Softbank reports 1st profit in 4-yrs; India bets Ola, Swiggy weigh on SVF2
For the fourth quarter, the company posted a net income of ¥546 billion, rebounding from a loss in the previous quarter.
Despite the overall positive performance, some of SoftBank's India investments — housed under its Vision Fund 2 (SVF2) — weighed on results.
SVF2 reported an investment loss of ¥561.7 billion (approximately $3.6 billion). The company stated that the fair value of investments held at the end of the fourth quarter had declined by 2.7 per cent from the previous quarter.
In its results presentation, SoftBank said: 'Down 21.7% quarter-on-quarter for public portfolio companies, mainly due to share price declines in Swiggy and Ola Electric Mobility.'
Speaking during an analyst call, SoftBank Director Yoshimitsu Goto said: '… hopefully we will be able to see a good recovery from there.'
Shares of both Ola and Swiggy declined nearly 40 per cent during the January–March period.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


New Indian Express
8 hours ago
- New Indian Express
No decision taken on online liquor sales: Excise Minister M B Rajesh
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government has not taken a decision on allowing Bevco to conduct online liquor sales, Excise Minister M B Rajesh has said. The Beverages Corporation had submitted a recommendation in this regard. 'The Bevco had submitted a similar proposal during the formulation of the Excise Policy. However, the government decided not to pursue it,' he said. Bevco, in its latest proposal to the excise department, highlighted that it received a partnership proposal from online delivery platform Swiggy. As per the proposal, liquor would be sold to people after ensuring that their age is above 23 years. Bevco is also developing an app for doorstep delivery. Bevco has been receiving demands for alternatives for the crowded outlets and the tourism fraternity, too, had made such a demand. Rajesh said the government will not take unilateral decisions on matters pertaining to liquor because of the general public perception. 'People take a double standard on such matters. Those who implement such things in other states will oppose the same in Kerala,' he said, making a veiled reference on the opposition parties. He also hinted at hiking liquor prices in the state.


Time of India
8 hours ago
- Time of India
SoftBank selects banks for US IPO of payments app PayPay: Report
SoftBank has selected investment banks to help organise a potential initial public offering in the United States for its Japanese payments app operator PayPay, according to two people familiar with the matter. The banks leading preparations for the listing are Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Mizuho Financial Group and Morgan Stanley, the sources said. Productivity Tool Zero to Hero in Microsoft Excel: Complete Excel guide By Metla Sudha Sekhar View Program Finance Introduction to Technical Analysis & Candlestick Theory By Dinesh Nagpal View Program Finance Financial Literacy i e Lets Crack the Billionaire Code By CA Rahul Gupta View Program Digital Marketing Digital Marketing Masterclass by Neil Patel By Neil Patel View Program Finance Technical Analysis Demystified- A Complete Guide to Trading By Kunal Patel View Program Productivity Tool Excel Essentials to Expert: Your Complete Guide By Study at home View Program Artificial Intelligence AI For Business Professionals Batch 2 By Ansh Mehra View Program by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Join new Free to Play WWII MMO War Thunder War Thunder Play Now Undo The PayPay offering may raise more than $2 billion from investors when it takes place, which the sources said could be as soon as the final quarter of this year. The sources declined to be named as the information is not public and cautioned that factors including timing and the amount the IPO could raise are subject to market conditions. SoftBank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Mizuho, and Morgan Stanley declined to comment. PayPay played a role in encouraging Japanese consumers to move away from a long-standing preference for cash by offering rebates on payments through its mobile app. Live Events It also offers financial services, including banking and credit cards. Reuters reported two years ago that SoftBank was considering a U.S. listing for PayPay, with the conglomerate saying earlier this year it wanted to IPO the business. Should it happen, it will be the first U.S. listing of a SoftBank majority investment since the blockbuster IPO of Arm Holdings. SoftBank took the chip designer public in 2023 at a valuation of $54.5 billion, which has subsequently increased to today's market capitalization of more than $145 billion. U.S. IPO activity has gained momentum in a long-awaited rebound, supported by strong tech earnings and signs of progress in trade negotiations that have helped restore investor confidence. The wave of solid market debuts marks a reversal from earlier this year, when uncertainty over President Donald Trump's tariff policies stalled new listings. Also read: Is BlueStone's IPO a risky bet amid growing losses?
&w=3840&q=100)

