SoftBank’s Vision Fund 1 has reported a gross loss of $544 million on its $1.6 billion investment in Paytm, marking a complete exit from the fintech major in the June quarter. The loss highlights the challenges faced by the Japanese technology conglomerate in its fintech investments.
Conversely, SVF 1 recorded a $394 million gross gain on a $199 million investment in online insurance aggregator Policybazaar, from which it has also fully exited. Additionally, the fund has a gain of $285 million on a $397 million investment in Delhivery, retaining a 10.15% stake as of the end of the June quarter. A $65 million gain was recorded on SoftBank’s full exit from Zomato, where it held shares after its portfolio company Blinkit was acquired by the food aggregator in 2022.
Over the past decade, SoftBank has invested approximately $10.6 billion (Rs 88,700 crore) in India’s tech startups, with exits totaling about $6-6.8 billion (over Rs 50,000 crore) to date. The fund holds a cumulative 106% gain on investments of $843 million (Rs 7,085 crore) in companies like Ola Electric, FirstCry, and Snapdeal-backed Unicommerce, which are expected to list on the stock market within the next two weeks.
SoftBank plans to sell up to $153 million (Rs 1,287 crore) worth of shares through three initial public offerings (IPOs) but will retain stocks worth up to Rs 11,011 crore post-listing. It has already sold FirstCry shares worth $275 million (Rs 2,312 crore) but has yet to offload shares of the other two companies.
As SoftBank realigns its strategy to focus on artificial intelligence (AI), it is exiting mature investments in sectors like e-commerce and fintech. Earlier this year, SoftBank Vision Funds reported that the combined fair value of its Indian portfolio was $13.8 billion (Rs 1.1 lakh crore), representing 9% of its global investments at the end of December 2023.
Moneycontrol reported that SoftBank is considering investments in Indian data centers and industrial robotics firms, aiming to strengthen its AI infrastructure portfolio. The conglomerate is evaluating companies in these sectors and may invest $75 million to $150 million per deal.
