SoftBank is investing $146 million in Qraft Technologies Inc., a South Korean artificial intelligence (AI) company, to help it expand into the United States.
According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Qraft manages $1.7 billion for Asian banks and insurance providers through its line-up of funds traded in the United States, and has developed a software platform that analyses market data in search of promising stocks.
According to the WSJ, the companies declined to reveal Qraft’s valuation. SoftBank, headquartered in Tokyo, is one of the world’s largest technology investors, with a portfolio worth more than $100 billion.
Qraft has 50 employees, the majority of whom work on the company’s AI project and own roughly one-third of the company, with the rest controlled by outside investors.
“SoftBank [now] makes up a large portion of that,” said Robert Nestor, Qraft’s U.S. CEO, to the WSJ.
Nestor also mentioned that Qraft’s investors include some smaller venture capital firms and institutions, but he declined to name them.
According to the WSJ, while asset managers used to be sceptical of AI – and understand their employees’ concerns that AI would replace human stock pickers – they are now hoping that data analysis tools can help them combat underperformance and justify their fees.
SoftBank has reportedly had Qraft on its radar since at least 2020, when the company considered making it a Vision Fund investment. SoftBank reconsidered the idea last year, according to Kentaro Matsui, managing partner of SB Investment advisers, but as an investment by SotBank itself rather than the Vision Fund.
This announcement comes at a time when research indicates that by 2025, 75 percent of business-to-business (B2B) sales organisations will be using artificial intelligence (AI)-based selling. According to market research firm Gartner, sales leaders have been investing more in AI, including machine learning, to examine data and determine the next best actions, as PYMNTS reported in December.
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