitletownTech, Trinity Ventures, Wellington Management, Baron Davis, Carmelo Anthony (Melo7 Tech Partners), Cherian Mathew, Gregory Waldorf, Pau Gasol, Steven Kamali
Apr 1, 2020	Slite	$11.0M Series A	—	645 Ventures, Afore Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Banana Capital, BoxGroup, Chaac Ventures, Craft Ventures, Gaingels, Infinite Niches, Pareto Holdings, Pelion Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Reform Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Seven Seven Six, Spark Capital, Thirty Five Ventures, TitletownTech, Baron Davis, Carmelo Anthony (Melo7 Tech Partners), Gregory Waldorf, Pau Gasol
Sep 1, 2019	Wellness Coach	$3.0M Seed	—	645 Ventures, Afore Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Banana Capital, BoxGroup, Chaac Ventures, Craft Ventures, Gaingels, Infinite Niches, Pareto Holdings, Pelion Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Reform Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Seven Seven Six, Spark Capital, Thirty Five Ventures, TitletownTech, Baron Davis, Carmelo Anthony (Melo7 Tech Partners), Gregory Waldorf, Pau Gasol
Aug 1, 2019	Mason America, Inc.	$25.0M Series A	—	Bowery Capital, DFJ, Forerunner Ventures, Founder Collective, GSV Acceleration, Mathias Schilling, Lerer Hippeau, Long Journey Ventures, Notable Capital, RRE Ventures, Howard Lindzon, SV Angel, White Star Capital, Adora Cheung, Eghosa Omoigui, Nate Lipscomb
Aug 1, 2019	Knotel	$400.0M Series C	—	Hanaco Ventures, H.I.G. Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, Spark Capital
Jun 1, 2019	Loverboy	$1.0M Seed	—	645 Ventures, Abstract Ventures, Afore Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Banana Capital, BoxGroup, Chaac Ventures, Craft Ventures, Gaingels, Infinite Niches, LAUNCH, Ligature, NextGen Venture Partners, Pareto Holdings, Pelion Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Reform Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Seven Seven Six, Spark Capital, Thirty Five Ventures, TitletownTech, Tribe Capital, Baron Davis, Carmelo Anthony (Melo7 Tech Partners), Chuck Feerick, George Godula, Gregory Waldorf, Kurt Bilafer, Matthew Dellavedova, Pau Gasol
Apr 1, 2019	Squire	$8.0M Series A	—	645 Ventures, Afore Capital, Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Banana Capital, BoxGroup, Chaac Ventures, Clear Ventures, Craft Ventures, FPV Fund, Gaingels, Infinite Niches, Pareto Holdings, Pelion Venture Partners, Prosperity7 Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Reform Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Seven Seven Six, Spark Capital, Thirty Five Ventures, TitletownTech, Trinity Ventures, Baron Davis, Carmelo Anthony (Melo7 Tech Partners), Cherian Mathew, Gregory Waldorf, Pau Gasol
Feb 1, 2019	Affirmed Networks	$38.0M Venture Round	—	Atreides Management, Bessemer Venture Partners, Cupule Ventures, DGF Investimentos, Mindset Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Tribeca Venture Partners

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Leadership Team

Key people at SoftBank Capital.

Executive in Residence

Nikhil Kalghatgi

Principal

Leadership Team

Key people at SoftBank Capital.

Executive in Residence

Nikhil Kalghatgi

Principal

Deep Dive

SoftBank Capital - High-Level Overview

SoftBank Capital was a U.S.-based venture capital firm founded by SoftBank, primarily focused on early-stage investments in technology and telecommunications companies. Its mission centered on identifying and supporting innovative startups in these sectors to foster growth and technological advancement. Although it ceased active investing around 2015, it continued managing its existing portfolio thereafter. The firm played a role in nurturing early-stage companies that contributed to the broader tech ecosystem, particularly in the U.S., by providing capital and strategic support during critical growth phases[2][3].

Origin Story

SoftBank Capital was established as the investment arm of SoftBank Corp., a major Japanese telecom and investment holding company. It was initially led by four partners: Ron Fisher, Eric Hippeau, Steve Murray, and Michael Perlis. The firm was founded in the mid-1990s (circa 1995) and evolved to focus on early-stage technology and telecom ventures in the U.S. A notable moment in its history was the creation of a $250 million growth fund in 2013, which invested in prominent companies like Alibaba and MediaTek. The firm was closed by SoftBank in 2015, marking the end of its active investment phase, though it continued to oversee its portfolio for some years afterward[2].

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Focused on early-stage technology and telecom startups in the U.S., leveraging SoftBank’s global reach and resources.
Network Strength: Benefited from SoftBank’s extensive international connections, providing portfolio companies access to a broad ecosystem.
Track Record: Invested in high-profile companies such as Alibaba, demonstrating an ability to identify transformative technology ventures.
Operating Support: Provided strategic guidance and capital to help startups scale during early growth stages[2][3].

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

SoftBank Capital operated during a period of rapid technological innovation, particularly in telecommunications and internet technologies. Its timing coincided with the rise of mobile internet, cloud computing, and early AI developments. By focusing on early-stage investments, it helped fuel the growth of companies that would later become significant players in the tech ecosystem. Although it ceased active investing in 2015, its legacy contributed to SoftBank Group’s broader strategy of investing heavily in transformative technologies through larger vehicles like the SoftBank Vision Fund, which emphasizes AI and next-generation tech sectors[1][2].

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Since SoftBank Capital no longer actively invests, its future role is limited to portfolio management and legacy impact. However, its foundational work in early-stage tech investing helped set the stage for SoftBank Group’s current and future investment strategies, which are heavily focused on AI, robotics, and digital infrastructure. The trends shaping this journey include the global AI economy, digital transformation, and the integration of technology across industries. SoftBank Capital’s historical role underscores the importance of early-stage venture capital in seeding innovation that later scales through larger funds and strategic investments[1][2][6].

Sources

SoftBank Capital - High-Level Overview

Origin Story

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: Focused on early-stage technology and telecom startups in the U.S., leveraging SoftBank’s global reach and resources.
Network Strength: Benefited from SoftBank’s extensive international connections, providing portfolio companies access to a broad ecosystem.
Track Record: Invested in high-profile companies such as Alibaba, demonstrating an ability to identify transformative technology ventures.
Operating Support: Provided strategic guidance and capital to help startups scale during early growth stages[2][3].