That venture capital funding drought is not over yet, at least according to pitchbook, but

Soft Bank bucking the trend with a new investment just weeks after promising to go on the

offensive.

Deirdre Bosa has more in today's Tech Check.

Morning day.

Good morning, Carl.

So there are these pockets of activity, generative AI being the hottest space of course,

but overall the funding environment for startups and VCs themselves it does remain tight

Looking at first half data from pitchbook deal activity continues to be subdued

Startups especially at the earliest stages, they're seeing less funding.

VCs and growth investors, they're also raising less money. In fact, they're on track for the lowest

fundraising total since 2017.

South Bank though is not sitting on the sidelines any longer.

Founder and CEO Masioshi son a few weeks ago, you might remember,

he said that they're going back on the offensive after being in defense mode

over the past few years and overseeing

massive losses at the Vision Funds. True to his word Japanese robotics

startup tell existence announcing this week that it has raised a hundred and seventy million dollars in a series B round from a group including soft bank

now this all raises a question could this be the beginning of Masa's return

that is his aggressive investment playbook that bid up

we work in Uber to peak valuations but eventually led to tens of billions of

dollars of losses for the fund or will his approach be more disciplined this time around.

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