Softbank CEO hails Big Bang start-up, to invest 10 billion in India

Hailing the Start-up India as “the beginning of Big Bang,” Japan’s SoftBank CEO has betted big on the India opportunity and pledged to pump in $10 billion into Asia’s second largest economy.

Speaking at the Startup India conference in New Delhi, SoftBank Chairman and Chief Executive, Masayoshi Son applauded the Startup Plan, saying “this is really the beginning of Big Bang for India.” “Mobile internet will make the domestic internet market big enough, in the next 10 years India will repeat the growth China saw in the last 10 years and in my opinion, India could be bigger (than China)”.

The Japanese billionaire is all praise for “hard working and loyal” Indians. India is large country with a huge working age population who is English speaking and IT-proficient making it a jackpot investment, he added. Son displayed major interest in the growing internet and the solar sector in India. He suggested to the Indian government to develop a robust mobile phone infrastructure to resolve slow internet issues.

SoftBank Group Corp is a multi-million dollar Japanese conglomerate with operations in Internet, finance, media, marketing and many other businesses. It was established in 1981 by Masayoshi Son and is headquartered in Tokyo. SoftBank was the 62nd largest company in the world, and Son is the second richest man in Japan with the net worth of $13.6 billion

In accordance with his India plans, the bank has already put USD 627 million into online marketplace such as Snapdeal and smaller investments like property site Housing.com. Its subsidiaries have also been investing in the Indian market, Softbank Internet and Media Inc, a leading group of investors, has invested USD 210 million in ANI Technologie Pvt, which is in charge of running the Ola Cab taxi booking service. It also paid USD 200 million for a 35 per cent stake in InMobi, an Indian mobile-advertising network.

The company also has several joint ventures with Indian companies such as the Bharti Group and Bharti SoftBank, which include investments such as the Hike Messenger.

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