BANGALORE: A day after Japan’s richest man Masayoshi Son assured to invest $10 billion in India over the next decade, his company SoftBank on Tuesday invested $837 million into two Indian companies.
The telecom and internet giant, announced $627 million investment into homegrown e-commerce portal, Snapdeal and $210 million into cab service provider Ola.
The Indian e-commerce space has attracted investments from across the board due to the high potential in the booming sector. The fresh round of funding for Snapdeal takes their total funds raised this year to over $1 billion, it was reported.
Other e-commerce companies like Flipkart had raised $1 billion earlier this year and American giants, Amazon had announced investments to the tune of $2 billion into the Indian market.
Delhi-based Snapdeal will reportedly use the investments in expanding its chain and other acquisitions, agencies reported. “We are looking at acquisition opportunities across sizes, ranging from less than $1 million to $100 million,” company co-founder Kunal Bahl said.
The company will also open a new R&D centre in Bangalore and will hire 500 engineers, it was reported.
On the other hand, Ola will use the funding to further improve the company’s reach in the country. They currently have presence in 19 cities.