Miguel Armaza is joined by the one and only, Marcelo Claure, CEO of SoftBank Group International, and all-around fascinating business leader and entrepreneur.
Born and raised in La Paz, Bolivia, Marcelo immigrated to the US for college and later founded Brightstar, a company he built into a global category leader and also became the largest Hispanic-owned business in US history.
Most recently, Marcelo, alongside Softbank Chairman & CEO Masayoshi Son, oversees the strategic direction of Softbank along with a vast portfolio of operating companies and investments, including SoftBank’s $5B dollar Latin America Fund.
As a fellow Bolivian, Miguel Armaza has been a longtime admirer of Marcelo so this was a particularly exciting interview where they discussed:
- Marcelo’s background from entrepreneur to global business and fintech leader
- Challenges of building a company without much access to funding
- The story behind building the Softbank Latin America fund and why there’s no doubt this is the golden era of entrepreneurship in the region
- His take on the state of the fintech industry and why several of their portfolio companies have a strong fintech component
- The importance of backing diverse and minority entrepreneurs and what Marcelo and the Softbank team are doing about it
- Valuable entrepreneurial advice for founders
- And a lot more valuable information!
About SoftBank Group
The SoftBank Group invests in breakthrough technology to improve the quality of life for people around the world. The SoftBank Group is comprised of SoftBank Group Corp. (TOKYO: 9984), an investment holding company that includes stakes in telecommunications, internet services, AI, smart robotics, IoT and clean energy technology providers; the SoftBank Vision Funds, which are investing up to US$100 billion to help extraordinary entrepreneurs transform industries and shape new ones; the SoftBank Latin America Fund, the largest venture fund in that region, and the SB Opportunity Fund, a US$100 million fund dedicated to investing in enterprises founded by entrepreneurs of color in the U.S.
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Wharton FinTech Podcast