Rajeev Misra, CEO of SoftBank Group, said the fund has invested $3 billion in Indian companies this year and plans to invest $5 billion to $10 billion next year, the latest aggressive move by a top investment firm in the South Asian nation, where young companies have raised a record $20 billion this year.
“If we discover the appropriate firms,” Misra stated at a virtual conference on Thursday, “we may spend $5 billion to $10 billion in 2022,” with the caveat that SoftBank will look into such prospects “at the right pricing.”
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Misra stated that the company has delayed its investment pace in China, but that it will remain in the country because the Asian economy is a significant centre of AI in the world.
Hundreds of billions of dollars have been invested in India by international investors in the last decade as they look for early winners in the world’s second-most populous country. This year has seen a huge increase in deal flow as Tiger Global, SoftBank, Falcon Edge Capital, and Sequoia Capital India all aggressively pursued mergers and backed companies at record valuations.
Tiger Global, for an instance, has supported over two dozen businesses in India this year, many of which are still in the early phases of their travels. Earlier this year, the company reportedly told shareholders that India was one of the main goals for its new fund.
In recent years, India has also been a big emphasis for SoftBank. In India, where it was formerly difficult to justify investments, Misra said there has been an “incredible reversal.”
The Japanese giant aided numerous young Indian entrepreneurs in developing the country’s critical railroads. Paytm, a payments company, and Oyo, a bargain hotel chain, are two of its ventures that have filed for initial public offerings.
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It is also a backer of Flipkart, which in 2018 sold a majority interest to Walmart. SoftBank, which had a significant stake in the company prior to the acquisition, has now increased its investment in Flipkart. Next year, Ola, India’s ride-hailing behemoth, which is also funded by SoftBank, plans to test the public markets. “There’s a lot of unmet demand for IT IPOs,” says one analyst.
He stated that SoftBank intends to invest in additional businesses this year. Fintech is one of the primary thematic topics that SoftBank is studying in India, according to Misra. According to Bloomberg’s virtual conference, financial inclusion innovation is critical to India’s objective of becoming a $5 trillion economy.
