Tiger Private Equity Head to Exit in June

Lee Fixel

Lee Fixel, a partner and head of Tiger Global Management’s $13 billion private equity business, is leaving at the end of June.

In a letter sent to clients and employees, the firm said he will “actively invest his own capital” and may go on to start his own investment company in the future. “While we will miss seeing him in the office on a day-to-day basis, we look forward to collaborating closely with him in the years to come,” it read.

Fixel, who rose from analyst to partner, is known for being an under-the-radar professional who garnered respect for his early venture capital bets on tech companies, such as Indian e-commerce business Flipkart and Swedish digital music platform Spotify. Flipkart sold a majority stake last year to Walmart for $16 billion, which gave Tiger a lion’s share of about $3 billion. Spotify went public in 2018, and commands a $25.8 billion market cap—roughly $2 billion of which belongs to the firm.

Fixel currently sits on Flipkart’s board as well as those of at-home fitness business Peloton and glasses maker Warby Parker, which are also in Tiger’s portfolio.

The quiet capitalist co-managed Tiger’s private strategies with firm founder and partner Charles P. “Chase” Coleman III and division founder and partner Scott Shleifer, will still manage some existing companies in the portfolio and also keep serving on several boards. Tiger Global credited Fixel, who spent 13 years at the firm, as “a driving force” in its domestic and Indian private equity moves.

Shleifer will become the division’s new leader and still co-manage its portfolio with Coleman when Fixel exits on June 30.

Tiger Global has $26 billion in assets under management including hedge funds, the private equity fund, and long-only equity funds. The firm, founded in 2001, is an offshoot, or “cub,” of Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management hedge fund.

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Tags: Flipkart, Hedge Funds, Lee Fixel, Private Equity, Spotify, Tiger Global Management, Tiger Management