SoftBank Group Corp. Latin America Fund managing partners Shu Nyatta and Paulo Passoni looked to depart to start their own venture business focused on late-stage startups in the region, Bloomberg reports.
They expressed their excitement about becoming entrepreneurs acknowledging SoftBank’s role in their careers.
The report noted SoftBank looks to promote the LatAm fund’s third managing partner, Alex Szapiro, who currently holds an operational role, to a more senior position.
SoftBank will also promote Juan Franck, a fund investor in Mexico City.
SoftBank also weighed investing up to $2 billion in the fund.
The departures follow SoftBank COO Marcelo Claure’s exit following clashes with founder Masayoshi Son over compensation and responsibilities.
Claure created and oversaw the LatAm fund, among other duties, and advocated for its spinoff.
Due to Claure’s advocacy, the fund had considerable autonomy, including the partners’ latitude to make their own decisions and compensation structure.
The first LatAm fund was initially slated to invest $2 billion and grew to $5 billion.
The report noted results for the nine months ended December 31, 2021, showed an investment gain of 9 percent, as the Vision Fund and others chalked up substantial losses. Investments in Latin America gained 136.7 billion yen ($1.1 billion), as Vision Fund investments lost 767.7 billion yen.
