Softbank backs former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s $2.5 billion private equity fund

Steven Mnuchin has started a new gig less than a year after he left his position as U.S. Treasury Secretary under President Trump’s administration. Mnuchin, a former movie producer and an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, just announced the launch of a multibillion-dollar fund for private equity investments.

The fund, Liberty Strategic Capital, is backed by SoftBank’s $40 billion second Vision Fund and Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, which said it will contribute roughly 2% of the total amount raised so far. Mnuchin has so far raised about $2.5 billion, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter.

In a separate announcement on Wednesday, Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group said it will invest in the fund without disclosing the size of the investment.

A large portion of the money for the fund comes from sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the people told Bloomberg, who asked not to be named because the details are private.

According to startup data platform PitchBook, Liberty Strategic Capital was launched this year and is based in Israel. The fund focuses on technology, financial services, and fintech, as well as new forms of content, according to a statement in July announcing a $200 million investment in the cybersecurity business.

A spokesperson for Liberty Strategic Capital declined to provide specifics on the ongoing fundraising, but instead said the fund has “a diverse investor base including U.S. insurance companies, family offices, sovereign wealth funds, and other institutional investors.”

Prior to joining President Trump’s administration, Mnuchin worked at Goldman Sachs for 17 years, eventually becoming the firm’s chief information officer. After he left Goldman Sachs in 2002, he founded several hedge funds and launched Dune Entertainment, a motion picture production company that financed several Hollywood films including “The Lego Movie” and “Suicide Squad.”