Next month, a group of Indian startup entrepreneurs will go to Silicon Valley with SoftBank Group Corp. as the Japanese investor intensifies attempts to integrate the technology into its portfolio companies. Sumer Juneja, managing partner in charge of investments at SoftBank’s Vision Fund for Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and India, said in an interview in Mumbai that the investor is assisting portfolio companies in implementing AI and has been setting up meetings for the founders it supports with the top players in the field. Without mentioning any names specifically, he said that SoftBank anticipates taking the majority of the 20 founders from its Indian companies on the visit. Ola, a ride-hailing company, Oyo Hotels, and Swiggy, a delivery company, are all part of its local portfolio.
SoftBank, headed by Masayoshi Son, almost stopped funding startups in the first quarter of 2016 but started up again in the second quarter. With almost $40 billion in cash on hand, the Japanese corporation is currently bringing chip designer Arm Holdings Ltd. public in a deal that will earn more cash.
What we don’t want to do is invest in a business that misses the AI wave and then becomes obsolete after three years, said Juneja. “For us to write new checks, we must have a sophisticated tech team and be in the right industry where AI can be used to make the business model even more efficient.”
Due to the international surge in the popularity of products like ChatGPT, investors are rushing to support AI firms. If they don’t immediately implement AI use cases, companies in various industries, including software-as-a-service, will go out of business, claims Juneja. The best way to use AI now, meanwhile, is the largest problem.
“If you are too early or too late to the AI party, it won’t affect your revenue. We are assisting in making sure the transition is successful, he said.
After founding the Vision Fund in 2017, Son spent more than $140 billion in companies, promoting the promise of cutting-edge technology like artificial intelligence. However, the value of several of these investments has collapsed, notably the office-sharing firm WeWork Inc.
