SoftBank to setup India office, appoints Sumer Juneja as Country Head

Japanese technology investment giant, SoftBank Investment Advisers, has further strengthened its position in India.

The company has announced that it would set up an office in the country. The company has also appointed a country head, Sumer Juneja, who will be leading SoftBank's investments in India. 

Sumer Juneja to spearhead SoftBank's India investments

Sumer Juneja has been a partner at Norwest Venture Partners for nine years and is also a board member of Swiggy. Apart from Swiggy, Juneja has been involved in investments at Quikr, YES BANK, IndusInd Bank, Cholamandalam Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank and National Stock Exchange.

Before joining Norwest Venture Partners India in 2009, Sumer was a founding member of the Goldman Sachs' Asian Special Situations Group in India, a balance sheet investing group with over 4 billion USD (Rs 28,000 crore) under management.

“I’m delighted to welcome Sumer to the team; he will play a pivotal role in working with our existing portfolio companies as well as sourcing new opportunities on the ground. India represents an enormous addressable market comprising a young, tech-enabled population. I am excited by many of the opportunities we see there and look forward to announcing further investments in the coming months,” says Rajeev Misra, CEO, SoftBank Investment Advisors and Board Director, SoftBank Group in a statement. 

SoftBank's gigantic portfolio is a positive sign for India's digital economy

SoftBank's huge investment portfolio worth 8 billion USD (Rs 56,000 crore) in India hints at the growing optimism in the digital space in the country. India is the second largest e-commerce market with 46 crore Internet users and SoftBank has been active in capturing the market with its acquisitions and investments. 

Five billion USD of SoftBank's giant investment portfolio in India comprises of OYO, Paytm, PolicyBazaar and Flipkart, which are part of the 100-billion Vision Fund of SoftBank created in 2017. According to media reports, SoftBank is also planning to invest a whopping 450 million USD (Rs 31,500 crore) in Gurugram-based logistics company Delhivery. 

Ricky johnson is a self-professed security expert; he has been making the people aware of the security threats. His passion is to write about Cyber security, cryptography, malware, social engineering, internet and new media. He writes for Norton security products at www.norton.com/setup