SoftBank Vision Fund
  • Work With Us
  • Portfolio
  • Team
  • Insights
  • Work With Us
  • Portfolio
  • Team
  • Insights
  • Careers
  • Legal
© 2021 SB Investment Advisers

Ren Tanaka


Partner

Overview

Over the course of his career, Ren has spent more than a decade as a SoftBank senior executive. There, he has played a leading role in acquisitions, investments, joint ventures, strategic planning, and operations. He rejoined SoftBank to work on the Vision Fund after spending five years directing corporate planning and development at Amazon. His current role at the Vision Fund is focused on delivering operational support to the portfolio's consumer sector companies in Asia.

Region01

  • Asia

Insights 05

01 –

How did you get started in your career?

I started out as a consultant with Accenture. Then, after getting my MBA, I had the chance to go to work with Masa in the earliest days of SoftBank Group. It was incredible. There was just a tiny handful of us at the holding company level, and we'd get together with Masa and spend long hours brainstorming about the business opportunities we were seeing. Masa helped me understand the power of thinking strategically and long term—always starting with a long-term vision and working backward. It changed how I think.

02 –

You've been with SoftBank for most of your career. How does that context affect your work with Vision Fund?

Outside SoftBank, I spent five years at Accenture and another five at Amazon, learning how to identify and capitalize on disruptive business opportunities globally. Now back at SBIA, I have the incredible opportunity to incorporate some of the best practices I learned at these two global companies along with the many valuable experiences I’ve had during my 15 years at SoftBank. SoftBank has transformed itself many times since I first joined in 1999. Having experienced that transformation and rapid growth, I’m very excited to work with founders and CEOs of Vision Fund portfolio companies to help them create value.

We come from varied backgrounds, but we're all people who have built and run complex endeavors. And we work together to create value for the companies in our ecosystem.

03 –

What does Vision Fund’s Operating Group offer founders?

We are a group of experts with experience in a wide range of different industries and functions. Together, we've done just about everything. We’ve built companies from scratch, expanded into global markets, created and implemented go-to-market strategies—you name it. I think that’s our strength: We come from varied backgrounds, but we're all people who have built and run complex endeavors. And we work together to create value for the companies in our ecosystem.

04 –

How does the Operating Group put that experience into practice at Vision Fund?

Here are a couple of examples: We’re working with a number of portfolio companies looking to enter or expand their footprint in Japan by leveraging our network inside and outside of SoftBank. Regardless of the business model—B2C or B2B—business is fundamentally human to human. Helping them find the best connections and partnerships is the key to success.

Our operating partners have deep experience in a range of global markets. China and Brazil are target countries for many companies, and I work closely with my local counterparts to conduct market research, identify partner/investment targets, and make connections with them.

05 –

How do you approach your relationship with founders?

It's my job to adjust to each founder and make sure I'm providing value. I draw on my experiences working closely with Masa and expanding major companies into a new markets to identify and create SoftBank ecosystem synergies. I don't want to force my ideas on them, both because that's not productive and because these are very intelligent and successful people who know their own businesses very well. What I try to do instead is help them see connections, and then help them build the systems and relationships that let them take big leaps in terms of scale.

Next Profile

Ziyad Al Ashaikh


Partner, General Manager, and Head of Saudi Arabia in EMEAI

SoftBank Vision Fund
  • Work With Us
  • Portfolio
  • Team
  • Insights
  • Presentations
  • Social Impact
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Legal
  • Privacy
Pleasanton, United States

10x Genomics is paving the way for a new understanding of biology, human health, and disease.

Hangzhou, China

Alibaba Local Services is redefining urban lifestyle and bringing greater joy and convenience to consumers.

San Francisco, United States of America

Alto is building the world's most patient-centric pharmacy.

Cambridge, United Kingdom

Arm is enabling a world of a trillion connected devices.

Berlin, Germany

Auto1 is making it fast and efficient to buy and sell used cars.

San Jose, United States

Automation Anywhere is making work more human by automating business processes and liberating people.

New York, United States of America

Behavox is using AI to help businesses uncover and address hidden regulatory risks.

, China

Beike is a leading integrated online and offline platform for housing transactions and services.

Boston, United States of America

Biofourmis is using data and machine learning to help clinicians predict and prevent serious medical events.

San Diego, United States

Brain Corp is developing an AI platform that transforms everyday machines into robotic solutions.

