Japanese telecom and technology investor Softbank Corp. on Tuesday unveiled plans to spend $10 billion over the next 10 years in India, starting with investments in Uber Inc. peer Ola and eBay Inc. rival Snapdeal.com. Softbank, of Tokyo, invested $627 million in four-year-old online retailer Snapdeal. The portal has 25 million members and over 50,000 merchants. It's now worth about $2 billion and Softbank will get about 30% of the company, according to Reuters. "India has the third-largest Internet user base in the world, but a relatively small online market currently. This situation means India has, with better, faster and cheaper Internet access, a big growth potential," said Softbank Vice Chairman Nikesh Arora in a statement. Softbank made its international ambitions clear a year ago by doling out $21.6 billion for U.S. cellular provider Sprint Corp. On Tuesday Softbank CEO and founder Masayoshi Son told CNBC in India he now wants to sink $10 billion into Indian startups – a similar move in shares of Chinese online marketplace Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. left him with a one-third stake now worth nearly $80 billion. The Japanese investor Tuesday also agreed to participate in a Series D fundraising by Ola, a company that connects Indian taxis with passengers. Softbank will lead the $210 million round – Ola's largest yet. No information was available on Softbank's investment or how much of a stake it will get though Indian reports valued the company at about $1 billion. Ola is formally known as ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd. and has now raised a total $276.8 million. Existing Ola investors Tiger Global Mangement LLC, Matrix Partners India and Steadview Capital Management LLC also invested as part of the fundraising. Softbank's Arora will join the boards of both Snapdeal and Ola as part of the agreement. Arora leads the Softbank Internet and Media Inc. unit that is investing on behalf of Softbank. Morrison & Foerster LLP acted as legal adviser to Softbank in both investments. Raine Group LLC acted as financial adviser in the Ola investment, while Kochhar & Co. handled legal details on the Snapdeal investment.
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