SoftBank, a conglomerate has seen returns, on its investments in India surpassing $5.5 billion since it entered the Mumbai market in 2018. Sumer Juneja, the Managing Partner shared that they have gained $1.5 billion in the year through late-stage exits with $1.5 billion invested in tradable equities. SoftBanks strategy focuses on achieving exits. They have benefited from successful startups like Lenskart and FirstCry. They have added $400 million to their gains for Q1 FY24 through investments, in startups.
SoftBank, a prominent Japanese conglomerate, has successfully realized more than $5.5 billion in exits from its India portfolio since initiating operations in November 2018 in Mumbai, as revealed by Sumer Juneja, the firm’s Managing Partner and Head for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
In a recent interview with various media platforms, Juneja highlighted that the late-stage investor has achieved $1.5 billion through exits within the last 12 to 18 months. Additionally, he pointed out that an additional $1.5 billion is currently in liquid assets, held in tradable equities.
Juneja outlined SoftBank’s anticipated annual exit range of one to two instances in India. Notably, the major Japanese investment player has recently undertaken partial exits from unicorn companies like Lenskart and FirstCry. It has also garnered profits from publicly listed startups such as Paytm, Zomato, Delivery , and Policybazaar. Remarkably, these four startups collectively contributed gains of $400 million to SoftBank Vision Fund 1 during Q1 FY24.
Nevertheless, SoftBank‘s most substantial exit thus far remains its 2018 divestment from Flipkart, where it sold its 20% stake in the e-commerce giant to Walmart for approximately $4 billion. In a subsequent development, SoftBank re-engaged with Flipkart in 2021 as part of a $3.6 billion funding round.
