SoftBank invests $800m into UK fintech Greensill
SoftBank Vision Fund is injecting $800 million into UK fintech Greensill, as reported by Bloomberg.
The investment values Greensill at $3.5 billion, according to its sources. A year ago, the valuation was about half the current amount, when the firm received $250 million from General Atlantic.
The fintech provides alternative supply chain funding to companies. Greensill estimates the largely untapped market for working capital finance at $55 trillion.
This new investment will help Greensill expand and develop new technologies to make more capital accessible to its clients.
It will also speed up its recent entry into Brazil as it advances plans to enter other markets, including China and India.
Neither Softbank or Greensill have commented on the funding.
Greensill was founded in 2011 by ex-Morgan Stanley banker Lex Greensill. It is headquartered in London with offices in New York, Chicago, Miami, Frankfurt, Johannesburg and Sydney.
The company also owns Greensill Bank, which was founded in Bremen, Germany in 1927 and has four proprietary supply chain finance funds.
Is Greensill actually a FinTech firm? I thought all the technology was from the Taulia platform
That’s correct Chris, Greensill was a direct lender (not hugely successful, given their loan losses) but has become a quasi-investment bank organising asset-backed financing for aircraft and long term corporate borrowings for Sanjeev Gupta’s companies through their Luxembourg issuing vehicles, although the controversy at GAM, the main source of their long term business, calls these activities in to question.
The Supply Chain Finance business, primarily for Vodafone, Airbus and Mr Gupta’s companies uses the Taulia invoice technology.