SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son To Meet PM Modi

Ace investor and SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son will reportedly meet Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi in Delhi on Wednesday (November 27). 

Son, who is currently on a brief visit to India, also met top business leaders in Mumbai, Reuters reported.

The report said that the head of the tech investment giant met Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday. During the meeting, they discussed potential artificial intelligence (AI) opportunities in India.

This is Son’s second visit to the country in the past two years. In March 2023, he met founders and CEOs of some of the biggest startups in the country and also attended the wedding celebrations of hospitality major OYO’s founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal.

For the uninitiated, SoftBank is one of the biggest investors in the homegrown startup landscape. The tech investment firm has backed nearly a fifth of India’s 100+ unicorns and has pumped more than $10 Bn in the country to date. 

SoftBank has reportedly also clocked exits worth $6 Bn to $6.8 Bn from the country as of August 2024. Since then, four of its portfolio startups – Swiggy, Ola Electric, FirstCry and Unicommerce – have listed on the bourses and raked in hundreds of million dollars in exits for the VC major. 

Over the course of the next 12-18 months, SoftBank’s other portfolio companies such as OfBusiness and Lenskart are also planning to go public. 

Notably, the Japanese tech investor has been wary of new investments in Indian startups lately. For the past 20 months, SoftBank had adopted a wait-and-watch strategy and backed fewer homegrown new-age tech companies amid the ongoing funding winter. 

However, the investment firm appears to be back in action and is reportedly preparing itself to invest in Indian startups again. It has internally underlined plans to invest over $100 Mn per round, particularly in growth-stage Indian ventures. 

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