A New York-listed blank cheque company set up by SoftBank is in merger talks with Washington-based Mapbox, Sky News learns.

SoftBank chief executive Masayoshi Son

A ‘blank cheque’ company set up by the Japanese technology giant SoftBank is in talks to merge with a start-up which competes with the likes of Google Maps in the provision of sophisticated location data services.

Sky News has learnt that Mapbox is in detailed negotiations to go public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) - the latest in a torrent of technology businesses to list on New York exchanges through such a route in recent months.

A US banking source said on Friday that the discussions between MapBox and SVF Investment Corp. 3 were at an advanced stage, but cautioned that a definitive transaction could still fall apart.

Investment banks including Cantor Fitzgerald, Citi, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and UBS are all understood to be involved in the deal.

Although Mapbox would be far from unusual in choosing a SPAC to launch its tenure as a publicly traded company, the transaction would be unusual in that SoftBank is already a shareholder in the company through its vast Vision Fund.

Mapbox, which was founded in 2010, announced in 2017 that SoftBank had led a $164m Series C funding round without disclosing its valuation.

It was unclear on Friday how much new capital the merger would involve through a component of the deal known as a PIPE - private investment in public equity.