Indian Rajeev Misra to lead $100bn SoftBank-Saudi fund

Japanese telecom and in ternet giant SoftBank's fo under Masayoshi Son is betting on another Indian as he announced a massive $100-billion global technology fund on Friday .Rajeev Misra, 54, who is currently head of strategic finance at the Japanese group, is expected to lead the ambitious Softbank Vision fund, which has been launched in partnership with Saudi Arabia's public investment fund to find companies that will become influential in the future.Misra's helming the gigantic fund comes just four months after another India-origin executive, Nikesh Arora, whom Son had anointed as his successor, departed from the company abruptly . Arora's exit came after he was exonerated by a committee investigating him on charges of conflict of interest and poor investment decisions.
A debt-trading executive and a finance veteran with stints at Deutsche Bank and UBS AG, Misra is reported to have been the brain behind the fund. An IIT alumnus, who did his schooling from the Delhi Public School, Misra's India connection is with Eros International, an Indian movie distribution company,where he is a board member.
Son has been hiring a stream of professionals to build SoftBank into a global outfit, and brought in Arora and Misra around the same time in 2014. In an interview to TOI earlier this year, Son had said that Arora, who was instrumental in backing Indian startups like Ola, Snapdeal, Housing, Grofers and Oyo Rooms, had brought in talent which was international to SoftBank. “SoftBank was ve ry domestic in Japan. We acquired Sprint, but that was just one core tele-corporation.We had no professional overseas... Nikesh has already hired very senior and smart executives,“ Son had said.
In an interview published on SoftBank's website last year, Misra said, “Son brought me on board to advise on aspects regarding financing, tax, and investment opportunities in financial technology , and also to use my experience of building businesses from scratch which involved recruiting talented individuals globally . I joined because it's very stimulating and educational to work in a different industry . We are playing a role in the latest industrial revolution that is going on in our planet.“
Just a year ago, SoftBank's founder looked poised to fulfill his long-stated plan of stepping aside in his 60s. He had a global telecom empire, track record of spectacularly suc cessful investments and a bright young successor in Arora. Instead, the 59-yearold edged aside his heir apparent, cut the biggest deal of his career yet and revealed on Friday his ambition to become one of the world's most powerful investors.
SoftBank's $100 billion fund is by far the biggest such investing vehicle. By comparison, all the venture capital funds in the world disbursed a record $129.5 billion in funding in 2015, according to CB Insights.
The Saudi government will consider putting money into the fund and become the lead investment partner, SoftBank said in statement.The Tokyo-based company , which will invest as much as $25 billion, signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with the Saudis, who may put in as much as $45 billion over the next five years. Other large global investors may participate to increase the pool to $100 billion.