Narendra Rathi

I wanted to invest in tech companies that have a broad-reaching impact on every aspect of people’s lives. Today, when I think about my personal and business routine, I get to work using Ola, shop on Flipkart, pay with Paytm, and use Slack to communicate with my coworkers. These are all companies that we’ve invested in.

SoftBank thinks big and is future focused. We’re not looking to make a quick exit in two or three years—we’re patient stakeholders in companies that can help solve problems that we believe will still be relevant in 100 years. Some of our investments in India have turned into major companies, but they still have plenty of space to grow.

Earlier, the narrative for Indian companies used to be that they are building the “x” of India, copying business models which have worked in other parts of the world. As the ecosystem has developed, many Indian companies are today solving unique India- specific challenges. For example, ElasticRun is solving the problem of rural ecommerce via the B2B model serving mom and pop stores (not a model prevalent in the developed world). 

Another interesting theme is global companies, especially Saas companies, emerging out of India. For a long time, India was competitive because of its labor costs, but we weren’t known for creating thought leaders or product-first global SaaS companies. When we look at our portfolio today, Icertis is one of the global leaders in the contract life cycle management SaaS space. Mindtickle was recognized as G2's best enterprise software product globally for two years in a row. Being part of journeys creating differentiated global champions is really exciting. 

The main challenge is getting access to the right people. For good companies, there’s no scarcity of capital. But you need to be part of an ecosystem with partners who can connect you to help you succeed around the world. That’s where many Indian companies struggle. Our network can help them get potential clients from within our portfolio and enter new geographies given our global presence. 

Since I started at SBIA three years ago, we’ve been through a bunch of ups and downs (we started in a decent market but then had a negative impact during Covid, which was followed by a liquidity-driven sharp upcycle and now a downturn) in a short period of time. Working through those periods, I’ve learned that you need to take a methodical approach to investing, and you need to learn from the impact of your decisions and work them into future investment theses. For example, when valuations were high in 2021, we leveraged SBIA’s prior experience and entered some companies relatively early so they could grow into their valuations. In hindsight, those decisions turned out fine and provided great learnings.