wants to see more AI startups succeed, particularly those located in its home base of Japan.
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On Monday, the Tokyo-based conglomerate that its ���early-stage venture capital arm is setting up a second investment fund dedicated to unearthing promising startups in artificial intelligence,��� according to Bloomberg. And it���s aiming to raise ���more than $55 million��� in that fund.
To be clear, this initiative is unrelated to anything the $100 billion is doing. Instead, the fund will be formed through SoftBank���s AI-focused incubator, , which raised its first fund of about $55 million in 2018.
According to Bloomberg, this new fund will surpass that one in terms of money raised but SoftBank was not more specific. That fund has backed 18 early-stage startups, noted Bloomberg. We wrote about one of those last November when San Francisco-based ��raised a $29.5 million Series A that included participation from Deepcore. Also just last week, we covered San Jose-based voice commerce company ���s $2.8 million seed round that also included participation from Deepcore.
According to Bloomberg, Deepcore plans to launch the ���new AI investment fund in two to three years as it expands its core startup incubation business.���
���The company aims to find promising companies and nurture the next generation of up-and-comers, enroute to addressing Japan���s deficit of global AI firms,��� Bloomberg noted.
The publication also on May 21 that SoftBank had recently tapped ���renowned AI expert and Deepcore-adviser to its board, enlisting a specialist in the field for the first time.���
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