Japan-headquartered telecommunications and internet group SoftBank hired Lydia Jett in 2015, the year before Vision Fund was formally established. She was appointed US-based partner four years later at SoftBank Investment Advisers (SBIA), the investment subsidiary that manages the corporate’s Vision Funds 1 and 2.
She has since November 2021 served as managing partner for Americas, focusing on e-commerce, robotics and financial technology developers, having backed companies such as elderly companionship service Papa, non-fungible token platform The Sandbox and Candy Digital, which runs a digital collectable marketplace.
Regarding her role, Jett said: “My role at SoftBank Investment Advisers provides an incredible learning opportunity. We are among the most active investors in the sectors where I focus – e-commerce as well as fintech and robotics – and we have a global mandate.
“That means our team can see how very similar-looking companies and business models evolve in extremely different ways based on their respective markets. We try to bridge learnings across these companies, which strengthens all of them.
“And on a personal level, it is just fascinating to watch economies, populations, and countries develop and to look for ways to help accelerate that development.”
Prior to joining SBIA, Jett worked at SoftBank Group Corporation International, where she led investments in cancer diagnostics technology developer Guardant Health and medical tool manufacturer 10X Genomics.
Before that, Jett spent six years as vice-president at growth equity firm M/C Partners, where she focused on communications, media and IT investments. She had previously held an associate role at Goldman Sachs and worked as an analyst at another investment bank JP Morgan.
