Kirthiga Reddy becomes first female partner of $100 Bn Softbank Vision Fund
Heavily divested in its far-reaching investment plans, Softbank has been actively recruiting, from country heads to partners.
The Japanese investment giant has appointed former Facebook Inc. executive Kirthiga Reddy as a partner in its $100 billion Vision Fund. She is the first female hire of the firm in a team of over twelve people oversee this venture.
Softbank Investment Advisors manages the huge fund and keeps a worldwide focus on frontier and enterprise technology. Kirthiga Reddy has joined the team, and according to Bloomberg report, will work closely with senior managing partner Deep Nishar.
This team of advisors has been the driver of Masayoshi Son led Softbank’s $65 billion worth investment in companies like Uber Technologies Inc., WeWork Cos., Didi Chuxing, and others across the world.
Prior to this, Kirthiga Reddy has spent a tenure of eight years with Facebook, in Indian and US altogether, along with serving as chair of Stanford Business School Management Board.
Son had been under the lens for having a male driven advisory team with no female partners. With this, Son seems to be clearing out the air and making a statement about not being prejudiced against females.
Rajeev Misra headed Vision fund is actively hiring females at positions as high as managing partners.
Kirthiga Reddy’s role in the firm is not expected to be limited to being a partner. Instead, she is also slated to become an investing partner, partly depending on her willingness to take on that responsibility.
The world’s largest investment firm plans on raising a $100 billion Vision Fund every two to three years and invest $50 billion of that on a yearly basis. The dealmakers to oversee the functionality of these investments will also be increased from 30 to 300.
As a part of the hiring spree, the Son lead firm had recently appointed Sumer Juneja as its India head to oversee investments in the country, especially in foodtech and logistics.
Accounting these several developments, another thing that can be expected is the Indian startup ecosystem benefiting from the Vision Fund by way of several significant investments. Rest, time will tell.
Source: Entrackr
To Read Our Daily News Updates, Please Visit Inventiva Or Subscribe Our Newsletter & Push.
