Akshay Naheta, chief investment officer of investment firm Knight Assets & Co, has joined the management team of telecommunications group SoftBank’s $100bn Vision Fund, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
The fund, announced in October 2016, is set to receive $25bn from SoftBank, $1bn from hardware producer Apple and additional funding from contract manufacturer Foxconn and chipmaker Qualcomm.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is expected to supply $45bn and the Abu Dhabi-backed Mubadala Development Company a reported $10 to $15bn, while Qatar Investment Authority, the Qatar state-owned investment firm, and the family office of entrepreneur Larry Ellison are also considering commitments.
Vision Fund will allocate about 75% of its capital to investments in publicly-listed companies and private equity deals, bankers advising SoftBank on the fund recently told the New York Times. The rest will go to venture capital-backed advanced technology developers.
Naheta will be responsible for public equity investments and potential acquisitions. Knight Assets, which had been fundraising a $500m vehicle, will be wound down.
The news has not been confirmed by either Naheta or SoftBank, though it has also been reported by the New York Times, which additionally named Saleh Romeih, a senior banker from financial services firm Deutsche Bank, as a recent hire.
Naheta was formerly a trader at Deutsche Bank. Rajeev Misra, head of strategic finance at SoftBank and Vision Fund, and Vision Fund adviser Nizar Al-Bassam both previously also worked at the bank.
– The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global Government Venturing.