MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Foundation Capital today announced that veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneur and venture capitalist Harsh Patel has joined the firm as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR). Patel comes to Foundation Capital with strong experience in the technology startup world, having served as an engineer, founder, operator and investor throughout his career.
Prior to joining Foundation Capital, Patel served as President of Bina Technologies, a data analytics company pioneering a new approach in genomics – a key enabler for personalized medicine. Before that, Patel was a partner with New York-based RRE Ventures and In-Q-Tel, the venture capital arm of the CIA. As a VC he led a number of early-stage investments, most notably Palantir Technologies, Tendril and Flipswap (now ERecyclingCorps). He has also been an active angel investor and advisor to a number of seed-stage companies including Badgeville, SnappyTV, Bunndle and GrubWithUs. Earlier in his career he was Co-Founder and CTO of a SaaS platform for small business eCommerce and led R&D efforts building enterprise systems for Fortune 500 companies.
“I’ve always been drawn to my entrepreneurial roots and have looked for opportunities to get deeply involved with companies at the early stage,” said Patel. “With the vast operational experience of its partners and their strong track record, Foundation Capital is the ideal place to anchor for the near future. It’s a rare chance to have an investing role while also getting back on the other side of the table.”
Patel is exploring several areas of interest that resonate from his past experience. One key focus is the application of large-scale data solutions to business problems affecting major markets – healthcare, financial services, government and education. Another is the impact of mobility and M2M communications in re-imagining core consumer and business services. In his role as an EIR Patel will help the firm evaluate new opportunities in these themes and others.
“The Foundation EIR program is designed to identify people who can offer a unique perspective to the partnership to make it stronger, and Harsh fits the criteria many times over,” said Steve Vassallo, general partner at Foundation Capital. “He has the rare ability to think both as an investor and entrepreneur. His versatility and impressive background will make him a tremendous asset to Foundation Capital.”
About Foundation Capital
At Foundation Capital, we’re dedicated to the proposition that one entrepreneur's idea, with the right support, can become a business that changes the world. We helped Atheros create the mobile Internet, EnerNOC invent the energy demand response market, and Netflix revolutionize media distribution and consumption, among many others. We're currently invested in more than 80 high-growth ventures in the areas of consumer, information technology, software, semiconductors, and clean technology including BoardVantage, Chegg, Coverity, Lending Club, MobileIron, Simply Hired, Sunrun, TubeMogul and Venafi. Foundation Capital’s eighteen initial public offerings include Envestnet, Financial Engines, Netflix, NetZero, Responsys and Silver Spring Networks. For more information, please visit www.foundationcapital.com.
