mumbai japans softbank corp said it has made a first closing of 93 billion for its ambitious vision fund which will invest in technology companies globally masayoshi son the softbank founder and the saudi arabian government announced the worlds largest investment vehicle over the weekend timing it with the us president donald trumps visit to the riyadh the saudi kingdoms public investment fund will put 45 billion while softbanks committing 28 billion with rest of the sponsors including abu dhabis mubadala development co tech majors apple foxconn qualcomm and sharp chipping in the rest of the amount the final close of the fund at 100 billion is slated for end of the year a statement the largest backer of indian tech startups over the past few years having ploughed 35 billion here softbank is likely to make most of ts 100 million and bigger investments in india via this fund including the proposed investment in flipkart which will come through after the sale of snapdealthe softbank vision fund svf investment committee presently comprises son and indiaborn rajeev misra who was designated as the chief executive officer of svf last year but will add more members going forward both new and followon investments at 100 million or more will be routed through the fund in fact a few of softbanks existing investments like intelsat sofi and the groups stake in british chipmaker arm may be acquired by svf the 28 billion that softbank has committed as limited partner in svf includes 82 billion of value ascribed to the 25 stake it holds in armwhats interesting is that ridehailing startups like indias ola where softbank is a significant investor may not get capital from the vision fund some reports indicated due to a conflicts of interest between the two parties just last year uber picked up 35 billion from saudi arabias pif the kingdoms main investment fund while softbank has backed chinese cab hailing giant didi chuxing and southeast asias grab besides ola digital payments firm paytm which roped in softbank in a 14 billion financing round too did not get the capital from svfwhich means softbank group will continue to invest from its balance sheet in such cases people familiar with the matter said on a case to case basissoftbanks other portfolio companies in india include hotel booking platform oyo rooms and egrocer grofers besides the beleaguered online retailer snapdeal which is in the last leg of being sold to flipkart softbank may hire an india manager to look after all its investments sources said in a prepared statement son said technology has the potential to address the biggest challenges and risks facing humanity today the businesses working to solve these problems will require patient longterm capital and visionary strategic investment partners with the resources to nurture their success the softbank vision fund is consistent with this strategy and will help build and grow businesses creating the foundational platforms of the next stage of the information revolutionsvp will back technologies like