Who Is Divya Nettimi? First Women To Launch Billion Dollar Hedge Fund

Divya Nettimi worked as a Portfolio Manager at America based global investment company Viking Global and contributed majorly towards managing $4 billion at the company. She left the company in 2021 and recently launched her own hedge fund which became the largest hedge fund to be launched by a woman.

On October 3, Nettimi made history as the first women-led firm to launch a hedge fund with more than $1 billion commitment. Her firm, Avala Global, has already started investing cash and will reportedly release the rest by the first quarter. The firm will back private companies while betting on and against the stocks in business services and technology, consumer, media and telecom sectors. These $1 billion investments does not include contribution of Viking clients as the anti-competition agreements prevents her from seeking support from them until November.

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Divya Nettimi's Avala Global

Avala Global is launched at a time when the equity market is facing a sharp decline which has made fundraising very difficult. Even the most prolific stock pickers focused on technology sector are going through the worst year till date. The largest hedge fund launched in 2022 was Braidwell with was started in April with $3.5 billion. Considering the condition of the market, Divya Nettimi's billion dollar launch is seen as a remarkable step.

In an industry dominated by men, Divya Nettimi and Avala Global stands as the first women-led billion dollar hedge fund. In 2023, another investor, Mala Gaonkar, is expected to debut another woman-led billion dollar hedge fund. The 52-years-old's firm SurgoCap Partners is expected to launch with at least $1 billion investment. The last time the industry saw a woman leading a billion dollar hedge fund was when Leda Brega took the command of Systematica Investments in 2015.

Divya Nettimi completed her high school in 2004 from Thomas Jefferson High School For Science And Technology, Virginia. She is a 2008 Bio-mechanical Engineering graduate from Stanford University and landed a job as an associate at Goldman Sachs Investment Partners. She worked for 4 years for the firm and left her job to go to Harvard Business School in 2012 to acquire an MBA degree. Post her MBA, she joined Viking Global Investors as Portfolio Manager and worked there from 2014 to 2021. She became a volunteer of Young Leadership Board Member and Mentor in 2010 and is still associated with the program.