Japanese telecommunications company, SoftBank, could invest in PayTM and Olacabs in the coming weeks, ET reports. SoftBank is in talks with PayTM to invest $300 million for a significant minority stake. Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son will be in India on Monday for a two-day visit where he is also expected to announce a $650 million investment in Snapdeal and will also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Son, Japan’s richest individual with a net worth of over $22 billion, is the latest high-profile CEOs to visit the country after Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft’s Satya Nadellla.
Son, is expected to be accompanied by Nikesh Arora, the former Google Chief Business Officer, who joined SoftBank recently. SoftBank could also be looking at investing in taxi rental provider, Olacabs.
SoftBank has earlier made investments in the country on its own, putting in $200 million in mobile advertising firm InMobi in 2011. SoftBank and the Bharti Group also have a joint venture — Bharti SoftBank — which invests in mobile technology companies. It has invested more than $21 million in Hike, a homegrown instant messaging app founded by Sunil Mittal’s son, Kavin.