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***For Immediate Release***
Redpoint Ventures Hires Key Operating Executives for its Investment Team
Dr. Nety Krishna joins as CTO and Venture Partner of the Energy, Materials & Environment Practice; Serial Entrepreneur Satish Dharmaraj joins the Software Practice as a Partner
MENLO PARK, CA, – MARCH 24, 2009 – Redpoint Ventures today announced that it has added experienced operating executives to its team. Serial entrepreneur Satish Dharmaraj is joining the firm as a Partner and will focus on investments in software and technology infrastructure for the next-generation enterprise. Dr. Nety Krishna is joining the firm as a Venture Partner and CTO of the Energy, Materials & Environment Practice and will focus on seed and early stage investments in those areas.
“We are excited about adding seasoned operating professionals to our team,” said Tim Haley, Redpoint Founding Partner. “We see tremendous potential within the software and energy sectors, and believe that Satish and Nety will enable Redpoint to identify and capitalize on key market opportunities.”
Dharmaraj was the CEO and founder of groupware innovator Zimbra, acquired by Yahoo!, and was on the founding team of OneBox Systems, acquired by Phone.com.
“This is a great time to invest in software,” said Dharmaraj. “Numerous disruptive forces, including open source, virtualization, the software as a service model, and cloud computing, are driving fundamental change within enterprise IT. These changes will allow many companies to re-target their capital and focus operational expenditures on their core competencies, rather than on IT infrastructure.”
Prior to OneBox, Dharmaraj was with Sun Microsystems’ JavaSoft Division where he was a key driver in the development and establishment of Java Servlets and JSPs as an industry standard. Before Sun, he held several product and engineering positions at IBM and Transarc Corporations. Dharmaraj holds BS and MS degrees in computer science from Madras University and Clemson University, respectively, and an executive management degree from Harvard Business School. He serves on several boards and advisory boards, and has been an angel investor in early stage technology startups. Dharmaraj has worked with Redpoint partners for nearly a decade through his experience with OneBox and Zimbra, which was incubated at Redpoint.
Dr. Krishna joins Redpoint from Applied Materials where he worked in the office of the CTO. In that role, Dr. Krishna was a leader in technology and partnership development within the energy and environment sectors. He played a key role in defining the strategy and initiated advanced technology projects in energy generation, storage, and efficiency. Prior to Applied Materials, Dr. Krishna led research activities in high energy physics at the University of Colorado and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. Dr. Krishna holds an MSc in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur and a PhD in Particle Physics from Rice University.
As CTO for Redpoint’s Energy, Materials & Environment practice, Dr. Krishna will work with entrepreneurs to develop and scale their innovations which have the potential to significantly impact the economics of energy industries over the long term. He will seek out new areas for investments in the broad energy landscape and develop relationships with leading scientists and disruptive thinkers.
“This is the first time a venture capital firm has created a CTO position in energy and materials,” said John Walecka, Redpoint Founding Partner. “It’s a significant role because the technologies needed to scale advanced materials, which are key to new energy and environment breakthroughs, are quite complex; moreover, the manufacturing innovations required to drive down costs and make these breakthroughs commercially viable are very critical.”
Added Dr. Krishna, “Energy and environment issues are becoming mission-critical for a variety of industrial sectors. As a result, there are tremendous opportunities for creative solutions and innovative business models to address these global growth and climate challenges.”
To date, Redpoint has invested in a variety of energy and materials companies, including Advanced Power, Envia Systems, Intermolecular, and Solyndra.
Redpoint also disclosed that Pueo G. Keffer has joined the firm as a vice president and is focused on growth-stage opportunities for the Redpoint Omega Fund. Keffer was previously a Senior Associate with TA Associates. The Omega Fund focuses on investment activity in growth-stage companies and special situations. Omega Fund investments include Answers.com (ANSW), Bigband Networks and the leveraged buyout of Alltel (acquired by Verizon).
About Redpoint Ventures
Redpoint Ventures teams up with exceptional entrepreneurs to help build industry defining technology companies. Redpoint partners have many decades of experience and success in technology investing; combined with this foundation, the firm is able to leverage a thriving network of entrepreneurs, partners, and industry experts to accelerate building market-leading companies. Redpoint’s portfolio includes innovative start-ups like Scribd, LifeSize, Blue Kai, HomeAway, Solyndra, Topspin Media, Gaia, Fortinet, Answers.com, and others. Redpoint partners have also backed industry leading companies such as MySpace, Netflix, Danger, TiVo, Juniper Networks, Foundry Networks, Ask.com, Zimbra, RightMedia, and Documentum. The firm is headquartered in Menlo Park, CA with offices in Los Angeles and Shanghai, China. For more information, visit www.redpoint.com.