December 9, 2020
By Chibuike Oguh
(Reuters) – Japanese technology giant SoftBank Group Corp scored a $11.2 billion gain in the value of its stake in DoorDash Inc following the U.S. food delivery app’s blockbuster stock market debut on Wednesday.
SoftBank, which invested $680 million in DoorDash in the last three years, saw the value of its 25% stake in the company rise to $11.9 billion on the first day of trading.
DoorDash shares ended trading up 87.5% following their debut on Wednesday, valuing the company at $68.4 billion, more than four times its valuation in a private fundraising round six months ago.
SoftBank’s DoorDash gains is a boon to Chief Executive Masayoshi Son’s efforts to revive its $100 billion Vision Fund, which recorded a string of losses in the past year on soured bets ranging from office space-sharing start-up WeWork to dog-walking startup Wag.
Last month, SoftBank said its Vision Fund was now worth about $76.4 billion, slightly more than the $75 billion paid for its 83 investments, due mainly to the tech-fueled rebound in public markets from a coronavirus-induced downturn earlier this year.
SoftBank has had other investment wins of late, including a rally in the shares of ride-hailing app Uber Technologies Inc, where it is a top shareholder, and the sale of semiconductor manufacturer Arm Ltd to Nvidia Corp for $40 billion.
SoftBank’s Vision Fund had invested in DoorDash over four fundraising rounds. It paid $280 million for its first DoorDash stake in March 2018, before buying more shares over two rounds in the following year for about $350 million. The fund made its last DoorDash investment worth about $50 million in June 2020, according to regulatory filings.
(Reporting by Chibuike Oguh in New York; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
