optimise for what investors want having said that the funding freeze would be worse in india right now if softbank wasnt activemany in the industry feel softbank is a longterm strategic investor and is not a pureplay financial backer here as it aids the fight of domestic companies like flipkart against dogged competition from amazon with its longtime affiliation to alibaba another major stakeholder in india they can form a formidable antiamazon alliance herethough earlystage investments slowed this year was defined by a few massive financing rounds and softbank led all of those with alibaba and tencent forming the other pool of capitalas many as 31 latestage deals led to rs 28810 crore of capital being raised this year compared to 49 such deals being completed in 2016 but with only rs 6858 crore being racked up as per data from paper vc an investment data platform this indicates how mature internet companies in india including flipkart ola and paytm are now reliant on softbanks financial firepower as they remain privatewary of dominancetoday companies are more worried about having softbank on their side compared to three years ago their presence dilutes earlystage investors and founders as they offer more capital than anyone else this will result in some vcs raising even larger funds next year as some reports said about sequoia capital in the us it also means lesser control for founders says a venture investor softbanks giant fund has made it tough to maintain ownership or any influence on companies as an investor you need softbank for your portfolio companies to succeed but you become irrelevant as soon as they come in points out another vcin india other deeppocketed investors like chinas two most powerful internet groups alibaba and tencent and south africas naspers are a good counterbalancing force say industry insiders even as vcs see the balance of power shifting decidedly towards softbank sons bullishness around a few top internet companies has paved the way for partial liquidity for new yorkbased tiger global and vc funds like saif partners and accel partners who have collectively pocketed more than 15 billion by selling their shares to the japanese group this year in a market infamous for not producing any big returns for risk investors softbanks secondary share purchase in flipkart and paytm helped create liquidity in an exitstarved ecosystemthe questions around softbank though remain a massive pool of capital that can distort valuations an investing team not known for scoring technology deals and the large stakes it holds in companies along with favourable terms and as we step into 2018 the groups mandate to bring about global consolidation and realignment in the technology sector has only just begun