Rajeev Misra is formally stepping down from the help of SoftBank Group Corp’s Vision Fund, what had been the largest-ever venture capital fund. With Misra stepping down, Alex Clavel will become the vision fund’s sole CEO. Misra was instrumental in helping SoftBank set up the vision fund in 2017.
According to a report in Bloomberg, Misra had helped SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son raise nearly $100 billion from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, as well as Apple. However, not all the bets the duo placed turned into gold as they had squandered billions on companies such as WeWork, Zume Pizza, and dog-walking app Wag.
Two years ago, Misra stepped back from his central role in the company, and spent more time on his own investment fund, OneIM.
Misra has a BSc in Mechanical Engineering and an MSc in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania. He also has an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Before he headed to SoftBank, Misra had worked as a Senior Managing Director and Partner at Fortress Investment Group. He had also served as the Global Head of Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities at UBS between 2009 and 2013, and Global Head of Credit and Emerging Markets at Deutsche Bank between 1997 and 2008.
Talking about himself a bit, Misra had said, “People have certain affinities. Mine are for math and physics, and science in general. It was my dream to do fundamental research. Some want to be football stars, musicians. For me, it was about working at Bell Labs.”