The social media operator is seeking a head of investments for its NPE subsidiary who will reportedly work with Gradient Ventures alumnus Shabih Rizvi.

US-based social media company Facebook has begun setting up a corporate venture capital unit, Axios reported yesterday, citing a job listing posted by the firm.

The prospective employee will be head of investments at Facebook’s New Product Experimentation (NPE) subsidiary, which it formed to launch consumer-focused apps.

The post has since been deleted but it stated: “In this role, you will manage a multimillion-dollar fund that invests in leading private companies alongside top venture capital firms and angel investors.

“You will develop investment and impact theses, lead the execution of new investments and support existing portfolio companies as needed.”

The fund will be partially managed by Shabih Rizvi, who spent two years as founding partner at internet technology provider Google’s artificial intelligence fund, Gradient Ventures, before moving to a business development role at Google in April 2019.

A source familiar with the plans told Axios that Facebook is pursuing investments as a method of keeping track with emerging technologies, rather than operating what they termed as a general purpose fund. It will make small investments in early-stage companies.

Facebook has been a sporadic participant in corporate venturing but it has taken part in a $125m funding round for Meesho and a $110m series E round for another India-based company, online education provider Unacademy, in the past year.

The company is better known for its acquisitions of venture-backed startups, having paid $1bn for Instagram in 2012, $16bn for WhatsApp in February 2014 and $2bn for virtual reality headset developer Oculus VR the following month.

Robert Lavine

Robert Lavine is special features editor for Global Venturing.