The public market journey for India’s heavily backed tech startups has hit a rough patch, directly impacting one of the ecosystem’s largest global backers. In its latest global earnings disclosures, Japanese tech investment giant SoftBank Group reported a paper loss of over $600 million on its listed Indian portfolio during the January–March quarter.
The downward revaluation of its public Indian bets served as a significant drag on SoftBank’s marquee Vision Fund segment, which recorded overall losses of roughly $4.2 billion across its global listed investments during the same timeframe.
What Caused the $600 Million Valuation Slide?
The paper losses were primarily driven by systemic market corrections and changing investor sentiment toward late-stage tech startups that have transitioned to the public markets over the last two years.
Several prominent public companies in SoftBank’s India portfolio faced deep valuation pressures, driven by intense post-listing market scrutiny regarding profit sustainability, rising cash burn, hyper-competition, and long-term growth trajectories.
The Portfolio Breakdown: Drags vs. Gains
The performance of SoftBank’s Indian public market assets during the quarter highlights a stark contrast across tech verticals:
- The Primary Drags: The valuation hit was heavily led by stock market declines in prominent tech names including food tech major Swiggy, EV pioneer Ola Electric, e-commerce player Meesho, logistics giant Delhivery, and omnichannel baby care brand FirstCry.
- The Lone Bright Spot: Omnichannel eyewear retailer Lenskart was the only Indian asset that completely bucked the downward trend. Lenskart delivered strong operational performance, adding an upside of approximately $100 million to partly offset the broader portfolio’s decline.
SoftBank’s Global Performance Divergence
Interestingly, the losses in India stood in sharp contrast to SoftBank’s blowout global performance. At the group level, the investment conglomerate reported a massive quarterly net profit of nearly $12 billion, while the broader Vision Fund segment recorded total investment gains exceeding $19 billion.
This massive global profitability was not driven by public equities, but rather by the roaring boom in Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The AI Cushion
SoftBank’s massive quarterly numbers were turbocharged by multi-billion dollar valuation surges linked to its early investment exposure to ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and the soaring share prices of semiconductor design giant Arm Holdings, which is riding the wave of global AI infrastructure demand.
Shift in India Strategy: Slower Pace, Selective Bets
Having deployed more than $15 billion into India over the last decade—funding roughly one-fifth of the nation’s tech unicorns—SoftBank remains one of the foundational pillars of the Indian startup landscape. However, its strategy has subtly evolved in recent quarters.
As its portfolio becomes increasingly linked to public market volatility via IPOs, the firm has dialed back massive growth-stage checks. Instead, SoftBank is prioritizing liquid market exits and highly selective follow-on rounds. The Japanese powerhouse has realized over $7.4 billion from strategic Indian exits to date, choosing to preserve dry powder or selectively direct capital into niche, high-potential frontiers like the AI coding startup Emergent.
The $600 million paper loss serves as a stark reminder to domestic founders that public market investors value immediate bottom-line metrics over unbridled top-line expansion.