On October 15, Beijing SoftAsia Credit Capital Investment Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as SoftAsia), the wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan's SoftBank Venture Asia, registered and opened its offices in the Sino-Japan (Beijing) Innovation Cooperation Demonstration Zone. It becomes the first wholly Japanese-owned fund management company to operate in China and marks a significant strategic move of the world's top financial institution in China. The company will join Beijing's efforts to build a benchmark city for the global digital economy. Moreover, SoftAsia will assist the artificial intelligence companies invested by Softbank globally to establish R&D centers and enble their digital transformation and development.     

Relevant Policy

Official Reply of the State Council on the Working Plan for Deepening a New Round of Comprehensive Pilot Projects of Further Opening up the Service Sector, and Building a Comprehensive Demonstration Zone for Further Opening up the National Service Sector in Beijing (Guo Han [2020] No.123)

Extended Reading

The investment team of Softbank Venture Asia has accumulated rich experience in equity investment and has finalized a large number of investment cases. Since its establishment in 2000, it has successfully raised 16 funds with a total size of over USD 1 billion and invested in 233 companies in the technology and Internet sectors in Asia, the US, Israel and Europe. With the coordination of Softbank, SoftAsia can actively engage in the construction of the smart city projects of Daxing District to spur the upgrading of the city. For example, SenseTime invested by Softbank can provide a visual hub platform with a full-scene coverage for the city based on AI-enabled visual recognition. Additionally, SoftAsia will facilitate the establishment of an international innovation and entrepreneurship demonstration platform, and set up a professional accelerator based on its years of close partnership with top-notch global incubators to incubate excellent innovation and entrepreneurial projects in the demonstration zone.