Alex Clavel & Rajeev Misra, co-CEOs of Soft Bank Investment Advisers, is among the 100 leading corporate venturing professionals in our 2024 Powerlist.
SoftBank may not be the VC force it was a few years ago, when its Vision Funds dominated the venture capital landscape, but Alex Clavel and Rajeev Misra still lead a 470-company portfolio and are continuing to invest as its parent streamlines its early-stage activity.
A veteran of the GCV Powerlist, Misra set up the $98.6bn first Vision Fund in 2016 on behalf of SoftBank chief executive Masayoshi Son, making the 2017 edition of the Powerlist the following year. He was still at the helm when it launched the fund’s multi-billion-dollar successor in 2019.
Clavel, a new entry to the GCV Powerlist, was promoted to co-CEO of SoftBank Investment Advisers last July, having spent eight years at SoftBank after almost 20 at Morgan Stanley. He had already moved up from a managing partner position to become chief executive of SoftBank Group International, which oversees many of the group’s operating companies, in 2022.
“Rajeev and I have worked together as part of the SoftBank leadership structure for nearly a decade,” says Clavel. “Our skillsets and leadership styles are complementary.”
The change comes in the wake of SoftBank divesting its SoftBank Ventures Asia unit last year, having already folded its $8bn Latin America fund into Vision Fund. A standout event for the Vision Fund was the September flotation of chipmaker and portfolio company Arm, which has since grown to a $100bn market capitalisation.
The unit led a billion-dollar round for AI driving startup Wayve and has also backed rounds sized above $200m for Metsera, Mapbox and Cato Networks. Media reports have described it investing more ‘timidly’, but that simply reflects a more careful strategy, leaning more into AI than the consumer startups for which it was previously known.
“SoftBank is a platform with exceptional financial and operational agility, with the ability to unlock new opportunities in every major market,” says Clavel.
The Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist represents the 100
individuals spearheading the future of the corporate venturing industry.
These individuals excel in terms of their venturing approach and structure, number and quality of portfolio companies and in their contributions to the corporate venturing profession.
