SoftBank Vision Fund plans to provide $800 million in new investment to U.K.-based fintech firm Greensill. According to a source close to the matter, this investment places Greensill’s value at $3.5 billion—more than double the valuation it achieved about a year ago when General Atlantic LLC invested $250 million in the alternative supply chain funding firm. The deal will provide SoftBank Vision Fund with an approximately 15 to 20 percent stake in Greensill. Neither Greensill nor SoftBank have commented publicly on the investment yet.
Co-founded in 2011 by former Morgan Stanley banker Lex Greensill, the Company specializes in supply chain finance, through which businesses can raise capital backed by their payments to suppliers. Greensill has provided over $60 billion in financing to more than eight million customers in over 60 countries since inception while achieving annual growth in excess of 100 percent since 2015. The firm is based in London with offices in New York, Chicago, Miami, Sydney, Frankfurt and Bremen.
Greensill’s focus is on challenging traditional banks and opening up working capital finance to a greater number of business. While not commenting on SoftBank Vision Fund’s investment, Mr. Greensill did tell the Financial Times on Monday at his company aims to “democratize access to capital using technology and the financial markets” with the firm acting as “agents of technological disruption.
According to the source close to the deal, Greensill plans to use the funding it is receiving from SoftBank Vision Fund to fuel expansion and invest in the development of technologies that can make more capital available to its clients. Specifically, the capital is expected to be used to ramp up its recent entry into the Brazilian market and move forward plans to enter markets such as China and India.
For SoftBank Vision Fund, this investment marks its second major stake in a U.K. financial services company. The Vision Fund is part of Japan’s SoftBank and is largely funded by the UAE and Saudi Arabian state funds. With almost $100 billion under management, the fund is headed by former Deutsche Bank and UBS debt trader Rajeev Misra.
