SoftBank Korea's 'most impressive investment' last year was in India

Affordable smartphones made India the world's fastest growing mobile market, reports Tech in Asia

“The most impressive investment” made by SoftBank Ventures Korea last year was not a Korean or Japanese startup – it was Balance Hero in India.

Founded in 2014 by Korean expat in India Cheol-won Lee, Balance Hero runs a utility app called True Balance. The app lets users track the credit and data balance of their prepaid phone account, do top-ups, and purchase a new account – even when there’s zero data available. Last year, SoftBank Ventures Korea led the startup’s series A funding round.

And today, SoftBank followed that up with a series B round of $15 million.

Besides SoftBank, new investors, including IMM Investment, Mega Investment, Korea Development Bank, and Capston Partners, participated in the latest round of funding for True Balance.

Affordable smartphones have made India the world’s fastest-growing mobile market. Last year, the country saw 23 per cent growth in internet users, taking the total number to 462 million – nearly 80 per cent of them accessing the internet over mobile devices.

What characterises the bulk of the new internet users is their frugality, not just in the smartphones they buy but also in their data plans. Over 90 per cent of mobile subscribers in India have pre-paid plans, in order to keep a strict limit on their expense.

It is in such an environment that a mobile utility app like True Balance thrives. It crossed 10 million downloads last year in July, and True Balance says that number has now tripled. Active user numbers are not disclosed.

India’s mobile internet boom has attracted utility apps like Alibaba’s UCWeb and Cheetah in China. European apps Truecaller and Aptoide have also tasted success. Korea is the latest to join the mobile rush.

This is an excerpt from an article published on TechInAsia. You can read the full story here