‘I'm going to help all these guys’: Nikesh Arora on SoftBank’s India investments

In his first interview to the Indian media post his exit, Nikesh Arora, the former second-in-command at SoftBank and successor-in-waiting to founder Masayoshi Son told Times of India in a recent interview that he’s going to keep in touch with startup founders in India.

“I spoke to Kunal (Bahl of Snapdeal) this morning. I'm going to help all these guys”, Arora was quoted as saying. When asked about SoftBank’s India investments, Arora argues against the perception that his company was spraying money into the Indian market.

Arora said most of their investment in Snapdeal was at $1.2-billion valuation, and calls Housing's $100-million cheque a ‘poor judgment’ on their part. “But every investor makes such calls. We are not the only investor in Housing. There are people who have invested at $15-billion valuation in Flipkart and now they are trying to raise money at $10 billion. They should be in the same boat as me”, Arora argues.

While remarking that he ‘really likes’ Oyo, and thinks Grofers has an ‘interesting model’, Arora said India will never be a winner-takes-all market, either in e-commerce or in ride-hailing.

When asked about the current scenario with Indian startups, Arora says the ecosystem has gone ahead of itself and he doesn’t see a lot of upcoming companies that will get funded for $100 million, adding promptly that the team will still ‘keep an eye out’ for any opportunities.

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