BALDERTON-CAPITAL
7.2.2020 13:03:07 CET | Business Wire | Press release
Balderton Capital announces today that it has hired two new General Partners. Rana Yared joins from Goldman Sachs, where she was Partner in the Principal Strategic Investments team. David Thévenon joins from SoftBank’s Vision Fund, where he was one of the initial Partners.
Bernard Liautaud, Managing Partner of Balderton Capital, said: "I am delighted to welcome Rana and David to the partnership. They both bring outstanding experience in investing globally in the technology ecosystem. With her team at Goldman Sachs, Rana has built one of the best fintech and AI portfolios across the US and Europe. And within Softbank, David has participated in the growth journeys of companies as diverse as Didi in China, Grab in Singapore, Lemonade and SoFi in the US. The opportunity in the European tech ecosystem continues to expand at a rapid pace, and Rana and David will play a key role in our investment strategy in the European venture space."
During her time at Goldman Sachs, Rana’s team invested $2bn in 80 companies, with a strong focus on fintech. As one of Goldman’s best-known tech investors, Rana led the US and European Principal Strategic Investment (PSI) teams and served on Goldman’s Growth Equity Investment committee. She spent five years on the board of the fixed income trading platform Tradeweb, until it went public in April 2019 with a market capitalisation of $6bn. Rana also brought the artificial intelligence platform Kensho to Goldman Sachs. Kensho was ultimately sold to S&P Global for $550m in March 2018.
Rana currently sits on the boards of Nutmeg, Vestwell, NAV, Pensando, Digital Reasoning, Veem, and NYSHEX. She joined Goldman Sachs as an analyst in 2006 and was named Managing Director in 2013 and Partner in 2018.
Rana Yared said: “My greatest passion is working closely with founders and their teams to build new companies, and I am delighted to be able to devote myself to this when I join Balderton. In recent years, Europe has established itself as a tech leader and is brimming with potential and opportunity. I am excited to move back to the European side of the Atlantic and to begin seeking out and working with the next generation of exciting tech companies.”
During his five-year tenure at SoftBank, David led investments in Didi Chuxing, the world's leading mobile transportation platform; Grab, Southeast Asia's leading superapp; Ola, India's leading ride-sharing platform; Lemonade, the digital insurance company powered by AI and driven by social good; SoFi, the American online personal finance platform; and Kabbage, one of the leading US SMB lending platforms. David was also involved in SoftBank's investments in 99 in Brazil (bought by Didi) and Legendary Pictures in the US (sold to Wanda Group).
Before joining SoftBank, David had a 10-year career at Google, where he worked on partnerships for products that touched billions of users, including leading global product and business partnerships for Google's Android platform.
David Thévenon said: “Five years ago I left Google to focus on venture investing at SoftBank and I felt privileged to meet, invest and work with some of the most innovative and visionary founders, supporting them as they grew into market-leading companies. Joining Balderton will allow me to continue this for European-founded companies, and I am truly excited about the opportunity ahead.”
[ENDS]
About Balderton:
Balderton Capital is a London-based venture firm focused exclusively on backing the best European-founded technology companies. In the two decades since our founding, we have worked with hundreds of extraordinary European founders, and have raised eight funds totalling more than $3bn. Balderton’s most recent funds were the early-stage Balderton VII, raised in November 2019, and Liquidity I, Europe’s first venture fund dedicated to secondary investments in European-founded, growth-stage technology startups, raised in October 2018. Previous exited investments include Betfair (FTSE: BET), Magic Pony (Twitter), NaturalMotion (Zynga), Recorded Future (Insight Partners), Sunrise (Microsoft), Talend (NASDAQ: TLND) and Yoox Net-a-Porter (BIT: YNAP). Among Balderton’s current portfolio of over 90 companies are Aircall, Carwow, Citymapper, Contentful, Darktrace, Depop, GoCardless, The Hut Group, Kobalt Music, Nutmeg, Peakon, Prodigy Finance, Revolut, SOPHiA Genetics, Tessian, Vestiaire Collective, Vivino, Voi Technology, and Zego.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200207005243/en/
About Business Wire
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Hitachi Announces Strategic Partnership With Anthropic to Strengthen "Lumada 3.0" Through Frontier AI19.5.2026 02:00:00 CEST | Press release
