SoftBank's Vision Fund hikes valuation of Swiggy, Ola Electric, FirstCry

SoftBank's Vision Fund is also increasing its focus on companies which can benefit from the artificial intelligence revolution

SoftBank's Vision Fund has hiked the valuation of several companies in its portfolio, including Swiggy, FirstCry and Ola Electric, its Chief Financial Officer Navneet Govil said, as reported by Moneycontrol. The move could be an early sign for tech companies to bounce back on their valuations.

In its earnings presentation, SoftBank's Vision Fund highlighted six Indian companies gaining valuation. These were OYO, Swiggy, Ola Electric, OfBusiness, Lenskart and FirstCry. These companies were among fifteen of the fund's companies currently clocking a profit of over $12 billion. Interestingly, four of these six Indian companies are expected to hit the bourses in the next 12 months.

 

According to reports, Swiggy has already shortlisted seven investment banks as advisors for its initial public offer (IPO). The IPO is expected to be launched by July or August next year and may raise up to $1 billion.

The banks it has shortlisted include Citi, JP Morgan, Jefferies, ICICI Securities and Avendus Capital, among others.

SoftBank's Vision Fund is also increasing its focus on companies that can benefit from the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution. Recently, it took the leadership of 20 companies, including PolicyBazaar, Lenskart and Meesho, to Silicon Valley to meet global AI leaders like Anthropic, OpenAI and Databricks.

SoftBank founder and head Masayoshi Son had earlier said that AI is more powerful than human intelligence in almost all fields. According to Reuters, Son said that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) will be ten times more powerful than humans.

On Thursday, the Vision Fund reported a net loss of 258.9 billion yen ($1.7 billion) in the September quarter, compared with a loss of 1.02 trillion yen a year ago.

It contributed to a surprise group-wide net loss of 931.1 billion yen, down from a profit of 3.03 trillion yen last year when SoftBank cashed in on its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Analysts, on average, had estimated a group net income of 203.4 billion yen.

SoftBank is trying to regain its footing after the Vision Fund unit lost $53 billion in the last two years on startups like WeWork Inc., which just filed for bankruptcy. The $4.9 billion IPO of chip unit Arm Holdings Plc has given SoftBank fuel to start afresh.

(With agency inputs)