Sign In

Venky Harinarayan

Venky Harinarayan is an accomplished entrepreneur, investor, and technologist, currently serving as a Founding Partner at Rocketship.vc, a venture capital firm leveraging data-driven strategies to invest in global startups. He is widely recognized for his pioneering contributions to e-commerce and technology.

Key Achievements and Career Highlights:

  • Entrepreneurship:

    • Co-founded Junglee Corp. in 1996, which developed one of the first Internet comparison shopping platforms. The company was acquired by Amazon in 1998 for $250 million in stock. At Amazon, Venky played a pivotal role in creating the Amazon Marketplace, now one of the company's most profitable divisions.123
    • Co-founded Kosmix, a semantic search and categorization company acquired by Walmart in 2011 for over $300 million. At Walmart, he served as Senior Vice President of Global e-Commerce and launched @WalmartLabs, the company's innovation arm.23
    • Was a founding investor in Efficient Frontier, a search and social media marketing company acquired by Adobe.23
  • Venture Capital:

    • Co-founded Cambrian Ventures in 2000, an early-stage VC fund that backed successful companies like Neoteris (acquired by Juniper) and Aster Data (acquired by Teradata).13
    • Early investor in notable companies such as Facebook, Lyft, and TutorVista.3
  • Innovations:

    • Contributed to the development of Amazon's Mechanical Turk concept.
    • Authored a highly cited academic paper on data cubes during his Ph.D. at Stanford University under Jeffrey Ullman.1

Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from IIT Madras.
  • Master’s degree from UCLA.
  • Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University.13

Recognition:

  • Named one of the "100 Most Creative People in Business" by Fast Company (2012).
  • Included in the "Venture Capital 100" by AlwaysOn (2012).
  • Recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from IIT Madras.3

Venky Harinarayan's work has significantly shaped e-commerce and venture capital, making him a prominent figure in Silicon Valley and beyond.

Highlights

Aug 3 · indiaspora.org
Venky Harinarayan - Indiaspora
Venky Harinarayan - Indiaspora
Jun 26 · sfunicorns.com
San Francisco Unicorns and Rocketship.vc renew partnership for ...
Feb 18 · rocketship.vc
Team - Rocketship.vc
Rocketship.vc | Institution Profile - Private Equity International
May 18 · signal.nfx.com
Venky Harinarayan's Investing Profile - rocketship.vc Partner | Signal
Aug 4 · en.wikipedia.org
Venky Harinarayan - Wikipedia
Venky Harinarayan - Wikipedia

Related Questions

What are some of the most successful companies Venky Harinarayan has invested in?
How did Venky Harinarayan's role at Amazon influence his investment strategy?
What sectors does Venky Harinarayan focus on when investing?
Can you tell me more about the companies funded by Cambrian Ventures?
How did Junglee Corp. pioneer Internet comparison shopping?
Venky Harinarayan
Venky Harinarayan, photo 1
Venky Harinarayan, photo 2
Add to my network

Location

San Francisco Bay Area