SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son on Friday said the Japanese investor has provided 10 percent of the funding of unicorns in India.

While speaking at the Infinity Forum, Son said when he met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Tokyo a few years back, he gave the commitment of investing $5 billion in India. Over the past 10 years, SoftBank has invested $14 billion, and it is the biggest foreign investor in India now, the billionaire investor said at the event.

The investor, which has backed unicorns like Paytm, Ola and Oyo, has invested $3 billion this year alone.

“We are the biggest foreign investor into India. Just this year alone we have invested $3BN into India. We have provided 10 percent of funding of all of the unicorns in India. There is a bright future in India,” Son said.

The Japanese early-stage startup investor put in money in ecommerce unicorns such as Flipkart, Meesho, OfBusiness and Zeta, among others.

He also said that the companies, in which SoftBank has invested, have created 1 million jobs.

"Softbank get criticised every three-four years. When stock market goes down we get criticised. You have to remind yourself on the goal to create a future, I don't care about short-term criticism."

"Return on investment for Softbank is 43 percent IRR over last 20 years, we have maybe got the highest returns in the 20 year scale. There have been lots of ups and down."

According to a Moneycontrol report, Rajeev Misra, CEO of SoftBank Investment Advisors and Son’s deputy, recently said that SoftBank could invest as much as $10 billion in India next year.

(Edited by : Bivekananda Biswas)

First Published:Dec 3, 2021 2:17 PM IST