Rajeev Misra to step down as co-CEO of SoftBank Vision Fund

SoftBank on Tuesday said that Rajeev Misra, the co-CEO of SoftBank’s Vision Fund, will be exiting the firm.

Alex Clavel will be the sole CEO of SoftBank’s Investment Advisers (SBIA) and SoftBank Global Advisers (SBGA), the company said during its second-quarter earnings call.

The company’s Chief Financial Officer, Yoshimitsu Goto, said a post-earnings call that Misra has been one of the “great non-Japanese friends of mine, and I want to learn continuously from him and appreciate his contribution so far.”

The exit comes after SoftBank Group, in 2022, said that Misra would step down from his position of Corporate Officer and Executive Vice President while continuing to oversee the Vision Fund.

Misra was also one of the key architects of the initial Vision Fund along with Masayoshi Son and made early bets on companies like Alibaba Group Holding and invested in a range of startups in the US, China, and India.

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Goto, during the post-earnings call, clarified that Misra’s key role in the company is over and that he will be focusing on running his own fund.

“Does that mean complete goodbye to Rajiv? I don’t think so. I think we are going to keep communicating with him in some way, and I am sure he is going to visit Japan from time to time. I will keep getting in touch with him, but like as a management team, for example, that kind of relation and role is over,” Goto added.

In 2023, Misra had raised $7 billion in the first close of his new fund, One Investment Management, and had made an early investment in Shapoorji Pallonji debt. According to a Moneycontrol report, the fund would look to primarily invest in the US and European markets. It will look to invest in Indian companies that are best adjusted for risk-return.