NEW DELHI: Assuring Indian startups that he remains committed to the market, Japanese conglomerate SoftBank chairman Masayoshi Son on Friday said that India will “surpass” $10 billion in the next few years.
“We have already invested $2 billion in last two years... we will surpass my commitment of investing $10 billion,” said Son at the HT Leadership Summit.
Sanguine about the prospects for an improved economy, Son said he would expand on his existing solar power generation and Internet investments.
In 2014, SoftBank invested $210 million in Ola cabs, $627 million in Snapdeal and $90 million in Housing.com along with existing shareholders such as Falcon Edge. The company has also invested $120 million in Grofers and $100 million in Oyo Rooms along with other investors last year.
SoftBank which teamed up with Saudi Arabia in October for a $100 billion technology fund, of which SoftBank’s share will be $25 billion, has already received commitment of over $70 billion for the fund.
On SoftBank’s over $30 billion acquisition of chipmaker ARM, Son said he saw the move as a huge opportunity as ARM is expected to ship one trillion chips over the next 20 years.
Meanwhile, Son’s statement comes eves as SoftBank booked an investment loss of $ 560 million on its investments in the country, including Ola cabs and e-commerce website Snapdeal.
In November, SoftBank had reported a loss of 58.1 billion yen in the share value of India’s investments for a six-month-period ending September 30, 2016 as compared to a gain of 112.6 billion yen during the same period of the previous year.
“.... this is the country (India) where I am very much interested in investing, said Son as he as it looks for newer opportunities in the country.