Bicycle Capital, a new VC firm established by former SoftBank COO Marcelo Claure, secured $440M in capital commitments towards its inaugural fund. The firm expects to close the fund at $500M. The debut fund will focus on Latin American startups. Claure's family office, Claure Group, and Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund Mubadala are the two anchor investors, each contributing $200M to the fund. - Brazilian billionaire Andre Esteves and NuBank co-founder David Velez have contributed the remaining $40M.
- Bicycle has roped in BTG Pactual, an investment bank founded by Esteves, to help bring in more accredited investors to the fund.
- Claure is joined by former SoftBank international managing partner Mwashuma "Shu" Nyatta, who joins Bicycle in the same role.
- Claure led SoftBank's investment into WeWork, in which he also served as a chairman from late 2019 until early last year.
- He had a noncompete clause with SoftBank which expires on June 14.
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