Masayoshi Son (also known as Son Jeong-ui), chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group Corp., is well known among the superrich. Forbes ranked him as the 75th richest person in the world with assets of $13.8 billion, making him the second-richest person in Japan.

Son is seen as more than a telecommunications billionaire, however. He is also well known as an investor with incredible acumen.

He has been known to financially invest in young, up-and-coming entrepreneurs and also act as their business mentor. With his assistance, numerous business owners have grown to join him in the ranks of the superrich.

The recipients of Son’s financial investments include Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang. Son invested about $4.8 million in the company in 1995, when Yahoo, founded by Yang and David Filo, was just a year old.

SoftBank then invested over $100 million in Yahoo before it went public in April 1996, after which the company grew along with the “Internet boom.” Jerry Yang, who was 30 years old in 1998, quickly rose in the ranks of the superrich and was listed on Forbes’ billionaires list with assets of $4 billion.

Jack Ma, founder and chairman of Alibaba Group, is another individual to benefit from Son’s Midas touch. Jack Ma met with Son through Jerry Yang in 2000, and Son reportedly promised an investment of $20 million within six minutes.

Jack Ma, who was then a struggling entrepreneur, was able to expand his business with the financial support and became the founder of China’s largest e-commerce company today.

Alibaba Group went public on the New York stock exchange in September 2013, and Ma’s assets now exceed even those of Son. Jack Ma’s assets are currently valued at approximately $21.4 billion.

Son and several partners also invested a total of $46.3 million in U.S. news and entertainment company Buzzfeed, according to business data site Crunchbase.

Buzzfeed has grown as a global media website offering content in 10 countries including Spain, France, Mexico and Germany, and has recently signed a joint venture with Yahoo Japan (also a major shareholder of SoftBank) to create content for a Japanese audience.



Son’s other investments include a $1 billion investment in the works this year for financial startup SoFi, according to a Wall Street Journal report in July.

SoFi, short for Social Finance Inc., was founded by Mike Cagney in 2011 and offers student loans at a lower rate than those of the U.S. federal government to struggling students and graduates through an alumni funding model.

Son’s investment boosted the company, as its value jumped from $1.3 billion in February to $4 billion in August. Although Cagney’s total shares are unknown, experts suggest that there would also be a significant impact on his assets.

According to media reports, SoFi is also expecting to go through an initial public offering within the next 12 months. If so, Cagney would rise as a billionaire with assets over $1 billion.

Son’s investments do not appear to discriminate by either nationality or industry. He has recently shown considerable interest in call taxis and robots.

In 2012, he invested $100 million in France’s Aldebaran Robotics, who developed “Pepper,” which the company describes as “the first humanoid robot designed to live with humans.”

He invested $250 million in Singapore’s GrabTaxi and $210 million in India’s Ola Cabs last December, emerging as the largest shareholder of both companies. The company value of Ola Cabs and GrabTaxi grew to $2.1 billion and $2.5 billion, respectively.

Son has also spread his reach into the mobile industry. SoftBank invested $1.5 billion in Finland’s mobile gaming company Supercell, best known for the hit 2013 mobile game “Clash of Clans.”

Lately, Son and his investments have drawn attention in Korea, particularly as he surprised the public by investing $1 billion in Korean e-commerce company Coupang.

The decision turned heads as this scale of investment was unheard of; in the year prior, the total amount of investments received by major Korean start-ups was around $636 million combined.

It was also notable in that most of SoftBank’s investments in Korean companies had come from SoftBank Ventures Korea, but this investment came directly from Son.

Bom Kim, founder and CEO of Coupang, founded the company in 2011 and tried to establish the company among hundreds of social commerce sites by providing outstanding service, even if the company did not see immediate profits.

Kim’s commitment to service came in the form of a call center open year-round with over 100 call center staffers, also setting up an easy-to-navigate mobile service as the number of smartphone users increased. The services proved effective as Coupang’s shopping transactions increased from 6 billion won ($5.12 million) in 2010 to 2 trillion won in 2014.

Coupang also established a distribution center across the country and employed exclusive deliverymen as “Coupang men,” so that they shipped items through the company rather than by a delivery service.

Although there was controversy as to whether Coupang’s company-exclusive delivery service was a transportation business rather than delivery, it helped catch the eye of SoftBank due to its innovative delivery model.

SoftBank invested in Coupang by acquiring shares of Forward Ventures, Coupang’s holding company founded in 2010 to receive global investments. Kim’s shareholder status and management would stay intact.

Thanks to Son’s investments, Coupang’s company value jumped from $2 billion to $5 billion. Additionally, Kim’s assets are expected to be around $1 billion if Coupang goes public, putting him nearer to the ranks of the superrich.

Coupang said in media interviews that they plan to bolster their overseas research and development centers and expand investments on domestic distribution and delivery with the investment.

Wherever there have been large-scale investments into budding start-ups in the information technology industry, Masayoshi Son and SoftBank are likely to have been in the mix.

Son, who is an ethnic Korean, has said in interviews that he does not consider himself to be Japanese or Korean, but rather a person of the Internet, believing that the Internet holds the future.

His trust in the Internet world has led him to boldly invest in tech start-ups regardless of nationality or industry and, with his help, young entrepreneurs are also joining the superrich themselves.

By The Korea Herald Superrich Team (sangyj@heraldcorp.com)

Kwon Nam-keun

Hong Seung-wan

Sung Yeon-jin

Bae Ji-sook

Yoon Hyun-jong

Min Sang-seek

Kim Hyun-il

Sang Youn-joo