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Suranga Chandratillake

Founder and former CEO of blinkx

Suranga Chandratillake is a prominent figure in the technology and venture capital industry. He currently serves as a General Partner at Balderton Capital, a leading European venture capital firm.12

Career Highlights

Chandratillake is best known for founding blinkx, an intelligent search engine for video and audio content, in Cambridge in 2004.2 He led the company as CEO for eight years, guiding it through significant growth, profitability, and a public listing in London where it achieved a peak market capitalization exceeding $1 billion.2

Prior to founding blinkx, Chandratillake was an early employee at Autonomy Corporation, where he started as an engineer in the Cambridge R&D team and eventually became the company's US CTO in San Francisco.2

Education and Achievements

Chandratillake holds an MA in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge.12 His contributions to technology and engineering have been widely recognized:

  • Elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 20122
  • Named one of the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders in 20092
  • Awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for services to technology and engineering in the 2018 UK New Year's Honours23

Current Roles

In addition to his position at Balderton Capital, Chandratillake holds several other notable roles:

  • Board member at various companies including GitGuardian, Cobee, Tessian, and Healx Ltd1
  • Member of the UK Government's Council for Science and Technology2
  • Serves on the Investment Board of the University of Cambridge2

Involvement with Cobee

Regarding Cobee specifically, Chandratillake has been involved with the company since its early stages. He met Borja Aranguren, Cobee's founder, in early 2020 and learned about the plans to build a global platform for managing employee benefits.5 Chandratillake has since been serving on Cobee's board of directors, supporting the company's growth.4

Suranga Chandratillake's extensive experience as both an entrepreneur and investor makes him a valuable asset to the companies he advises and invests in, including Cobee.

Highlights

Aug 18 · linkedin

To all those afraid that AI is going to take over the world … Gemma Chandratillake found this on a beach in the UK and Google’s Lens computer vision system suggested it was a Brazilian dinosaur 🤦. I think we’re ok for a while yet.!

Jul 2 · linkedin

Regardless of which way the UK votes on Thursday, there will be a focus on growth. Growth brings with it jobs across the country, secure pensions for those who have retired and increased tax receipts to fund everything from healthcare to infrastructure, defence and education.

At the heart of the growth that has made the US so resilient over the past few decades is technology and the key to technology is a thriving start-up ecosystem. Luckily the UK has a multitude of natural advantages in this area but more work needs to be done and I was privileged to be asked and very happy to sign up to Startup Coalition's Startup Manifesto. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/ecphA35h Dom Hallas Camilla de Coverly Veale Jeff Lynn Charlie Mercer Marcus Foster

Related Questions

What are Suranga Chandratillake's main responsibilities at Balderton Capital?
How did Suranga Chandratillake's experience at Autonomy Corporation influence his career?
What was the significance of Suranga Chandratillake's role in the UK Government’s Council for Science and Technology?
Can you provide more details about Suranga Chandratillake's founding of blinkx?
What are some of the notable companies Suranga Chandratillake is currently involved with?
Suranga Chandratillake
Suranga Chandratillake, photo 1
Suranga Chandratillake, photo 2
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Location

United Kingdom