SoftBank, Blackstone In Talks To Acquire Stakes In Neysa

SUMMARY

While Blackstone is evaluating picking up a majority stake, SoftBank is mulling buying a minority shareholding

The investment could value Neysa at less than $300 Mn, with a follow-on capital infusion to fund the startup’s expansion

Founded in 2023, Neysa offers cloud computing infrastructure to run artificial intelligence (AI) models, and has raised than $50 Mn in funding to date

Private equity giant Blackstone and Japanese VC major SoftBank are reportedly in early discussions to acquire stakes in homegrown AI cloud infrastructure platform Neysa.

Sources told Bloomberg that Blackstone is evaluating picking up a majority stake, while SoftBank is mulling buying a minority shareholding. The investment could value Neysa at less than $300 Mn.

As per the report, any incoming investor would likely have to commit additional capital to fund the startup’s expansion. No final decision has been made so far and other investors could also participate in the round.

If the deal materialises, this will mark SoftBank’s first new investment in India in the past three years. On the other hand, the potential acquisition will also complement Blackstone’s existing India portfolio and fit into the PE firm’s broader focus on data centres.

Founded in 2023 by Sharad Sanghi and Anindya Das, Neysa offers cloud computing infrastructure to run artificial intelligence (AI) models. The startup last raised $30 Mn in its Series A funding round co-led by existing investors NTTVC, Z47 and Nexus Venture Partners in October last year.

Prior to this in April 2024, Neysa also lapped up a $20 Mn Seed funding round co-led by Z47, Nexus Venture Partners and NTTVC. It caters to companies across various sectors such as media and entertainment, service providers and software vendors.

The development comes at a time when the exponential growth of AI applications has led to a surge in data centre requirements. If reports are to be believed, India’s data centre capacity is projected to rise from 1.2 GW currently to 9 GW by 2032.

While hyperscalers like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are expanding their capacities in the country, homegrown players like Yotta, AdaniConneX, Reliance, and Hiranandani Group too are bolstering their games, quietly turning India into a strategic hub for AI infrastructure.

Overall, India hosts more than 260 operational data centres, with most of them located in metros. Mumbai and Chennai alone account for nearly 70% of the total data centre capacity in the country.