Japan’s SoftBank eyes big ticket investment in Snapdeal

Japanese telecom and internet giant SoftBank has announced its intent of making huge investments of about 10 billion dollars (around Rs 60,000 crores) in India over the next few years. The first round of investment is expected to commence when Masayoshi Son, the Chairman and Founder of 92 billion dollars (over Rs 5,64,600 crores) conglomerate visits India. Interestingly, Japan’s richest man is eyeing an entry into India’s ecommerce and technology companies.

Son had invested 20 million dollars (over Rs 122 crores) in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in 2000, and is now said to be leading a 650 million dollars (over Rs 3,988 crores) financing round in Delhi-based e-commerce player Snapdeal along with 180 million dollars (Rs 1,104 crores) in taxi hailing startup Olacabs. Softbank has a joint venture partnership with Indian telecom major Bharti (Bharti Softbank) and has invested in Bangalore-based mobile advertising network InMobi.

Snapdeal has managed to raise over 233 million dollars (over Rs 1,400 crores) this year from investors including Premji Invest, Temasek and eBay Inc. With its ‘bachate raho (keep saving)’ tagline and focus on unbranded products sold by small manufacturers and retailers, Snapdeal has established itself as a mass-retailer, with over half of these 50,000 merchants selling fashion and lifestyle products that account for 60 percent of its orders.