We are a venture capital firm formed by entrepreneurs dedicated to helping other entrepreneurs build category leading companies.

 
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We are all entrepreneurs who have started successful companies to change the world for the better—in one case from zero to over a billion in revenues in less than a decade. We have a true long term view—our fund is an independent evergreen fund, with no end of fund life date, thereby avoiding many of the conflicts typical in the venture industry. Finally, we strive to have a life-long relationship with all our entrepreneurs.  

 
 

FOCUS

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First and foremost, our primary goal is to help entrepreneurs achieve their goals in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. While we can invest at any stage, from early to expansion to late stage growth, we’d prefer to get to know you and your vision—and how we can help—early. We can invest as little as one million dollars to as much as ten million in a single company, and in certain situations, as much as 25 million. Currently, we are interested in software companies that can apply innovations in Big Data, IoT and Security technology, as well as tech enabled sustainable infrastructure companies, that can drive meaningful disruptions in energy and infrastructure sustainability, and establish clear category dominance and leadership.

 
 

TEAM

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Dan Ahn

Dan founded Clearvision Ventures to help entrepreneurs succeed in changing the world. His current areas of interest are software for IoT, Big Data, and Security. While interested in getting to know entrepreneurs at any stage, he'd prefer to get to know them early on in their journey to category leadership. During his venture career, he’s had the privilege of working with many successful entrepreneurs, sometimes as the founding VC. When you talk to Dan, he’ll extol their successes to you. Prior to Clearvision, he was a Managing Director at Voyager Capital, where he led the firm's Silicon Valley investment activity, and investments in Autogrid, ChargePoint, ClearCare, and Wise.io—all in the very first venture round. Prior to Voyager, Dan was a Managing Director at Woodside Fund, where invested in or was the founding VC in numerous successful companies, including Analogix and BDA, all in the IT space. Prior to Woodside, Dan was an entrepreneur, having co-founded and been the President of EndPoint Technologies, which was later successfully acquired by Applied Materials. In his spare time, he enjoys moonlighting from Silicon Valley by playing the violin in the Symphony Parnassus in San Francisco, and spending time with his family. Dan has an AB from Harvard College and MBA from Harvard Business School.

 

 

Sydney Chiu

Sydney is involved in all aspects of the firm’s research, investing and portfolio support activities.  Prior to joining Clearvision Ventures, Sydney was at Apple in Cupertino, working to bridge supply chain shortages as well as plan cost and operations strategy across both sustaining and future products.  Prior to Apple, Sydney was an analyst at Deutsche Bank’s Industrials investment banking group in NYC, covering companies across sectors such as industrial tech, diversified conglomerates, and transportation. 

Sydney has a BSBA in Finance from Washington University in St. Louis. In her free time, Sydney enjoys scuba diving, playing music, and finding ways to practice sustainability on a regular basis.

 

 

Thomas Englis

Thomas enjoys learning about new technologies and meeting entrepreneurs.  He is involved in all investment-related activities at the firm, which includes generating and refining market theses, conducting research and due diligence, and portfolio company management. Prior to joining Clearvision Ventures, Thomas was with GE Ventures, where he worked with AI/ML, IoT and Cybersecurity related companies, across new opportunity sourcing, research, investments and portfolio management. 

Thomas graduated with a BA in Economics and Mandarin Chinese from Vanderbilt University.

 

 

Ashish Gupta

Ashish is a distinguished entrepreneur, investor, and technologist who enjoys helping entrepreneurs succeed. He is involved with Clearvision Ventures on all aspects of its business. He has co-founded two successful technology companies—Tavant Technologies and Junglee (acquired by Amazon). In addition, Ashish was the founder and managing partner of Helion Ventures, and previously worked at Woodside Fund, Amazon, Oracle, and IBM Research. Some of his past investments include Daksh (acquired by IBM), Flipkart (acquired by Walmart), InfoEdge (acquired by Naukri.com), MakeMyTrip (IPO), MuSigma, PubMatic (IPO), Upwork, Redbus (acquired by MIH), and Azure Power (IPO). 

Ashish holds a PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University, and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, where he graduated #1 in his class and was awarded the President’s Gold Medal. He has authored several patents, publications, and a book on data warehousing and processing published by The MIT Press.

 

 

Shomit Ghose

Shomit is a distinguished operator, investor, board member and entrepreneur. At Clearvision, he is involved in all aspects of the firm’s activities. Prior to Clearvision, Shomit was a General Partner at Onset Ventures for two decades, leading investments, serving on boards and taking interim operating roles. Some of his notable investments include Fluoguide, Adara, and Pancetera. Prior to his venture career, he was a startup software entrepreneur and operating executive. Shomit had the opportunity to work at three different startups through their IPO: as the SVP of Operations and co-founder at Tumbleweed Communications, VP of Worldwide Services at BroadVision, and software engineer at Sun Microsystems. He was also the CEO and board member of Truviso, for two years, leading to its acquisition by Cisco Systems. In his private life he has been committed to coaching various girls’ sports teams.

