SoftBank Ventures Asia is officially changing its company name to SBVA after closing $150 million fund.

SBVA said in a statement on Sunday the name change is beginning of February 1st after The Edgeof acquired the company from SoftBank Group Corp.(SBG) in June of last year.

According to the statement, the new SBVA embraces the concept of technological singularities and the broader impacts of the virtues of artificial intelligence, reflecting its commitment to leading in this transformative era.

It also reflects the continuity of its business domestically and internationally, highlighting the sustained connectivity with its partners, infrastructure and portfolio companies developed over the past two decades.

SBVA is also poised to actively seek out startups that will revolutionize various industries through innovative technology, building upon its information and communication technologies (ICT) investment expertise.

It is noted that the new SBVA has recently closed the “2023 Alpha Korea Fund,” with a total committed amount of approximately ₩200 billion ($150 million).

The funding amount significantly surpasses the initial target of ₩100 billion, underscoring the significance of successfully exceeding fundraising goals in a market downturn.

Its investors include Korea Development Bank(KDB) as the anchor LP, SBG, Hanwha Life, Industrial Bank of Korea(IBK), Nexon, KB Capital and others.

SBVA, through this fund, aims to actively discover early to mid-stage startups that capitalize on technological innovations in ICT, such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and computing, and create new business opportunities.

Major investment areas across industries include Enterprise SW, Healthcare, Content and Industrial Deep Tech.

Moving forward, SBVA plans to extensively support the international expansion of domestic startups leveraging its global investment capabilities and network.

“Despite the venture investment winter, we were able to successfully conclude the establishment of this fund based on the trust of our investors,

“We will continue to actively engage in investment activities by closely listening to the concerns of entrepreneurs,” said JP(JoonyPyo) Lee, the Chief Executive Officer of SBVA.

Yoshimitsu Goto, the Chief Financial Officer of SBG stated that SBVA has expertise and network of the startup investment business for more than 20 years that will make the new start with The Edgeof, an ecosystem builder and venture capital entity.

“As a limited partners, we are excited to join the first fund that the new SBVA has established,” he said.

SoftBank buys 51 percent stake in car software firm Cubic Telekom for $512M