SoftBank Q2: Lenskart & Meesho Drive Valuation Gains, Ola Electric Books Losses

Japanese tech investor SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 (SVF2) booked a valuation loss of $42 Mn on its investment in listed Indian electric vehicle (EV) maker Ola Electric in the quarter ended September 2026 (Q2 FY26 as per the investment firm’s nomenclature).

In its investor presentation, SoftBank said that the EV manufacturer’s gross return to the SVF2 stood at $370 Mn in the quarter under review, down $42 Mn (or 10.2%) from $412 Mn in the preceding Q1 FY26. 

The latest gross return figures are almost 30% lower than $556 Mn that the fund claims to have invested in the OEM so far. 

In contrast, other listed Indian startups in SVF2’s portfolio – Lenskart and Meesho – together contributed valuation gains worth $394 Mn to the fund’s kitty in Q2 FY26.

SoftBank said that the Indian omnichannel eyewear giant helped SVF2 rake in an additional $273 Mn in gross returns during the quarter under review. With this, the fund’s total gross gains from Lenskart stood at $1.3 Bn in Q2 FY26, up 27% sequentially from $1 Bn in preceding quarter. 

On similar lines, Meesho added another $121 Mn in gains to SVF2’s corpus in the quarter under review. Overall, the Japanese tech giant’s fund sat on gross gains worth $642 Mn on account of the homegrown ecommerce giant in Q2 FY26, up from $521 Mn in the previous quarter.

“The investment gain at SVF2 reflected increases in the fair values of certain private portfolio companies due to higher valuations in recent transactions as well as higher share prices of certain public portfolio companies, including Meesho Limited and Lenskart Solutions Limited,” added SoftBank in a statement.

SoftBank claims to have so far invested $225 Mn and $285 Mn in Lenskart and Meesho, respectively.

Meanwhile, another homegrown SVF2 portfolio startup Swiggy saw a valuation gain of nearly $14 Mn in the quarter under review. The foodtech giant minted gross returns worth $451 Mn in Q2 FY26 (up from $437 Mn in Q1 FY26) against a total investment of $450 Mn.

However, the road was not so smooth for listed Indian startups in Vision Fund 1 (SVF1). The fund booked a sequential valuation loss of $34 Mn on account of Delhivery in Q2 FY26. Against a gross return of $701 Mn in Q1 FY26, the logistics giant ended the September 2026 quarter with an even lower gross return of $667 Mn.

Similarly, SoftBank pegged the gross return on its investment in FirstCry parent BrainBees Solutions at $308 Mn in the quarter under review, down 14% or $50 Mn, from $358 Mn in Q1 FY26.

Overall, SoftBank swung to the red and posted a net loss of nearly $7 Bn in Q2 FY26 against a profit of $15.9 Bn in the year ago period. This was its first loss-making quarter in nearly two years as the company was hit by rising buildout costs for data centres in the US and a sharp jump in financing payments.

The investment firm also reported $14.1 Bn in net sales in the quarter under review, up 15.6% from $12.2 Bn in Q2 FY25. 

SoftBank is one of the major foreign investors in the country and has so far deployed nearly $16 Bn in Indian startups. Having funded nearly a fifth of India’s 100+ unicorns, SoftBank has previously backed the likes of Flipkart, OYO, Delhivery, OfBusiness, FirstCry and Meesho.

The post SoftBank Q2: Lenskart & Meesho Drive Valuation Gains, Ola Electric Books Losses appeared first on Inc42 Media.