#StartupIndia, Standup India: Softbank’s Masayoshi Son is having a roaring love affair in India, and he’s in no hurry to move on!

The grand celebration that the Government’s Startup India, Standup India is has begun with a bang! And amongst one of the first big sharks to speak was Masayoshi Son, Chairman of Japan’s Softbank, which has already become a messiah to some of India’s largest and most successful startups. His advice to the hundreds of startups that have congregated in the Capital city was also as priceless as his association with startup India’s crème de la crème!

So betting big on Indian startups, he says, “India has a young population over 800 mn young generation, it has IT, sunshine, English speaking population, largest democracy in the world that makes me believe that 21^st century belongs to this country.”

His company, Softbank, aims to invest at least $10 bn in India over the next year. “If I rescale, I will scale up. At least in the last one year, we have invested $2 bn. We would only accelerate.”

On being asked about his quick-fix investments, he says, “We gave Alibaba only 10 minutes time. It’s like love at first sight. But now we have Nikesh Arora...”

So what does he look for before pumping in his money? Son chuckled and said that he looks for passion. “You know I was richer than Bill Gates, then our share price went down, I recovered by passion, passion…”

Son is upbeat about the country’s future and noted that India could be bigger than China in a momentum in the next 10 years. “21st century belongs to India,” he says.

Way to go Son!

Image credit: Indiatimes