Pi Day is seemingly New Job day for tech execs and VCs lately.
Leaving: Lee Fixel
It’s not day-after-day that one of many prime VC buyers heads out from their store. TechSwitch’s @cookie aka Connie Loizos has the story:
Lee Fixel, the low-flying head of Tiger Global’s non-public fairness enterprise, is leaving on the finish of June, the agency introduced right now in a letter despatched to shoppers and seen by Reuters . Scott Shleifer and Chase Coleman will proceed as co-managers of the portfolios Fixel has overseen, with Shleifer taking up as its head, in response to the letter.
Fixel, 39, is reportedly planning to speculate his personal cash and “may start an investment firm in the future,” Tiger Global wrote within the letter.
Tiger Global has turn into a serious pressure in late-stage investing. As I wrote final fall, it is usually a part of a small coterie of funding corporations which have pushed their portfolio firms to IPO with affordable velocity (the opposite agency I famous on the time was Benchmark).
One problem for Tiger has been the rise of the SoftBank Vision Fund, which has pushed up valuations for startups and has nearly definitely difficult the return profile of a lot of Tiger’s investments. The two additionally share a penchant for investing internationally, the place Tiger had nearly a monopoly place earlier than the Vision Fund burst on the scene.
Another wrinkle value monitoring is the rising opposition of Indian founders to each Tiger (and particularly Fixel) and SoftBank. As I wrote within the e-newsletter only a few weeks in the past:
There is a transparent lack of belief between India’s startup and enterprise communities, which in the end threatens the sustainability and progress outlook of the nation’s tech sector.
But an answer to the issue just isn’t so reduce and dry. Mega progress funds like SoftBank and Tiger Global have given restricted management to their Indian portfolio firms and have compelled their palms on quite a few events. Yet Ola’s avoidance of SoftBank has led to decrease valuations and harder and lengthier fundraising processes.
Leaving: Chris Cox & Chris Daniels
Facebook’s chief product officer is leaving together with Chris Daniels, the VP of WhatsApp. TechSwitch’s Josh Constine summarized the scenario:
The modifications solidify that Facebook is getting into a brand new period because it chases the development of feed sharing giving solution to non-public communication. Cox and Daniels could really feel they’ve performed their half advancing Facebook’s product, and that the corporate wants renewed vitality because it shifts from a relentless progress focus to holding its customers loyal whereas studying to monetize a brand new from of social networking.
There has been a lot ink spilled right here about what this all means strategically, however I do assume that there aren’t any good instances for distinguished 13-year and 8-year veterans to go away their positions. Zuckerberg appears prepared to start a complete new period for Facebook, and maybe neither wished to make the multi-year dedication that his new imaginative and prescient entails.
That, or Cox unplugged the servers yesterday.
Leaving (America): Jay Jorgensen
A really uncommon transfer from the United States to Korea for a senior exec, from TechSwitch’s Catherine Shu:
Coupang, the unicorn that’s defining e-commerce in Korea, introduced right now that it has employed Jay Jorgensen, Walmart’s former world chief ethics and compliance officer, to function its basic counsel and chief compliance officer. Jorgensen will relocate to Seoul for the place.
Founded in 2010, with a complete of $3.4 billion raised from buyers, together with SoftBank, and a valuation of $9 billion, Coupang at the moment operates solely in Korea, the place it’s the largest e-commerce participant, however has workplaces in Seoul, Beijing, Los Angeles, Mountain View, Seattle and Shanghai.
Coupang has been the outlier success of the Korean startup ecosystem for the previous few years. The firm’s founder, Bom Kim, who holds a bachelor’s and an MBA from Harvard, has labored to use American administration fashions to Coupang, making an attempt to eschew the insular tradition typical of Korea’s know-how firms. Clearly, that imaginative and prescient is drawing worldwide expertise.
Staying: Zachary Kirkhorn
Tesla is getting some monetary assist from itself, from TechSwitch’s Kirsten Korosec:
The automaker formally tapped as its subsequent chief monetary officer Zachary Kirkhorn, a longtime worker who has been a part of the automaker’s finance workforce for 9 years, in response to securities filings posted Thursday. The automaker additionally appointed Vaibhav Taneja, who led the mixing of Tesla and SolarCity’s accounting groups, as its chief accounting officer. Taneja, who will report back to Kirkhorn, will oversee company monetary reporting, world accounting features and personnel.
No telling whether or not Kirkhorn is aware of blow a whistle although….
