Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars Awards 2016: Marissa Campise

Described as “one of the most talented investors in the New York market” by Jordan Levy, a partner at SoftBank Capital, Marissa Campise has been a top recruit for SoftBank’s corporate venturing unit.

Levy, in a press release issued when Campise was hired, added: “This is not a team sport and Marissa is one of the best.”

After emerging from Yale with a history degree she paid for while raising a child as a single parent, Campise started her career at Deloitte before taking a couple of years away to start her own drinks company. She came to venturing n 2009, joining Lindzon Capital as an associate before being snapped up by VC firm Greycroft Partners in 2010. She spent a little over a year with the firm before being headhunted by Venrock, originally the family office for the Rockefeller family, to be a vice-president. In 2014, she moved to Japan-based internet conglomerate SoftBank’s US ventures operation.

Campise keeps an eye on emerging consumer and enterprise mobile developments. She has a track record of investments in Klout, Livefyre, Burner, Trumaker and Netsertive. Since joining the unit, Campise’s most publicised investment for SoftBank has been the $7m series A for beauty app Glamsquad.

Campise said: “SoftBank Capital has an excellent reputation and is known to be great at opening doors for the management teams of its companies. The unique relationship with SoftBank provides the right companies access to strong distribution. This is a huge advantage in high-growth markets such as Asia and that is precisely what attracted me here.”

Last year, SoftBank switched focus from earlier to later-stage deals and Campise has “switched groups internally”.