SoftBank is pushing further ahead with its engagement in India having setup a full-fledged office and has also appointed Sumer Juneja as its India operations head. Juneja has first-hand experience in working with startups in India, having been a Director on the board of VC firm Norwest Venture Partners. Norwest was one of the first to invest in food order delivery startup Swiggy and was nominated to Swiggy’s board as well.
Now thanks to this former association with the foodtech major, SoftBank may look to invest in Swiggy, reports Mint.
Swiggy is currently on a major expansion and growth spree in a bid to out-perform rival Zomato and has been spending huge amounts in trying to acquire customers from across the country. SoftBank has been keen to make investments in Swiggy for quite some time and there are observers who feel it wants to take a clear position here choosing Swiggy over Zomato.
Now that Sumer Juneja with a Swiggy connection is heading SoftBank in the country one can expect a huge sum to be brought in to strengthen Swiggy. None of the parties involved have confirmed any of these developments.
SoftBank had fixed a target of making investments in India of $10 billion in 10 years, but they have already brought in $7 billion in the past four years. Another war chest of $100 billion is getting ready and the next $10 billion may start flowing in possibly beginning January 2019.
with regards to investment in Swiggy, experts feel the ticket could be pretty large in size close to even $1 billion or at least $800 million. Some of the big-ticket investments SoftBank has made in India include $2.5 billion in Flipkart, Paytm, Ola, Snapdeal and Oyo, with smaller investment in startups like PolicyBazaar and Grofers. It is reported that investment proposals for another $2 billion are under different stages of consideration.