Softbank’s Strategic Moves To Enhance Its Indian Portfolio

If the speculations are to be believed, Japanese internet and telecom company, SoftBank, will be making an investment of about $300 million into India’s leading taxi aggregator startup, Ola.

Although, no one from either of the companies have confirmed the reports, it is being widely speculated that Ola will be receiving an investment of $250-300 million from the Japanese company.  Earlier this month, there were reports of the taxi-hailing service being in talks with General Motors and SoftBank for an investment round.The startup had recently led a funding round of $750 million for GrabTaxi, a leading taxi-hailing company in Southeast Asia.

Other Investments by SoftBank

SoftBank already has an impressive investment portfolio with names like Snapdeal, Grofers, Housing, Hike and InMobi in India. But recently, SoftBank had withheld rolling out any large funds, which led to a fund crunch in the market. Now with this renewed funding round, other players are also hopeful of receiving their own funding.

India: A Strategically Important Market

Until now, the Japanese corporate giant has invested about $2 billion in India. Snapdeal had received a funding of $627 million in 2014, followed by which, SoftBank invested in Ola too with $210 million two years ago, thus putting the company on startup map of India. SoftBank International’s CFO and President, AlokSama, had said last week that the company will be helping Ola in its competition against Silicon Valley’s Uber. He had also stated that India holds a very important strategic place for the company’s investments and that SoftBank will continue in its commitment of supporting the startups here.

With SoftBank’s support, will Ola continue to give tough competition to Uber?Share your thoughts in our comments section below.

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