SoftBank invested $627 million in Indian ecommerce site Snapdeal last week and $210 million in taxi app Ola, formerly Olacabs.
Investments into Snapdeal and Ola are part of a $10 billion earmarked by SoftBank to tap into India's surging ecommerce, telecom and aviation industries, according to TechinAsia.com.
Masayoshi Son, founder and CEO of SoftBank, announced the investment plan during a meeting with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi as well as IT and telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in New Delhi this week.
"Since SoftBank's foundation, our mission has been to contribute to people's lives through the Information Revolution. We believe India is at a turning point in its development and have confidence that India will grow strongly over the next decade. As part of this belief, we intend to deploy significant capital in India over the next few years to support development of the market," Son said in a statement announcing the investment, according to TechinAsia.com.
Existing investors Tiger Global, Steadview Capital, and Matric Partners India all participated in this latest investment round along with SoftBank.
The recent success experienced by Uber has put Ola and other on-demand taxi services in India under incredible pressure in a price war. Last week, Uber increased its discount for rides in Bangalore to 45 percent.
Snapdeal has also been looking for a suitable investor since Indian ecommerce leader Flipkart raised $1 billion in funding earlier this year. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos gave Amazon India a $2 billion check
The entry of SoftBank balances the equation, according to most analysts.
SoftBank has a one-third stake in Chinese Alibaba, an ecommerce power, whose recent IPO in the US made Son the richest businessman in Japan.
Son has a net worth of $16.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
"India has the third largest Internet user base in the world, but a relatively small online market currently," Nikesh Arora, vice chairman of SoftBank, according to TechinAsia.com. "This situation means India has, with better, faster and cheaper Internet access, a big growth potential. We want to support the leaders and entrepreneurs of the digital future."
Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO of Ola said, Ola is at the forefront of the mobile internet revolution in India.
"Ola is at the forefront of the mobile internet revolution in India and Softbank as an investor and a strategic partner with its global network, brings in a lot of relevant experience and knowledge of this domain," said Aggaral, according to the website.
More deals may be struck while Son is in India.
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