Lydia Jett (born 1980) is an American

venture capitalist Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in terms of number ...

and former executive at

SoftBank Vision Fund The SoftBank Vision Fund is a venture capital fund founded in 2017. It is managed by SoftBank Investment Advisers, a subsidiary of the SoftBank Group. With over $100 billion in capital, it is the world's largest technology-focused investment ...

. Ms. Jett is an independent board member at Walmart-owned Flipkart, Fanatics, Veho and Vimeo (Nasdaq: VMEO). Jett has also held executive positions at

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

, J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc. and

M/C Partners M/C Partners is a private equity firm focused on growth equity investments in emerging companies in the media and communications industries. M/C invests in early, mid, and late stage companies as well as turnarounds and buyouts in its sectors o ...

Career

In 2015, Jett joined

SoftBank Group is a Japanese multinational investment holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, that focuses on investment management. The group primarily invests in companies operating in technology that offer goods and services to customers in a m ...

to launch their growth equity efforts. In 2017, Jett was a founding member of the Softbank Vision Fund, where she became Managing Partner and Head of the Consumer Internet Sector. Jett was the first woman named to Investing Managing Partner, and Investing Partner at Softbank Vision Fund. Jett led investments in and represented Softbank on the Board of Directors of the firm’s global eCommerce investments including:

Coupang Coupang, Inc. () is a US-based technology company headquartered in Seattle, Seattle, Washington and incorporated under the Delaware General Corporation Law. Founded in 2010 by Bom Kim, the company operates a retail business, food delivery se ...

Fanatics Fanaticism is a belief or behavior involving uncritical zeal or an obsessive enthusiasm. The political theorist Zachary R. Goldsmith provides a "cluster account" of the concept of fanaticism, identifying ten main attributes that, in various comb ...

Flipkart Flipkart Inc. is an Indian e-commerce company, headquartered in Bangalore, and incorporated in Singapore as a private limited company. The company initially focused on online book sales before expanding into other product categories such as con ...

, GoTo, and Klook, collectively the top returning portfolio for Softbank Vision Fund I. Additionally, Jett and her team led investments into and represented SBIA on the Board of Directors several companies including:

Andela Andela is a private marketplace for technical talent. Andela focuses on sustainable careers, connecting technologists with long-term engagements, access to international roles, and competitive compensation. Andela allows companies to access tech ...

, Embark, Klook, LTK,

Pacaso Pacaso is a privately held American real estate company based in San Francisco, California. Founded in 2020 by former Zillow executives Austin Allison and Spencer Rascoff, the company facilitates co-ownership of single-family homes by purchasin ...

, Weee!,

Bytedance ByteDance Ltd. is a Chinese internet technology company headquartered in Haidian, Beijing, and incorporated in the Cayman Islands. Founded by Zhang Yiming, Liang Rubo, and a team of others in 2012, ByteDance developed the video-sharing ap ...

, ezCater, Aleo, and Quantstamp amongst other investments. Bloomberg reported Jett was departing Softbank in 2024. Prior to launching SBIA, Jett was a senior member of the investment team at Softbank Group Corporation International (SBGI) where she helped lead SBGI’s Series D investments in

Guardant Health Guardant Health, Inc. is an American biotechnology company based in Palo Alto, California. Co-founders Helmy Eltoukhy and AmirAli Talasaz serve as co-chief executive officers. History The American biotechnology company Guardant Health, which p ...

10x Genomics 10x Genomics, Inc. is an American biotechnology company that designs and manufactures gene sequencing technology used in scientific research. It was founded in 2012 by Serge Saxonov, Ben Hindson, and Kevin Ness. History 10x Genomics was found ...

and Series A investment into Fetch Robotics (sold to

Zebra Zebras (, ) (subgenus ''Hippotigris'') are African equines with distinctive black-and-white striped coats. There are three living species: Grévy's zebra (''Equus grevyi''), the plains zebra (''E. quagga''), and the mountain zebra (''E. ...

). Jett served as an Independent Board Member on the Board of Directors of Coupang (NYSE: CPNG), Fanatics, Flipkart, Ozon (Nasdaq: OZON), Veho and Vimeo (Nasdaq: VMEO). Jett has been recognized by

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

as “generating one of the largest cash generating returns ever for a start-up investor, published work in

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is an American business magazine published monthly in print and online, focusing on technology, business, and design. It releases six print issues annually. History ''Fast Company'' was founded in November 1995 by Alan Webb ...

, been recognized as one of Fortune’s “Most Powerful Women. Previously, Jett worked as an investment banking analyst at JPMorgan in New York, before working at Goldman Sachs in the Principal Investment Area and M/C Partners.

References

Living people 1980 births Businesspeople from Portland, Oregon 21st-century American businesswomen 21st-century American businesspeople Goldman Sachs people Smith College alumni Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni Alumni of the London School of Economics Venture capitalists {{Authority control