From The Wall Street Journal One of the most successful Internet investors is about to hatch a new project. A venture-capital arm of Softbank Corp. is moving into new offices in Mountain View, Calif., to launch Hotbank, an incubator for new technology startups.
Incubators are a red-hot trend in venture capital.
The current effort by Softbank Venture Capital is particularly ambitious. The Mountain View facility will have room to start and nurture 10 to 12 new technology companies. And Softbank doesn't plan to stop with Silicon Valley. Gary Reischel, Softbank Venture Capital's executive managing director, wants to help support a nationwide network of incubators that will be funded by others but carry the HotBank brand. A Boston affiliate is slated to open in November, and a total of six are expected by the end of the year.