No Longer Admitted: Bill McGlashan
Sometimes whenever you enterprise to make an funding, it doesn’t all the time pan out, from Maggie Fitzgerald at CNBC:
TPG’s Bill McGlashan was fired from the non-public fairness agency on Thursday amid the large school dishonest scandal.
McGlashan, 55, has been terminated for trigger from his positions with TPG and Rise efficient instantly.
“After reviewing the allegations of personal misconduct in the criminal complaint, we believe the behavior described to be inexcusable and antithetical to the values of our entire organization,” stated a TPG spokesperson.
McGlashan based TPG Growth, which has had a litany of successes investing in later-stage startups resembling Airbnb.
Leaving (however not by selection): Bird staff
Once high-flying and now considerably not as high-flying scooter startup Bird introduced that it was shedding round 40 staff. From TechSwitch’s Megan Rose Dickey:
“As we establish local service centers and deeper roots in cities where we provide service, we have shifting geographic workforce needs,” a Bird spokesperson advised TechSwitch. “We are expanding our employee bases in locations that match our growing operations around the world, while developing an efficient operating structure at our Santa Monica headquarters. The recent events are a reflection of shifting geographical needs and our annual talent review process.”
I hope they flip them the Bird on the best way out.
India fintech and the rising proxy warfare between world tech giants
Photo by anand purohit through Getty Images
Written by Arman Tabatabai
South African media conglomerate and funding large Naspers is reportedly planning to speculate $1 billion in India this 12 months.
According to studies earlier this week, Naspers is wanting in the direction of India’s budding fintech market specifically to unload the recent pile of dough it’s sitting on after just lately reducing its stake in Tencent and cashing out on Walmart’s $16 billion acquisition of portfolio firm Flipkart final 12 months.
The fintech heavy thesis directionally is sensible within the context of Naspers’ broader technique. Naspers has brazenly mentioned its attraction to India’s monetary providers market and the corporate already has a longtime footprint within the area because the proprietor of funds platform PayU.
That stated, the quantity Naspers is reportedly trying to reward in only one 12 months is astounding. Indian fintech startups noticed round $2.6 billion of funding in 2018 in response to Pitchbook. Naspers’ funding alone would signify a 40% spike in India’s whole fintech enterprise capital.
Though one billion dollars in a single 12 months could seem bold, Naspers has confirmed it’s not afraid to pour billions into India and rising verticals, having simply led a $1 billion spherical in Indian meals supply startup Swiggy only some months in the past.
More importantly, Naspers’ push exhibits that the corporate is significantly doubling down within the escalating competitors to turn into the dominant pressure in India’s booming fintech ecosystem. As we mentioned in our current dialog with Billionaire Raj writer James Crabtree, India’s monetary system is ripe for disruption. With secular tailwinds like rising cell penetration and monetary literacy, revolutionary monetary fashions in India have begun leap-frogging conventional establishments, with Google and Boston Consulting Group even forecasting that the marketplace for digital funds in India would attain $500 billion in dimension by 2020.
And many have taken discover — the variety of fintech investments in India has grown at a 200%-plus compound annual progress price over the past 5 years, in response to information from Pitchbook, as main buyers and world tech powerhouses all battle to turn into the layer of monetary infrastructure on which the long run Indian economic system sits.
A current deep dive within the WSJ highlighted how crowded the continued combat for Indian funds dominance has turn into within the context of Paytm, an Indian startup that obtained a $1.4 billion funding from enterprise behemoth SoftBank:
The Indian market is one value preventing for, with a whole lot of thousands and thousands of Indians getting on-line and beginning to transact for the primary time, because of plummeting costs for cell information and smartphones.
Digital funds in India are hovering” and “set to explode,” Credit Suisse stated in a February analysis be aware. They ought to rise practically 5 instances to $1 trillion by 2023, the report stated…
…Meanwhile, it isn’t simply Google and WhatsApp difficult Paytm . Indian e-commerce titan Flipkart, during which Walmart Inc. purchased a controlling stake for $16 billion earlier this 12 months, has a well-liked funds service referred to as PhonePe. Amazon.com Inc. has its personal funds service and two of India’s largest telecom gamers, Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., provide digital wallets, as properly.”
Next to friends like Alibaba, SoftBank, or Google, Naspers can typically appear to be the largest tech firm nobody has ever heard of. But if its newest swan dive into India can assist Naspers strike gold — because it did with its early funding in Tencent — it’d simply turn into the corporate powering the subsequent economies of the world.
Thanks
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This e-newsletter is written with the help of Arman Tabatabai from New York