SoftBank Group's investment firepower has been a force in India, where there was traditionally little domestic risk capital. (Illustration by Eric Chow)

Fallout: SoftBank's next big crisis may be brewing in India

Overfunding and bloated valuations have destabilized the country's startups

HENNY SENDER, Nikkei Asian Review columnist

November 27, 2019 15:10 JST

NEW DELHI -- In 2014, Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, the founders of Delhi-based e-commerce company Snapdeal, boarded a plane to Tokyo. Their company had just struggled through a transition from a Groupon-like discount voucher seller to a full online retail marketplace, and had nearly failed -- but Bahl and Bansal had managed to turn it around. They brought in $850 million from major investors, including sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings, Ratan Tata, the head of Tata Group, and U.S. chipmaker Intel. EBay even approached Snapdeal with a proposal to acquire the business.