Venture Capital

SoftBank’s India exits tell one story. The numbers beneath tell another

Nikhil Patwardhan

Sayan Sen

February 17, 2026 | 10 Min Read

SoftBank’s India exits tell one story. The numbers beneath tell another

February 17, 2026 | 10 Min Read

While IPOs and stake sales have enabled SoftBank to monetise parts of its India portfolio, gains have not been uniformly strong, several investee companies continue to bleed, and new investments remain limited compared to the group’s aggressive global spending.

SoftBank has long been shorthand for big money. For decades, the Masayoshi Son-led conglomerate has shaped capital cycles across geographies, writing outsized cheques into technology companies and, in emerging markets, often functioning as quasi-IPO capital—providing liquidity to early investors while backing companies at scale.

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