Founder and CEO of the Japanese multinational conglomerate SoftBank Masayoshi Son is likely to visit India next week, according to a report by Moneycontrol. Citing people aware of the development, the report said that founders of SoftBank-backed companies, both public and private, have been asked to be on standby for a meeting with Masayoshi Son during the visit to Delhi.
“This will also be one of his first foreign visits after Covid. He will be maintaining Covid protocols and probably be in a bio-bubble. It is expected to be a very short visit,” the source told Moneycontrol.
According to the report, SoftBank has invested around $15 billion in Indian companies so far, of which $11 billion have been in the last six years. Oyo, Paytm, PolicyBazaar, Delhivery, Swiggy, Meesho, FirstCry, OfBusiness, and Unacademy are among the 28 companies in its portfolio in India.
According to a Bloomberg report, Masayoshi Son will join the wedding of Oyo founder Ritesh Agarwal next week. It says that SoftBank founder Son is the biggest backer of Oyo. Softbank was an early investor in Oyo. Son also provided a personal guarantee in 2019 to Agarwal’s $2 billion loan from Japanese banks allowing the younger entrepreneur to increase his stake in Oyo to over a third, the report added.
People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that Masayoshi Son is also meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with a Japanese business delegation and will host a round table for a group of entrepreneurs, including the founders of Paytm, Firstcry, and OfBusiness.
Ritesh Agarwal’s reception, which will be held at a 5-star hotel in Delhi, is expected to be attended by many corporate personalities. Wedding invitations were extended to Narendra Modi as well. Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani is expected to attend the festivities, as well as executives from SoftBank and other Oyo backers including Airbnb Inc. and Lightspeed Commerce Inc.