SoftBank Cautions Longer Startup Winter Because Unicorn Founders Are Unwilling To Cut Valuations

Masayoshi Son, founder and chief executive of SoftBank Group, which reported a quarterly loss of over $23 billion, is worried that the funding winter for startups may continue for longer. From a report: The 64-year-old executive, whose Vision Funds have backed over 470 startups globally in the past six years, said on Monday that some unicorn founders are unwilling to accept lower valuations in fresh funding deliberations, an assertion that has led him to believe that the "winter maybe longer" for unlisted companies. Startups across the globe are facing a sharp crunch in funding as investors grow cautious about the market conditions -- despite many of them raising record amounts of funds in recent months. "Unicorn companies' leaders still believe in their valuations and they wouldn't accept that they may have to see their valuations [go] lower than they think," he said, according to company's official translator. "So until the multiple of listed companies is lower than those of unlisted companies, we should wait," said Son, referring to a popular way investors assign value to firms. He said the winter for publicly listed companies is still continuing, but a similar downturn for startups may last "longer."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.