SoftBank Group has announced that Lydia Jett has been named as a partner of the $100 billion Vision Fund, according to Bloomberg. She is the second woman to become a partner of the Vision Fund following former Facebook executive Kirthiga Reddy — who is working on enterprise and technology deals along with senior managing partner Deep Nishar.
“It puts another woman in the room. The work is the same work I’ve been doing for years, which is being laser-focused on finding the best companies, and building and mentoring the team,” said Jett via Bloomberg.
Jett joined SoftBank four years ago and oversaw global investments in consumer Internet and e-commerce businesses. And Jett is also a board member of Tokopedia and Coupang, which are the largest online marketplaces in Indonesia and South Korea. Plus Jett was on the board of India-based Flipkart prior to its acquisition by Walmart last year.
And Jett previously worked as an investment banker at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and private equity at Goldman Sachs Group. Going forward, she will continue working closely with managing partner Colin Fan.
Lydia Jett – Photo Credit: SoftBank
Tokopedia CEO and founder William Tanuwijaya told Bloomberg that Jett was instrumental in helping the company close its fundraising rounds at a value of more than $1 billion over the last several years.
Rajeev Misra oversees the Vision Fund. Misra joined SoftBank in 2014 after spending 25 years in finance moving between Merrill Lynch to Deutsche Bank to UBS. He is also a board member for Uber and is a Member of the Engineering Board of Overseers at the University of Pennsylvania and is also a board member of MIT Sloan. As the chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group, Masayoshi Son oversees the whole leadership team at the Vision Fund.
The Vision Fund plans to raise about $100 billion every two to three years and invest in the world’s fastest growing startups. These startups range from ride-hailing companies to cancer detection.
So far, the Vision Fund has invested about $70 billion into companies, according to Bloomberg’s sources. Most of these companies are led by men, but Jett is aiming to change that. “We have not yet done a good job of backing female-founded companies. That’s a focus area where I think you’ll see us continue to try and source,” Jett acknowledged.
