Masayoshi Son, a Japanese business magnate and the founder and CEO of telco and investment firm SoftBank, reportedly will have a direct meeting with President Joko Widodo on August 14th, local media outlet CNBC Indonesia reports.
Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister of Maritime Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan told local media about the upcoming meeting at his office in Jakarta. He said that it was initiated by Son and approved by President Widodo.
Pandjaitan said that the government would offer several projects to SoftBank’s Vision Fund, the company’s investment arm that focuses on growth capital and late-stage startup investments. Pandjaitan also hoped that SoftBank would invest in local startups that focus on the agriculture or fisheries sector.
SoftBank’s Vision Fund is considered to be the largest technology investor in the world. In May, the firm launched its second USD 100 billion tech fund, Vision Fund II. SoftBank is one of the investors behind Southeast Asia’s ride-hailing giant Grab. It raised USD 1.46 billion from the firm in March this year, which made it the largest private fundraising round in the region. SoftBank also led the USD 1.1 billion investment in Indonesian e-commerce unicorn Tokopedia in December 2018.
Through various investment vehicles, the firm has backed a number of other Indonesian startups including the insurtech platform Ajaib, healthcare startup Alodokter, and Indonesian co-working space operator CoHive.