Japan’s SoftBank Group, which has already invested $3 billion in 24 companies in India in 2021, could pump in $5 billion to $10 billion in the country next year.

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“If we find the right companies, we could invest $5 billion to $10 billion in 2022,” SoftBank Investment Advisers CEO Rajeev Misra said at the Bloomberg India Economic Forum on Thursday.

A prominent investor in the Indian start-up ecosystem, SoftBank has invested about $14 billion in the past six years.

Among its investments, several SoftBank-backed companies are en route to list their firms on the Indian stock market.

Bids for an initial public offering of SoftBank-backed digital payments firms Paytm closed on Thursday. Paytm is looking to raise over Rs 18,000 crore through the initial share sale.

Other firms supported by SoftBank that are likely to be listed soon are PolicyBazaar and Delhivery.

Apart from these, the Japanese investment major has also invested in ride-hailing giant Ola and e-commerce leader Flipkart.

Asked about its sectors of interest, Misra said: "I think fintech is the biggest opportunity in India because India is underbanked.”

“We have a local office, which is working hard and building relationships with the young entrepreneurs and building these relationships six months or a year before they need capital," Mint quoted Misra as saying.

Misra said that a lot of private capital is flowing into India and with China tightening regulations in a number of industries, global firms are looking to raise their stakes in India. However, SoftBank will continue with its investment in China, Misra said, adding most of the regulations were restricted to B2C businesses, PTI reported.

SoftBank is looking at investing in life sciences, deep-tech, autonomous vehicles, robotics, SaaS companies and B2B companies in China, added the report.

“We have reduced our pace in China because we're not investing so much into B2C businesses that touch consumers, but we are still an investor in China," PTI quoted Misra as saying.