Combining Hitachi’s 110+ years of domain expertise with frontier AI will advance safe real-world deployment of physical AI and strengthen customer AI transformation Deploying advanced AI across all business processes for approximately 290,000 employees to enhance productivity at scale Developing 100,000 AI professional talent and co-creating new HMAX solutions leveraging proven outcomes from Hitachi’s “Customer Zero” approach Establishing the “Frontier AI Deployment Center,” a global organization spanning North America, Europe, and Asia with an initial team of 100 experts Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501, "Hitachi") today announced a strategic partnership with Anthropic PBC (“Anthropic”), a global leader in AI safety research and trusted AI models, to further strengthen the “Lumada 3.0” business model. As artificial intelligence evolves beyond cyberspace to directly influence real-world systems—otherwise known as physical AI—demand is rapidly growing for the safe and seamless deployment of AI i
Moore Nanotechnology Systems (Nanotech) Will Be Acquired by Shibaura Machine Group to Form a New Ultra-Precision Machine Tool Organization18.5.2026 21:36:00 CEST | Press release
MOORE NANOTECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS (“Nanotech”), today announced that it is being acquired by an affiliate of SHIBAURA MACHINE CO., LTD., an industrial machine-tool manufacturer headquartered in Japan. Founded nearly 30 years ago by Len Chaloux and Newman Marsilius III as a standalone subsidiary of the Moore Tool Company, Inc., Nanotech has become a global leader in the design, development and manufacture of state-of-the-art ultra-precision machine tools and associated processes for the production of advanced optical and reflective components. “As the world’s markets continue to develop, finding the right strategic partnerships is essential,” said Mark Boomgarden, President and CEO of Nanotech. “Partnering with Shibaura allows us to combine the true competencies of both organizations under one management team - affording both companies the ability to scale resources and invest on a global stage like never before.” Co-owner Newman Marsilius IV shared, “Moore Nanotechnology Systems grew to a p
First Guests Arrive at Four Seasons Resort and Residences Red Sea at Shura Island from 20 May, as Red Sea Global Launches First JV Resort18.5.2026 20:06:00 CEST | Press release
RSG and Kingdom Holding Company bring first joint venture-developed resort at The Red Sea to market Red Sea Global (RSG), the regenerative tourism developer, has reached a major milestone as Four Seasons Resort and Residences Red Sea at Shura Island welcomes first guests from 20 May, marking the first joint venture-developed resort within its portfolio to enter the market. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260518349628/en/ An aerial view of Four Seasons Resort and Residences at Shura Island, set along the shoreline with clear views of the Red Sea. Developed in partnership with Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), the launch represents a shared milestone for both organizations and marks a new phase in RSG’s development model, highlighting the growing role of institutional and private sector partnerships in scaling Saudi Arabia’s luxury tourism sector. “With Four Seasons preparing to welcome guests, we are significantly
Belkin Advances Towards Carbon Neutrality in Scope 3 Emissions18.5.2026 18:10:00 CEST | Press release
The company’s 2025 Impact Report highlights its continued progress in emissions reduction, circular design, and responsible packaging Belkin, a leading consumer electronics brand for 40 years, published its 2025 Impact Report, highlighting key achievements and reaffirming its commitment to corporate responsibility. Having achieved carbon neutrality in scope 1 and scope 2 emissions in 2025, the company continues to advance toward scope 3 carbon neutrality through enhanced life cycle assessment capabilities and improved supplier and logistics data collection. In 2025, Belkin calculated 131 product carbon footprints across its portfolio, surpassed 21.6 million PCR products sold, and has achieved a 95% reduction in single-use plastic packaging since 2019, reflecting continued progress in carbon reduction and responsible product design. “As we continue to make progress against our sustainability goals, we are taking deliberate steps to reduce our impact,” said Steven Malony, CEO of Belkin.
Infobip Named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Communications Platform as a Service18.5.2026 16:25:00 CEST | Press release
Recognized for Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute Infobip is excited to share that global AI-first cloud communications platform Infobip has been recognized as a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Communications Platform as a Service. Check back for a complimentary copy of the full report soon! In Infobip’s view, this recognition reflects what the company has spent 20 years building: a communications platform that stays focused on what customers actually need and evolves as markets change. Infobip believes that recognition in a fast-moving market comes not from chasing trends, but from disciplined execution and a clear long-term vision. As Infobip marks its 20th year of operations, the company thinks the shift to agentic AI represents the most significant transformation in customer communications in our history. Infobip believes enterprises need a partner that empowers them to move from campaigns and rigid workflows to autonomous, goal-driven interactions, while r
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom