On October 3, Divya Nettimi started her day with over $1 billion in pledges, making it the biggest launch of a woman-led company in the history of the sector and one of the biggest to debut in 2022.
According to the individuals familiar with the situation, who asked to remain anonymous since the fund’s launch had not yet been made public, Avala Global has begun investing the majority of the funds, with the remainder anticipated to arrive early in the first quarter. The New York-based company’s spokesperson declined to comment.
Who is Divya Nettimi?
In addition to earning an MBA from Harvard Business School in 2014, Nettimi studied biomechanical engineering at Stanford University from 2004 to 2008 and co-managed the Alpha Fund while a student there.
She has four years of experience as a Goldman Sachs associate, concentrating on the bank’s internal hedge fund. She also spent seven years as a portfolio manager with Ole Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global Investors, where she continued to work until 2021.
The 36-year-old was recognized in 2016 as one of Forbes’ “30 Under 30 – Finance” list’s “influencers of billions of dollars of stock investments at a $30 billion hedge fund company, focusing on the e-commerce and retail sectors.” When she left Viking Global in 2017, she was mentioned in another Forbes piece about the encouraging wave of female hedge fund owners.
More on Avala Global
According to the people, Nettimi, a portfolio manager who managed more than $4 billion at Viking Global Investors under Andreas Halvorsen before leaving last year, will make bets on and against stocks in the consumer, business services, technology, media, and telecom sectors while also backing private companies. Due to anti-competition agreements prohibiting her from seeking Viking clients until next month, November, the money received thus far does not include investments from them.
A sharp decline in equities markets has made fundraising more difficult, and some of the industry’s most prolific tech-focused stock pickers have had their worst year on record. In this situation, the portfolio manager’s ability to drive is outstanding.
The introduction of Avala Global coincides with a significant downturn in the share market, which has made financing extremely challenging. The worst year to date has been experienced by even the most successful stock pickers who have their attention on the technology sector.
With a $3.5 billion initial investment, Bradwell was the biggest hedge fund to debut in 2022. Given the state of the market, Divya Nettimi‘s billion-dollar debut is a noteworthy accomplishment.
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