If you have a deal, we have the money, says SoftBank

After a two-year hiatus in India, the world’s biggest technology investor is on the move again.

- Mansi Verma & Sneha Shah

Masayoshi Son-led SoftBank is now examining Indian startups pursuing artificial intelligence (AI), the technology world's sunrise sector.

SoftBank did go slow on investing in India for a while, conceded Sumer Juneja, managing partner and head of EMEA and India at SoftBank Investment Advisers, attributing it to the cyclical nature of investing. “There will be times when we deploy a lot; there will be times when we get the liquidity outcome,” Juneja said in an interview, adding there cannot be an investment “bazooka”.

The Japanese investor is sitting on gains of a billion dollars in India this year, as two of its portfolio companies—Lenskart and Meesho—went public. The company has harvested more than $7.2 billion in exits from India in the last few years, with some of the notable public market exits in Paytm, Policy Bazaar and Zomato.

“If you have a deal, we have the money,” said Juneja, though SoftBank has not set aside a specific sum for India.

The company has pumped in more than $10.6 billion across 20 Indian companies. Some of its top investments are in Flipkart, Oyo, Ofbusi-ness, Eruditus, Icertis, Whatfix, Mindtickle, Elastic Run, Unacademy and Globalbees.