‘SoftBank could invest over $4 billion in India’

Masayoshi Son-led SoftBank Group Corp. could put more than $4 billion to work in India in 2021 across myriad technology bets, including software as a service (SaaS), B2B marketplaces, e-commerce, health-tech and ed-tech. The investments will come from Japanese company’s Vision Fund 2, which has an investment outlay of up to $30 billion for the current calendar year. “In India, we’ve already invested more than $2 billion in 8-9 companies in the first five months of this year…a few deals are yet to be announced. And we will continue to invest if we find the right opportunities. We anticipate investing a similar size in the remainder of this year,” SoftBank Vision Fund chief executive officer Rajeev Misra said in an interview from London. Among its new bets this year, Vision Fund 2 led a $300 million investment in Meesho in April, catapulting the social commerce platform’s post-money valuation to $2.1 billion.