Beijing, China

ByteDance is enabling people to discover and create a world of content powered by technology.

Kansas City, United States

C2FO is working to deliver a future where every company in the world has the capital they need to grow.

Cambridge, United States

Cambridge Mobile Telematics is making the world’s roads safer.

Beijing, China

CloudMinds is operating smart robots for people.

Los Angeles, United States

Clutter is changing the way people store and manage their physical belongings.

San Jose, United States

Cohesity is radically simplifying secondary data and applications.

San Francisco, United States

Collective Health is making it effortless to navigate, understand, and pay for healthcare.

New York, United States

Compass is building the real estate industry's first-ever end-to-end platform.

Seoul, South Korea

Coupang is transforming e-commerce end-to-end.

São Paulo, Brazil

Creditas is aiming to use data and technology to reinvent secured lending in Brazil.

Gurgaon, India

Delhivery is disrupting the supply chain across India one shipment at a time.

Beijing, China

DiDi is building a better journey for the world.

San Francisco, United States

DoorDash is connecting people with the best in their cities.

San Francisco, United States of America

Encoded Therapeutics is advancing life-changing therapies through precision medicine

Lugano, Switzerland

Energy Vault is transforming energy storage technology by enabling renewables to deliver around-the-clock power.

Los Angeles, United States

Fair is using technology to bring freedom and flexibility to car ownership.

Jacksonville, United States

Fanatics is changing the way fans purchase their favorite team apparel.

Pune, India

FirstCry is striving to build the world’s largest content and community platform to make parenting easier.

San Francisco, United States

Flexport is using technology and data to make global trade easier and more accessible for everyone.

Bengaluru, India

Flipkart is bringing more than 30 million products to Indian consumers via its e-commerce marketplace.

San Diego, United States of America

Flock Freight is using proprietary algorithms to optimize transit routes and pool multiple shipments together into one full truckload.

Shanghai, China

Full Truck Alliance is building China's largest road logistics ecosystem for shippers and truckers.

Santa Clara, United States

Fungible is aiming to revolutionize the performance, reliability and economics of data centers at all scales.

San Francisco, United States

Getaround is empowering people to rent great cars from people nearby.

Berlin, Germany

GetYourGuide is a platform to book incredible experiences.

Menlo Park, United States

Globality is using AI to revolutionize the way companies buy and sell services.

San Francisco, United States

Cruise is seeking to build the world’s most advanced self-driving vehicles.

Philadelphia, United States of America

GoPuff is becoming the go-to solution for immediate, everyday needs.

Singapore, Singapore

Grab is driving Southeast Asia forward by improving quality of life for everyone.

London, United Kingdom

Greensill is changing finance to change the world.

Gurugram, India

Grofers is delivering groceries and other essentials to their customers' doorsteps.

Redwood City, United States

Guardant Health is using data to conquer cancer.

Beijing, China

Guazi is seamlessly linking car buyers and sellers across China.

São Paulo, Brazil

Gympass is defeating inactivity through its corporate fitness platform.

London, United Kingdom

Improbable is enabling developers to create richer, more immersive and persistent virtual worlds.

Atlanta, United States

Kabbage is empowering small businesses through straightforward, flexible access to capital.

,

Karius is using genomics and AI to advance infectious disease diagnostics.

Menlo Park, United States

Katerra is optimizing every aspect of building design and manufacturing, materials supply, logistics, and construction.

Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Klook is connecting the best of what a destination has to offer with travelers worldwide.

, India

Lenskart is giving millions of people access to quality, affordable eyewear online, in store and at home.

Palo Alto, United States

Light is pioneering the era of the software-defined camera.

São Paulo, Brazil

Loggi is using technology to connect Brazil and reinvent logistics.

Washington D.C., United States

MapBox is changing the way people explore our world.

Berkeley, United States

Memphis Meats is reimagining how meat is made by harvesting it from cells instead of animals.

San Francisco, United States of America

MindTickle is developing winning sales teams by accelerating ramp time and improving performance using data-driven insights.

Palo Alto, United States

Nauto is using AI to make driving safer and smarter.

Mountain View, United States

Nuro is delivering the future of local commerce autonomously.

Santa Clara, United States

Nvidia is igniting modern AI to power the next era of computing.

London, United Kingdom

OakNorth is transforming commercial lending through big data and machine learning.

Bengaluru, India

Ola is on a mission to build mobility for a billion people.

