Softbank Group Stock News

TOKYO: Tokyo stocks closed higher on Monday as investors took heart from US rallies and digested the Bank of Japan''s key business confidence survey. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index advanced 0.71 percent, or 202.72 points, to end at 28,640.49, while the broader Topix index added 0.13 percent, or 2.65 points, to 1,978.13. According to the Bank of Japan''s latest quarterly Tankan business survey, major manufacturers remain cautious about the economy''s trajectory. The survey, released 10 minutes before the opening bell, showed business sentiment in Japan was flat for the quarter as pandemic concerns lingered. While rallies on Wall Street supported Japanese shares, some investors took a wait-and-see approach ahead of the US Federal Reserve''s meeting later this week, Okasan Online Securities said. The dollar fetched 113.52 yen in Asian trade, against 113.37 yen in New York on Friday. In Tokyo trading, Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing jumped 2.58 percent to 69,760 yen while SoftBank Group rose 0.

The Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing is set to face even more headwinds, in addition to a Chinese regulatory crackdown, with the latest blacklisting of artificial intelligence firm SenseTime for its alleged enablement of human rights abuses against Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang. Last week, the U.S. Treasury placed SenseTime on the blacklist for human rights abuse against Xinjiangs Muslim Uighurs which derailed the facial recognition technology firms listing plans in Hong Kong. After a «Financial Times» report of the expected blacklisting on Thursday, SenseTime did not proceed with a planned pricing of its shares in Hong Kong on Friday. In addition to denying the claims, calling them «unfounded» and reflective of a «fundamental misperception» of SenseTime, the firm will now delay its Hong Kong IPO which was scheduled for December 17, according to multiple media reports. SenseTime IPO SenseTimes original plan was to raise as much as $767 million as it sought a valuation of up to $17 billion.

Robotic Research, a Clarksburg, MD-based global leader in autonomous mobility and robotics solutions, raised $228m in Series A funding. Investors included SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Enlightenment Capital, Crescent Cove Advisors, Henry Crown and Company, and Luminar Technologies, Inc. The company intends to use the funds to drive further innovation and expansion of its commercial division, RR.AI, [] The post Robotic Research Raises $228M in Series A Funding appeared first on FinSMEs .

Atom Learning, an online learning platform for primary school children, has raised $25m funding in a Series A round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2. It is Atom Learning’s first outside funding round and also the largest Series A funding round ever by a UK-based edtech startup. Atom Learning will use the investment to accelerate […] The post SoftBank backs AI-based edtech platform Atom Learning in $25m raise appeared first on UKTN (UK Tech News) .

This fall I completed the SoftBank Operator School, a series of master classes led by SoftBank Group executives and portfolio founders Continue reading on Medium »

Robotic Research is an autonomous technology company that says it''s tapping into self-driving applications so far untouched by Waymo, Cruise, Aurora and other

Even as used car e-commerce firms in India had a banner year in terms of funding announcements and more, some of the firms have also used the pandemic to make course corrections. CarTrade went public in August while three companies Spinny, CarDekho and Droom had checked into the coveted club of unicorns in 2021. While the funding boom in the sector brought in heavyweights like Tiger Global and SoftBank, major changes followed too. Continue reading Exclusive: Cars24 shuts down supply focused vertical in over 82 cities at Entrackr.

Crypto startup Palm NFT Studio said on Thursday it had raised $27 million in an early-stage funding round led by Microsoft Corp''s venture fund M12 with participation from venture firm Griffin Gaming Partners. Palm NFT, co-founded by Joseph Lubin, offers services for artists to establish NFT marketplaces. Lubin was also one of the co-founders of ethereum, the world''s most popular cryptocurrency after bitcoin. An NFT is a digital asset that exists on a blockchain, which serves as a public ledger, allowing anyone to verify the asset''s authenticity and ownership. NFTs have a unique digital signature and cannot be reproduced. Other investors in latest Series B round included investment firms RRE, Third Kind Venture Capital, NFT investor Sfermion, and The LAO. Apple inches closer to $3 trillion market cap Palm NFT Studio''s Chief Executive Officer Dan Heyman told Reuters in an interview that the company intends to use the capital to scale its platform by investing in research and development and hiring new talent.

The chief executive of Better.com apologised for his manner of handling layoffs at the mortgage company after a video of him firing 900 people last week via a Zoom call went viral on social media. Vishal Garg, who has come under intense criticism after the SoftBank-backed company laid off about nine per cent of its workforce through the video call, said he had blundered the execution of communicating the layoffs. I realise that the way I communicated this news made a difficult situation worse, Garg said in a letter dated Tuesday. The CEO had cited the market, performance and productivity as reasons behind the decision to lay off employees in the United States and India. Better.com said in May it would go public through a merger with blank-check firm Aurora Acquisition Corp, in a deal that valued it at $7.7 billion. Earlier this month, the terms were amended to provide Better.com with half of the $1.5bn committed by SoftBank immediately, instead of waiting till the deal closed. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in New York, Better.

The Kenyan fintech Kwara was launched in 2019 to help credit unions (savings and credit cooperatives societies, SACCOs) in the East African country shift to digital platforms by providing them with its proprietary Back-end-as-a-service (BaaS) software. The startups trajectory has been steep, as its clientele shot up from two to 50 in just over two []

TOKYO: Japan''s Nikkei share average slipped on Thursday as investors turned cautious ahead of key central bank meetings next week, although strong gains for airlines limited losses with Omicron fears continuing to recede. The Nikkei 225 declined 0.15% to 28,818.53 as of the lunch break, but had earlier touched a nearly two-week intraday high of 28,908.29. The U.S. Federal Reserve headlines a string of central bank policy decisions next week, which also includes the Bank of Japan and European Central Bank. Investors seem to want to take time to judge the direction of financial markets with so many key central banks meetings next week, so they are adopting a wait-and-see approach, said Masahiro Ichikawa, chief market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management. The 200-day moving average is putting a tight lid on gains. The 200-day moving average provided stiff resistance at 28,895.39, as investors took a breather following a more than 4% rally from last Thursday''s close. The broader Topix sank 0.33%, with metal products , textiles and machinery stocks leading declines.

Claroty will use the $400 million from Softbank and existing investors to take over Medigate, creating a market leader in cybersecurity for industry and hospitals.

Better HoldCo Inc., a mortgage and real estate startup backed by SoftBank Group Corp., is pushing back its public listing through a merger with a blank-check firm, according to people with knowledge of the matter, after amending the deal a day before it terminated 9% of its workforce.