1. What do you focus on at B Capital? 

I recently joined B Capital to help lead the Portfolio Capital Formation team in Asia. In this role, we’ll be partnering with the management teams of our portfolio companies to help them solve for their capital needs – whether in the form of equity fundraising, debt financing, or other hybrid solutions, and in the context of funding organic and inorganic growth through mergers & acquisitions or joint ventures. 

Portfolio Capital Formation is part of the broader Platform team at B Capital, led by Allen and Arijit, where our core mission is to be the most value-added investor for our portfolio companies.

The role draws on my experience across 14 years in Investment Banking, and more recently at Grab, where I led fundraising for over 2 years and helped raise over $6bn of equity capital.

2. What attracted you to working at B Capital? 

I’ve been tracking the growth of B Capital from the outside for several years, and it is really impressive how Eduardo, Raj, Howard and Kabir have scaled the platform since its founding in 2015. 

With a large and diverse portfolio across the United States and Asia, including India, Southeast Asia and more recently China, and new investments being made frequently across the globe, there are numerous opportunities for the Capital Formation team to add value.  

I was also attracted by the ability to partner with my Capital Formation colleagues in the United States, to better assist our Asia-based portfolio companies in their discussions with North American sources of capital, and helping our U.S. portfolio companies do the same with capital from Asia. I strongly believe that such a global approach will drive better outcomes for our portfolio companies and superior returns for our investors.

3. If you weren’t in this career, what would you be doing? 

I’ve been keen on working in Finance from the get go. In many respects, I feel like I am already living my dreams. But if I weren’t specifically helping lead B Capital’s Portfolio Capital Formation team, I would most likely be helping another start-up to become  “the Next Grab”. I really enjoy working in high growth environments – it is very invigorating to see the direct impact of one’s actions. 

I’m also keen to continue building on my private investment experience, and I look forward to working with and learning from the B Capital Investment team as our portfolio companies raise future rounds of capital, which we would seek to continue to support.

4. If you were to become an investor in one of B Capital’s sector or sub-sector targets, which would you choose and why? 

I believe that all of B Capital’s target sectors hold significant promise for outsized returns, and the challenge is in backing the winners – fortunately, the team appears to have done a great job doing so! 

From a personal perspective, FinTech interests me as its large with many opportunities for significant innovation. I was able to witness the exciting development of the Grab Financial Group – growing from an on-platform payment service allowing users to pay for Grab rides to becoming the leading digital wallet in many Southeast Asian markets, bundled with financial services such as pay later and microinsurance – and see similar potential across many other sub-segments of FinTech in Asia. 

5. What’s something many people may not know about you? 

I love traveling for leisure, though having three school-aged sons and the COVID pandemic has clearly impacted that activity. I particularly like to travel to destinations which combine my other interests – football (soccer), skiing, food and wine. A recent-ish highlight was attending the 2017 Europa League final in Stockholm – a beautiful city, in the right season, and with a great football result! Feel free to let me know if you have spare tickets for Qatar 2022!

Connect with John on LinkedIn!