Washington: A leading Indian-American global venture capitalist has hosted a virtual fundraiser for Joe Biden, who is the presumptive presidential nominee of the opposition Democratic Party. Deven Parekh, who is the managing director of Insight Partners, was joined by Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, Blair Effron, founder of Centerview Partners, and former ambassador Jane Hartley, in hosting the high-profile fundraiser for Biden for some top 25 Wall Street donors.
With the two key endorsements, decks are now clear for a direct contest between Biden, 77 and the 73-year-old incumbent President Donald Trump, who is seeking re-election in the November 2020 presidential polls. In his brief five minutes of remarks, Biden focused on how unprepared President Trump was to handle the health and economic consequences brought forth by the coronavirus pandemic.
Acknowledging the “anxious times” the country is living in, especially New Yorkers, Biden told donors he appreciates how they’ve stuck with him throughout the pandemic by donating to his campaign and rallied them to continue to do so for the next several months.
'We have less than six months to Election Day. Who’s counting as the old saying goes,” Biden jokes. “Trump has been raising money since the day he got elected in 2016.” Biden then mentioned, as he often does, how the 2020 election has become the most important election in their lifetime, not because he’s running, but because the country’s character and standing in the world is on the ballot.
He then began to criticise Trump's leadership throughout the pandemic, referencing how if Trump took Covid-19 seriously, less Americans would have died. Over 5 million people worldwide have been confirmed infected by the virus, and about 330,000 deaths have been recorded. The US is the worst affected country with more than 93,000 deaths and over 1.61 million infections, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.
'If you saw the Columbia study, had the president started one week earlier, there may have been 36,000 fewer deaths. This is absolute, absolute malpractice,” he said. Referencing the spiraling economy that could reach Great Depression era levels, Biden acknowledged how the virus was “the match that lit the fire,” but that its consequences were exacerbated because Trump “undermined the core pillars of our economic strength” the last three years.
Parekh was a major fundraiser for the former president Barack Obama, during whose administration he served as a board of directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. Parekh has held a number of roles at Berenson Minella & Company between 1992 and 2000, including Principal and Vice President. Previously, from 1991 to 1992, he was a financial analyst for the Blackstone Group.
As a managing director at Insight Partners, Parekh manages investments in application software, data, and consumer internet businesses globally. He has actively worked with investments in Europe, Israel, China, India, Latin America, and Russia. In India among others he has invested in BharatPe.
