SoftBank’s India portfolio value rises 9% to $14 billion

The fair value of SoftBank’s India investment portfolio across Vision Fund I and II stands at nearly $14 billion — up by 9% as of December 2023, according to a presentation from the Japanese investor during its earnings release.

Ecommerce major Flipkart is among its top 15 most valued companies, the presentation showed.

SoftBank swung into profits for the first time in five quarters with a net profit of over $6 billion for the three months ended December, aided by a stock rally in listed firms from Vision Fund I. The investor made a full exit from Zomato and Policybazaar during the year along with PhonePe -- which was part of the dividend payout from the Flipkart investment.


Navneet Govil, executive managing partner and CFO, SoftBank Vision Fund, said India is among its best performing markets and “we are very bullish about it.” There is a healthy pipeline of portfolio companies in terms of IPO over the next one-two years after firms like FirstCry and Ola Electric filed draft IPO papers in December, he added.

OfBusiness, Lenskart, Swiggy are among the SoftBank-backed firms that are looking to go public over the next 12-18 months.

“We saw the development of our late stage ideal pipeline. We now have $31 billion of fair value in our late stage portfolio, which includes companies like Bytedance and First Cry and Ola Electric in India,” he said.

According to Govil, venture funding dropped by 60% in 2023. “Yet our portfolio companies raised $8 billion in fresh capital and half of that was driven by up rounds,” he said on SoftBank’s portfolio companies.

Govil said investment activity is likely to pick up in 2024, but did not give any details on upcoming deals it might be looking at. It has – like other big-ticket investors – largely stayed away from any significant deal-making last year.

ET reported on January 2 that the Japanese investor sold stakes worth nearly $2 billion during public offerings and through post-listing sales in four Indian startups — Paytm, Zomato, PB Fintech and Delhivery — that went public in 2021 and 2022. It had invested a total of $2.3-2.4 billion in these four new-age companies.

It still holds a single-digit stake in Paytm, which is now facing an existential crisis after the Reserve Bank of India ordered the firm’s payments bank to shut banking services after February 29.