Last year SoftBank’s Vision Fund invested $800 million in Greensill and $440 million in OakNorth; those two deals alone made up 25% of the $4.9 billion raised by fintech startups in the UK in 2019 according in Innovate Finance; OakNorth CFO Alba Ochoa said that beyond the money SoftBank has helped the company expand, “In the last year they made introductions to banks and financial institutions outside the UK that we wanted to meet. They really introduced us at the right level”; Greensill also commented that the money itself was important with CMO Joe Hyland saying, “Having the money and having all this dry powder in reserves for international expansion, for acquisitions, is really important.” Quartz