Business Standard
17 hours ago
- Business Standard
RazorpayX puts artificial intelligence in CFO's corner before market debut
Razorpay is positioning its business banking platform as an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered assistant to chief financial officers (CFOs). The move comes as India's financial technology giant, valued at $7.5 billion, prepares for a public offering within 18 months and seeks to stand out in the neobanking market. RazorpayX now handles 5 per cent of all digital money transfers, or Immediate Payment Service, in India and processes $30 billion in annualised transaction volume while growing 85 per cent year-over-year. The platform automates financial tasks from cash flow forecasting to payroll reconciliation, making it Razorpay's fastest-growing division and a cornerstone of its initial public offering (IPO) strategy. 'I don't think we're saying — even to an extent — that we're replacing a human CFO. The idea is to assist a human CFO,' said Harshil Mathur, chief executive officer and cofounder of Razorpay. 'Your CFO's office doesn't need that many people. And we can give interesting, actionable insights to CFOs and financial decision-makers without having a large team.' Its AI-powered payroll system, built via Opfin, automates end-to-end processing and compliance while detecting errors and predicting risks in real time. Machine learning models now drive smart reconciliation, matching invoices with transactions, spotting mismatches or duplicates, and slashing manual effort by over 80 per cent. The company recently launched an AI-driven Know Your Payslip feature, where employees can ask questions about their payroll calculations, tax deductions, and salary components through a chatbot. 'We now have Smart AI-powered Cash Flow Forecasting, which is based on your income and expenses in your bank account. We can project cash flows in advance and give you financial decision flow,' said Mathur. More than 50,000 customers — including large firms such as Swiggy, Meesho, Cred, Upstox, and Bharti AXA Life Insurance — have adopted RazorpayX to streamline financial operations. Mathur said, 70 per cent of India's unicorns use RazorpayX for smarter and faster financial operations. The company processes 1.7 million salary disbursements every month, making it one of the largest payroll players in the country. One of the customers is gaming platform Zupee, which uses an AI-powered routing engine to deliver reward payouts to millions of users within seconds, maintaining a success rate of over 99.8 per cent. Razorpay recently launched the RazorpayX corporate credit card in partnership with Mastercard, RBL Bank, and Yes Bank, offering up to ₹2 crore credit to firms. IPO strategy Mathur said that RazorpayX is becoming a higher-growth engine for the firm, moving even faster than its payments platform. An 85 per cent growth rate allows the company to grow faster as an organisation rather than just as a single entity. 'And I think from that perspective, heading into an IPO, we feel this adds a lot of value to our overall story — not just as a payments company, but as a full-stack financial services firm,' said Mathur. Mathur said that two years ago, 90 per cent of the company's revenue came from payments. That figure has since dropped to 75 per cent, with RazorpayX and other services now contributing 25 per cent. He expects the split to shift further to 70:30 within the next 12-18 months. The revenue of Razorpay, founded by Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee graduates Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar in 2014, increased 9 per cent to ₹2,501 crore in 2023-24, from ₹2,293 crore a year ago. Its net profit rose fivefold to ₹34 crore during the same period. The firm has an annualised total payment volume of $180 billion. It is eyeing $1 billion in revenue by 2030. The reduced funding environment has actually benefited RazorpayX's growth. Mathur said that if there's too much funding available in the ecosystem, nobody really cares about optimisation. 'The last couple of years taught us that funding hasn't gone away, but it's available for the most optimised and prudent companies,' he explained. Razorpay competes with players like Stripe, PayPal, PayU, and Paytm. With the expansion of RazorpayX, the company is also entering territory traditionally dominated by established banks with long-standing regulatory ties and infrastructure. 'In India, I don't think anyone else is even close to what we are doing. We are clear market leaders in the payouts and disbursal category, and now we are adding an AI layer on top of it,' said Mathur. He said the company has a 150-member data team focused on leveraging RazorpayX's data to generate deeper, business-specific insights as part of its AI-driven initiatives. Global expansion Mathur views regulatory changes from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as largely positive. 'My belief is that what the RBI has been doing — or the regulator— is drawing the rules more clearly in terms of how different players can operate, and mostly it has been fairly positive,' he said. RBI's recent move to open up cross-border payments under the 'payment aggregators — cross-border' framework allows firms like Razorpay to facilitate both import and export transactions, expanding their role in global payments. Razorpay is positioning itself for its next phase of growth by expanding globally. A key focus area is the firm's push into cross-border payments, an extension of its existing RazorpayX platform. 'One of the areas we're going deeper into now is global payouts — cross-border flows, enabling cross-border disbursements and acceptance as well,' Mathur said.