They are expected to soon raise a second, much larger, fund. That is not true,” he says.
But hopefully it will preserve and be something then,” he says. B Capital declined to comment on its fundraising plans.
I edit the Midas List, Midas List Europe, Cloud 100 list and 30 Under 30 for VC.
Also key: an alliance with Boston Consulting Group providing Saverin’s portfolio companies access to the elite consultancy’s brain trust and its clients. With its first fund nearly fully committed, B Capital will go out to raise a second fund expected to be twice as large, sources tell Forbes. He came back with lawyers and asked for his shares in Facebook. The former Box and Apple executive is joining B Capital in its San Francisco office, giving the firm seven partners. hen Mark Zuckerberg celebrated his IPO by ringing the Nasdaq opening bell from Facebook’s California offices in May 2012, his cofounder Saverin was thousands of miles away and out of mind, save for a securities filing detailing that his 53 million shares were converting to common stock. Across two interviews, Saverin says the company is “incredibly close to my heart” and shares praise for Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg’s leadership. Facebook famously implored its early employees to “move fast and break things.” Fifteen years later, its estranged cofounder offers up a twist on the old motto for 2019: “Make mistakes all the time, but learn from it immediately,” Saverin says. Facebook’s feature Ticker brought the updated of Mark and Eduardo together. All Rights Reserved, This is a BETA experience. I edit the Midas List, Midas List Europe, Cloud 100 list and 30, I'm a senior editor at Forbes covering venture capital, cloud and enterprise software out of New York. The company recently added the ability to let you mute chats forever and now,... Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin Friends Again Courtesy TICKER, Xiaomi Has Sold 10 Million Made-in-India Power Banks, Company Claims, GoPro Hero 9 Black Review: An Impressive Upgrade, Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Special Edition Laptop Launched in India For Rs 1.99 Lakh, Among Us Update Brings Anonymous Voting, Task Bar Modes, WhatsApp’s New Storage Management Tool Makes it Easier to Free Up Space. There's... As far as action cameras go, GoPro is pretty much the biggest name in the game. Saverin tells a different story today. The son of Brazilian parents who relocated to Miami, Saverin was born in São Paulo but grew up affluent in south Florida, attending boarding school there before heading to Harvard, where he made his fateful connection to Zuckerberg while a junior studying economics. “I’m happy to have them learn from me than otherwise through movies.”. His life seemed a cliché: Gossip sheets gushed about his Bentley, a standing table at an elite night club and legendary bar tabs that could reach $50,000. Not B Capital, where 30 employees in California (San Francisco and Los Angeles), New York and Singapore pursued a multinational approach from the start. He never left, he says now, because he fell in love with his wife Elaine, a Singapore local — whom he’d known briefly in his college days when she attended Tufts University —and with the city itself. The company has been making action cameras for... Having unveiled its special edition ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop back in September, Asus on Tuesday launched the new device in India. “It’s the cherry on top of the cake,” says Samir Bodas, CEO of Bellevue, Washington-based Icertis, a contract management software maker that has signed at least three multimillion-dollar deals from connections made by senior partners at BCG. “Being a technology guy, it’s an exciting place.
