Masayoshi Son, Founder and CEO of Japanese investment group SoftBank said that the investments made by the firm should have been more selective, which would have reduced the damage.
Son was speaking at the earnings call of the first quarterly results, where the company posted a $23.4 billion loss in the April-June quarter as the value of its investments declined due to global worries about inflation and interest rates.
‘Expected good returns’
Son said, “The valuations for unicorns were so high in fiscal 21 and we invested in such unicorns as we thought we could get a good return. I believe we were in a valuation bubble and should have made better strategic investments.”
He also said that unicorn leaders, although believe in their valuations, may have to see their valuations go lower than they think. The winter for publicly listed companies is continuing, but a similar downturn for start-ups may last longer, he added.
In India, since its founding in 2014, under the direction of Son, SoftBank has invested about $8 billion over five years. It has funded various prominent start-ups such as Delhivery, Grofers, FirstCry, PolicyBazaar, and others. Some of them have even become unicorns.