At the age of 15, Shomit was awarded two academic scholarships to the University of California, Berkeley, and graduated with a degree in Computer Science. He serves on the advisory boards of UC Berkeley College of Engineering’s Sutardja Center, Innovation Center Denmark’s ScaleIT program, and the Lundbeck Foundation Clinical Research Fellowship Program.

 

 

Vicki Titus

Vicki oversees the finance, accounting, reporting and administrative affairs of the firm. She has over 25 years of accounting, finance, and operations experience serving a wide variety of companies of various sizes and stages of development across multiple industries. She has served as a Finance Executive for more than several technology companies during her career, including approximately 17 years in consulting. She has also been the controller or CFO of several venture capital funds. Vicki has also worked with startups in the planning and assisted with several acquisitions. When not at work, Vicki spends time coaching softball and serving on various athletic boards. She currently volunteers accounting services for One Heart Health. Her favorite pastime is traveling with family and friends. She has a BS in Accounting from Santa Clara University.

 

 

Felix Zhang

Felix is involved in all aspects of Clearvision Ventures, including new investments and ecosystem management. He runs the international businesses of Envision Group, having co-formed the company from an idea in London to a leader in the renewable energy and technology space. He was the largest investor in Sonnen (acquired by Shell), and has developed and deployed tens of gigawatts of wind energy. He’s lived, worked and is at home in North America, Europe and Asia. His experiences prior to Clearvision and to forming Envision Group include operating experience, investment banking at Morgan Stanley, capital markets at CIBC and investing as a partner at a hedge fund. He is passionate about technology start-ups, having also invested in over twenty as an angel investor. When not investing in and helping start-up companies, he enjoys traveling and spending time with his family. Felix has an undergraduate degree in applied mathematics and sciences from the University of Wisconsin, masters degrees from University of St. Thomas and London Business School, and attended management programs at Harvard Business School and Stanford GSB.

 

 

Taher Elgamal

Taher advises Clearvision Ventures on cybersecurity matters and enjoys meeting with cybersecurity entrepreneurs as well as customers.  He is currently the CTO of Security at Salesforce, and is an internationally renowned information security luminary.  Taher is recognized as the “Father of SSL” encryption, the industry standard for internet security and ecommerce, as well as the inventor of other industry and government standards, including the DSS government standard for digital signatures.  He is the recipient of the RSA Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as the Marconi Prize. Taher has extensive experience as a founder, CTO, CEO and CISO of numerous successful organizations, including RSA, Netscape, Tumbleweed Communications, Securify and NokNok Labs. 

Taher has a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Stanford University and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Cairo University. 

 

 

Arun Majumdar

Arun advises Clearvision Ventures on energy industry technology trends, policies, and international energy company engagements. He most recently led the Biden Administration’s Energy Department transition team, and was the Director and Professor of the Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford University, and continues as a tenured faculty member of the Mechanical Engineering department. Previously, Arun served as the Acting Under Secretary of Energy and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Energy during the Obama Administration. He was also nominated by President Obama as the Founding Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy.  After leaving Washington, DC and before joining Stanford, Arun was the Vice President for Energy at Google, where he created several energy technology initiatives, especially at the intersection of data, computing and electricity grid.

Arun has a PhD in Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and a BS in Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

 

ECOSYSTEM

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We have a diverse ecosystem of people and partners that can help.  This might include partnering opportunities, customer opportunities, company scaling and team building advice, and strategy development. Please talk to us about how we can help you and your business grow.

 
 

UNCONCERNS

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With an independent, evergreen fund, we're unconcerned with structural issues that lead to entrepreneur-unfriendly activity at most venture firms today. Our "unconcerns" include timing out, the next fundraise, and arbitrary investment constraints, enabling us to be structurally aligned with our entrepreneurs' best interests.

 
 
 

Timing Out

Venture Today. Most funds operate on a 10-year timeframe, after which holdings in portfolio companies are liquidated and distributed to LPs. This means that when a fund is close to timing out, investors can push for a premature exit—even if that goes against an entrepreneurs' long-term vision.

How We’re Different. Our fund is an independent, evergreen fund with no end-of-fund-life.

 

The Next Fundraise

Venture Today. Once an investment is made, the capital deployed is gone for good. This means that investors are under constant pressure to raise the next fund, which often leads to entrepreneur-unfriendly behavior that optimizes fundraising.

How We’re Different. We recycle most of our proceeds back into the fund, thereby eliminating the need to fundraise.

 

Arbitrary Investment Constraints

Venture Today. Constraints on fund strategy are usually set when VCs market their funds to LPs. These typically include limitations on stage (Seed / Series A only), arbitrary ownership targets (at least 20% ownership), and control (board seat required).

How We're Different. We're flexible as to investment stage, ownership targets, and board representation. We only care about partnering with category leaders.

 

CONTACT

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Address:
3000 Sand Hill Road
Building 2, Suite 180
Menlo Park, CA 94025

Email:
info@clearvisionventures.com