SoftBank gave $170m to a social app whose users mostly didn't exist

Back in 2021, Japanese investment giant SoftBank led a little-known social media app called IRL to unicorn status and an overall valuation of $1.17 billion by investing over $170 million. Well, it turned out that the app completely made up its user numbers, admitting that 95 percent of its purported 20 million user base was fake, as originally reported by The Information.

At the time, SoftBank called the app “an