Shanghai, China

OneConnect is making finance easier for small and medium-sized financial institutions.

San Francisco, United States

Opendoor is reinventing the way people buy and sell their homes.

Los Angeles, United States of America

Ordermark is helping restaurants and virtual kitchens increase efficiency.

San Leandro, United States

OSIsoft is helping people transform their world through data.

Haryana, India

Oyo is delivering predictable, affordable, and quality accommodation experiences to travelers around the world.

New Delhi, India

Paytm is working to bring banking and financial services to half-a-billion un-served and under-served Indians.

Boston, United States

Pear is transforming medicine by treating patients with software-based therapeutics.

Pittsburgh, United States

Petuum is industrializing AI technology and transforming enterprises across all industries.

Shanghai, China

Ping An Good Doctor is building a comprehensive, one-stop healthcare ecosystem platform.

Shanghai, China

Ping An HealthKonnect is building a tech-enabled managed care platform for providers of insurance and medical services.

San Francisco, United States

Plenty is sustainably growing flavorful, fresh, and clean produce with its patented vertical-farming technology.

New Delhi, India

Policybazaar is making insurance in India fair, transparent and sustainable.

Bogota, Colombia

Rappi is a super app for Latin America that delivers virtually everything.

Miami, United States

REEF is creating urban mobility hubs for the on-demand world.

Cambridge, United States

Relay Therapeutics is building the first dedicated drug discovery pipeline centered on protein motion.

New York, United States

Roivant is rapidly developing innovative medicines through a novel form of industrial organization in R&D.

Redwood City, US

Seer is developing the tools researchers need to discover and understand the proteome.

Chicago, United States of America

ShipBob is providing global fulfillment so e-commerce brands can focus on growing their sales.

San Francisco, United States

Slack is bringing the right people together with all the right information.

San Francisco, United States

Standard is transforming existing retail stores into checkout-free experiences by using computer vision and AI.

Cambridge, United States

Tessera Therapeutics is pioneering Gene Writing, a new category of genetic medicine.

, Germany

TIER is rethinking urban transportation by offering easily accessible and affordable mobility services.

Jakarta, Indonesia

Tokopedia is democratizing commerce through technology.

San Francisco, United States

Uber is igniting opportunity by setting the world in motion.

Pittsburgh, United States

Uber ATG is transforming the way the world moves through the development of safe self-driving vehicle technologies.

Bengaluru, India

Unacademy is empowering the world’s youth through online lessons and specialized courses.

Mountain View, United States

View is making dynamic glass windows that enhance human health, increase productivity and save energy.

Guangzhou City, China

VIPThink is providing early childhood education through its innovative online learning platform.

San Francisco, United States

Vir is integrating breakthroughs in science, technology, and medicine to transform the treatment of infectious diseases.

Hanoi, Vietnam

VNLIFE is transforming lives by simplifying mobile payments.

New York, United States

WeWork is creating a world where people work to make a life, not just a living.

Boston, United States of America

Whoop is unlocking human performance.

Guangzhou City, China

XAG is scaling up agricultural production by integrating AI, drones and other innovative technologies into farming.

Shenzhen, China

XtalPi is transforming drug discovery and development through quantum physics, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing.

Shanghai, China

Zhangmen offers personalized one-on-one tutoring online to students across China.

Shanghai, China

ZhongAn Insurance is applying technology to upgrade the insurance value chain.

, China

Ziroom is modernizing apartment rentals to create a better living experience.

Mountain View, United States

Zume is creating a smarter and more sustainable food system.

, China

Zuoyebang is educating students across China through its mobile study platform.

Emeryville, United States

Zymergen is using biology as a source of new chemical building blocks to commercialize novel products and materials.

© 2021 SoftBank Investment Advisers
team-modal
partners-modal
career-modal
Apply

Your application was successfully submitted. Thank you.

insights-modal
Search for Companies or Investors

Your search did not match any results.

Try a different search term or click a popular term below:

This site uses cookies to improve your experience.

We use necessary cookies to make our site work. We would also like to set optional analytics cookies to help us improve our site by anonymously collecting and reporting information on how you use it. For more information on how these cookies work, please see our Cookie policy.

Cookie Preferences

We use necessary cookies to make our site work. We would also like to set optional analytics cookies to help us improve our site by anonymously collecting and reporting information on how you use it. For more information on how these cookies work, please see our Cookie policy.

Optional Analytics