The Latin American press mentioned that SoftBank Group Corp. could invest one billion dollars in the Colombian delivery application Rappi. The news was disseminated through an anonymous source related to the topic.
In the media, it was speculated that the investment would be through the newly created Innovation Fund of the Japanese company, which was launched by Softbank’s director of operations, Marcelo Claure, to focus on technology investments in Latin America. The person who provided the information asked not to be identified because the details are not public.
The agreement with Rappi could be announced this week, the person said. If so, this would be one of the most massive investments in a Latin American company.
The Colombian startup Rappi was valued at more than $1b in its recent round of fundraising in September, in which it raised $ 220m, led by DST Global. It was not immediately clear how soon the company would be valued after SoftBank’s investment.
SoftBank announced investments of five billion dollars for Latin America at the beginning of this year, which it confirmed yesterday during the inauguration of eMerge Americas 2019.
Marcelo Clare, executive of Softbank, mentioned earlier that the Japanese conglomerate was interested in Latin American startups with fast growth and a proven business model. Rappi could fit into this profile.