By 2009, Saverin had moved to Singapore, giving up his U.S. citizenship two years later. But by 2015, Ganguly and Saverin split off with a new idea to build a firm around two points of distinction: as a strong footprint in Southeast Asia, an emerging market with less competition for deals, and as a matchmaker for one of the world’s most prominent consulting firms, Boston Consulting Group. Founders who meet with Saverin and B Capital in 2019 can’t be sure if they’re sitting down with a future Midas List-caliber tech investor or a billionaire dilettante. Now with several high-profile hires joining the firm, including a U.S.-based chairman and a new partner with Apple and Box credentials, Saverin and Ganguly are taking the wraps off their business, which has grown well beyond a billionaire’s hobby. But he rolls with it, all in the name of furthering what he wants the world to know about the Eduardo Saverin of 2019, the cofounder of B Capital, a rapidly expanding venture capital firm that’s on the cusp of taking bigger swings. The only close friend of Mark Zuckerberg before Facebook was Eduardo. "And he sits with the entrepreneur and starts asking about first-time delivery success rates.”. “Today, hopefully he doesn’t become a user at his age, he’s too young. (1) Mark Zuckerberg … But Saverin and Ganguly are optimistic. “People come in expecting him to be a rock star,” says Ganguly. No surprise there. And make sure you don’t make that mistake again.”, Cover photograph by Bryan van der Beek for Forbes, I'm a senior editor at Forbes covering venture capital, cloud and enterprise software out of New York. The matter has now been resolved, Mark and Eduardo are no longer together, but here’s something you should see. He came back with lawyers and asked for his shares in Facebook. But it’s too early to say if Saverin’s second act is a success. “It was nothing related to the news at the time. BCG is a passive investor in B Capital, meaning they only call in the consultants when founders ask. Among Us, the game that has gained immense popularity and possibly broken many friendships over the past couple months, has bagged a new update... WhatsApp has been adding useful features to the app lately. I'm a Fortune Magazine and WNYC alum. But as in his second act as venture capitalist, Saverin is uniquely positioned to guide entrepreneurs through the perils of success. My tech focus would've perplexed my college self, as I studied medieval history and archaeology at Harvard University. Look at B Capital’s portfolio today—it’s made about 20 investments—and you’ll see a pattern of international opportunism. “I’m incredibly proud of what Mark has done, to build an institution of its size and value. Armed with deep knowledge and executive connections, consulting firms have tried their hand at venture capital investing for years. The cofounder of the social media giant is not only one of the world’s youngest billionaires (net worth: $10 billion), but also something of a household name after his portrayal in the 2010 hit movie The Social Network.
That reported $700 million was a speculative “back-of-the-envelope figure,” says his spokesperson.
One example: Ninja Van. Saverin and Ganguly have favored companies involved in commerce and logistics, specifically European, Indian and Asian companies that don’t make it onto Silicon Valley’s radar and where their knowledge of local complexity can help. Of the early days of Box, when she was the eighth employee and ran business development, Page says: “At Box, we would have given our teeth for those connections to BCG.”. Saverin’s stint with the company had ended in 2005, mired in controversy and lawsuits over his reduced stake in the company.
Those ties impressed B Capital’s newest partner, Karen Appleton Page. While cofounder Ganguly oversees more of the day-to-day management, Saverin’s on every investment call and oversees one key aspect of B Capital’s strategy, its investments in Southeast Asia and India. A last-mile logistics provider for delivery services in Southeast Asia, the Singapore-based startup employs 2,000 people and works with 10,000 drivers.
As he speaks via Google Hangout in January, Forbes asks if he’s used a Facebook Portal, the video chat device the company launched in October to some criticism. “Eduardo and the team asked the right questions,” says Lai Chang Wen, CEO of Ninja Van. hen Eduardo Saverin greets entrepreneurs who come to visit him in his eighth-floor offices at the Singapore Land Tower, the 36-year-old knows he’ll get asked the question. He’ll work hard to get things right,” he says. Saverin was already writing smaller checks to startups, but with Ganguly, a former consultant and vice president at Bain Capital, he set out to raise formal funds from outside investors. It’s an expensive, complicated business, but B Capital stepped in to write a check when others balked. After his involvement with Facebook, Saverin dabbled at several startup projects before moving to Singapore for what was supposed to be a short stay to help a friend launch a business. You have entered an incorrect email address! In the years since he secured his once-in-a-lifetime stake—$2 billion at the time of IPO—he’s embraced a new role as venture capitalist at B Capital, the firm he cofounded in 2015.
“They’re able to give us a wider perspective across businesses and geographies.”. He’s always denied moving to Singapore for tax reasons and cringes at his Hollywood alter ego—he’s more comfortable behind a spreadsheet than on the silver screen. Follow me on Twitter at @alexrkonrad and email me at akonrad@forbes.com.