SoftBank recruits executives for $5bn Latin America fund

Bloomberg

SoftBank Group Corp is hiring a trio of industry veterans to oversee a $5 billion technology fund headed by Chief Operating Officer Marcelo Claure that focuses on Latin America.
André Maciel, a former managing director at JPMorgan Chase & Co in Brazil, will join the SoftBank Innovation Fund as managing partner, the company said in a release. Paulo Passoni, ex-managing director with Daniel Loeb’s hedge fund Third Point, and SoftBank’s own Shu Nyatta will serve as investment partners focussed on finding and executing deals.
Masayoshi Son’s technology conglomerate already holds stakes in many of the world’s most valuable startups, from Uber Technologies Inc and
WeWork Cos to Didi Chuxing through its $100 billion Vision Fund. SoftBank last month launched the Latin America fund to invest across the
region. It will focus on e-commerce, digital financial services, health care, mobility and insurance.
“There’s never been a better time to support Latin America and the companies that will help shape its future,” Claure said in the statement.
“We are delighted to welcome this talented team with deep investment and operational experience in the region.”
Maciel will helm the fund’s Brazil office from his base in Sao Paulo, oversee investments in the region’s other early stage funds, and be responsible for structuring transactions. He spent 17 years at JPMorgan, working on mergers and acquisitions and equity capital markets with a focus on technology, and most recently led its investment banking advisory business for Brazil.
Passoni has been with Third Point for more than seven years and ran the $14 billion fund’s emerging market investments before leaving earlier this year to start a venture capital firm. Before that, the Brazilian native spent five years at the now-shuttered Eton Park Capital Management. He will be based in Miami.