SoftBank Investment Advisers (SBIA), which manages Japan-headquartered telecommunications and internet group SoftBank’s Vision Fund, has hired Vikas Agnihotri as an India-based operating partner.
Agnihotri joined Google in 2011 as an India-based director before being promoted to managing director of sales at Google India seven years later. He was made interim head of Google India in April 2019.
SBIA manages Vision Fund, which closed its first fund at $98.6bn and which is currently raising its second vehicle. Vision Fund appointed Sumer Juneja as an India-based partner in late 2018 and its local portfolio companies include Delhivery, FirstCry, Grofers, Lenskart, Ola, Oyo, Paytm and PolicyBazaar.
SoftBank said in a statement: “To continue its expansion in India and bolster portfolio companies, SBIA has announced the appointment of Vikas Agnihotri as its first operating partner to foster closer connections with the region’s technology ecosystem and the SBIA’s global network.”
The move came after another SBIA executive, Arif Lakhani, departed from his US-based investment director role in late 2019 in order to join Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC, as a vice-president.
Photo of Vikas Agnihotri courtesy of LinkedIn.
