Experienced Technologist, Executive and Investor Expands Role
SEATTLE, WA – January 12, 2017 – Madrona Venture Group, an early-stage venture capital firm, announced today the appointment of S. “Soma” Somasegar to the role of Managing Director.
Soma joined Madrona in November 2015 as a Venture Partner, following a more than twenty five year career at Microsoft leading the company’s Developer Division and responsible for the Visual Studio and .NET family of products that enable tens of millions of developers to build applications and services for client, server, mobile and cloud platforms. Soma was also responsible for Microsoft’s R&D labs in Boston, China, India and Israel.
As a Venture Partner at Madrona, Soma became a powerful voice at the table on key investment areas including Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality, next generation cloud infrastructure and intelligent applications. Soma led investments in Shyft and CloudCoreo, and he is also the Board Chair at Pixvana.
Soma also led an initiative focused on machine learning and artificial intelligence, authoring several articles and hosting Madrona’s first annual conference on machine learning in Seattle attended by more than 150 members of the business, investing, and engineering community.
“Madrona is in a unique position. We sit at the center of the cloud industry with Microsoft and Amazon at our front and back doors – and Google’s cloud team growing quickly,” commented S. Somasegar. “There is a tremendous amount of talent base here. The opportunity for entrepreneurs is immense and I’m looking forward to taking on a bigger role helping founders build and scale successful companies, which in turn will foster the vibrant and growing Pacific NW technology ecosystem.”
As Cloud Native technologies and DevOps take hold, the technology industry is seeing a shift that puts developers at the center of technology innovation and value creation. Soma’s background and expertise in working with the developer community is invaluable to driving Madrona’s investment thesis, thought leadership, and strategic partnership with entrepreneurs.
“Soma has had a huge impact in the year he has been on board with Madrona. His operating experience and technology expertise have been essential as he worked with portfolio companies at all stages to create product, business and management practices for sustainable growth,” commented Matt McIlwain, managing director, Madrona Venture Group. “As we continue to invest in and work with companies driving the emergence of machine learning and intelligent apps, Soma will be a crucial contributor to our region’s leadership in setting the technology agenda.”
Over the last decade, Soma has been an active angel and seed investor, nurturing and supporting companies across the information technology landscape in the US as well as internationally. Some of his investments as an angel include Highspot, Buuteeq, Amperity, Discord, Indix, Sulekha.com, and Talentwise.
Soma holds a master’s degree in computer engineering from Louisiana State University and a bachelor’s degree in electronics and communication engineering from Guindy Engineering College, Anna University in Chennai, India. Soma aso received an Honorary Doctorate from Anna University for accomplishments in the fields of Technology and Computer Science.
About Madrona Venture Group
Madrona (www.madrona.com) has been investing in early-stage technology companies in the Pacific Northwest since 1995 and has been privileged to play a role in some of the region’s most successful technology ventures. The firm invests predominately in seed and Series A rounds across the information technology spectrum, including consumer Internet, commercial software and services, digital media and advertising, networking and cloud computing, and mobile. Madrona manages approximately $1 billion and was an early investor in companies such as Amazon.com, Apptio, Rover.com, and Redfin.
Media Contact: Erika Shaffer, [email protected], 206-972-5514
Related Insights
