Shu Nyatta and Paulo Passoni, two of the three managing partners at Japan-listed SoftBank’s Latin America-focused corporate venturing fund, are reportedly leaving.
SoftBank is set to promote the Latin America fund’s third managing partner, Alex Szapiro, who currently holds an operating role, to a more senior position following their departure, according to newswire Bloomberg.
Juan Franck, a fund investor in Mexico City, will also get promoted, Bloomberg added. SoftBank is also planning to commit up to $2bn to the region, the newswire added.
The LatAm fund is on track to invest about $2bn this year out of its second fund, according to Bloomberg.
While smaller than other divisions, the LatAm fund, which holds Rappi, Kavak, NuBank, and Creditas among its portfolio companies, has been performing well. In the results for the nine months ended Dec. 31, 2021, its investments showed a gain of 9%, up Y136.7bn ($1.1bn).
This month, SoftBank announced a spinout of the LatAm fund’s early stage investments into an autonomous business, Upload Ventures.
The departures of Nyatta and Passoni (whose LinkedIn profile describes himself as being on gardening leave) follow the path trodden by the LatAm fund’s original managing partner, André Maciel, who left to set up a VC firm, Volpe Capital, at the end of 2020.
More recently, Marcelo Claure, SoftBank chief operating officer and creator of the LatAm fund, left the firm following clashes with founder Masayoshi Son over compensation and responsibilities. Claure had advocated for its spinoff having given the fund more autonomy on deal selection and compensation where each managing partner might receive about 15% or 20% of profits divided among the investing team, Bloomberg said.
That changed after Claure left, Passoni told Bloomberg, when a new compensation structure was announced with no binding commitments around the share of the profits.
“We are firmly committed to playing a leadership role in Latin America,” said Rajeev Misra, the London-based chief executive officer of SoftBank’s Vision Funds told Bloomberg. “There is tremendous opportunity and I am confident our teams across the region are well placed to help us back the next generation of extraordinary entrepreneurs.”
