Japan-headquartered telecommunications and internet group SoftBank’s investment subsidiary, SoftBank Investment Advisers (SBIA), has promoted four investors to managing partners, Bloomberg reported today.
Sumer Juneja, previously a partner and head of India at SBIA, joined the unit in 2018 and has helped SoftBank Vision Funds invest nearly $3bn in the country, backing companies including food delivery service Swiggy, reselling platform Meesho and Eruditus, which provides professional education for adult learners.
SoftBank hired Lydia Jett in 2015 before naming her a US-based partner four years later. She has focused on e-commerce, robotics and financial technology developers such as elderly companionship service Papa, non-fungible token platform The Sandbox and Candy Digital, which runs a digital collectible marketplace, and ranked fourth on Global Corporate Venturing’s Rising Stars roster in 2020.
Another US-based SBIA partner who has been promoted is Vikas Parekh, whose role has entailed investing in enterprise software developers such as now exited communications tool developer Slack and data management platform Cohesity, in addition to leading workspace operator WeWork’s restructuring efforts and the buyout of semiconductor designer Arm.
SBIA also promoted China-based partner Dennis Chang, and his deals have included online fitness class provider Keep and grocery app operator Dingdong Maicai.
Dipchand ‘Deep’ Nishar, Jeffrey Housenbold and Colin Fan are among the former SBIA managing partners that have quit the parent firm in recent months.
Nagraj Kashyap, previously head of software producer Microsoft’s M12 unit, took up a managing partner role at SBIA in February this year, before being joined by fellow M12 veteran Priya Saiprasad, who was appointed a partner at the SoftBank unit four months later.
