SoftBank Vision Fund has single-handedly changed the game when it comes to tech startup investment. And that’s why I’m excited to announce that SoftBank Vision Fund partner David Thevenon is joining us at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin.
Thevenon spent most of his career working for Google on international and strategic partnerships, especially in Latin America, Asia, Europe and Middle-East. He ended up heading the business development teams working on Android partnerships globally.
While his career as an investor is still relatively recent, he’s currently a board member for DiDi, Grab and Kabbage. As a reminder, SoftBank’s Vision Fund invested $5 billion in DiDi — it’s not every day that you get to cut such a big check.
So Thevenon has become a sort of expert in ride-hailing and mobile transportation platforms. It’s going to be interesting to hear what he thinks about the concept of ‘super apps’ that Grab pioneered for instance. Can you transform ride-hailing apps into apps that you open every day to make payments, get insurance products and loans?
More generally, given the size of SoftBank’s Vision Fund ($100 billion), it has had a huge impact on the growth trajectory of some companies. I’m personally curious to know SoftBank’s approach as board members, whether they get involved in the strategy of those companies or let the executive teams make decisions on their own.
Buy your ticket to Disrupt Berlin to listen to this discussion and many others. The conference will take place on December 11-12.
In addition to panels and fireside chats, like this one, new startups will participate in the Startup Battlefield to win the highly coveted Battlefield cup.
Before joining SoftBank in 2014, David had a 10-year tenure at Google, where he last led global partnerships for the Android platform and was in charge of product related partnerships and business development activities across Asia, Europe, Middle-East, Africa and Latin America.
Prior to Google, David was leading strategic partnerships at T-Mobile International, and worked as a finance executive at Dell, ICL-Fujitsu and Elf-Atochem. David received a Master in Management from ESCEM.
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