Judges

Deepak Kamra, Canaan Partners

Deepak Kamra has been a venture capitalist for nearly 20 years – identifying innovative companies that disrupt the status quo to become leaders in their fields. After an 11-year career growing technology startups into successful global leaders, Deepak joined Canaan Partners in 1991 and is focused on investments in digital media and software. Deepak led Canaan’s early investment in DoubleClick, the Internet’s first and leading online advertising solution; Match.com, the most popular dating site worldwide; and ON24, the leader in webcasting and virtual events. He also invested in voice-over-IP infrastructure company Acme Packet, which became one of the top-ten performing IPOs of 2006, and SuccessFactors, one of the most successful IPOs in 2007.

Deepak has been quoted in publications such as Bloomberg, The Silicon Valley Business Journal, Fox Business News, and The Deal, and speaks frequently at industry events, including The Harvard VC and PE Conference, TiECon, the Global India Venture Capital Association Conference, and Venture Summit Silicon Valley.

Deepak led Canaan’s investments in, and currently sits on the boards of, technology-driven global companies such as e4e, a global business services company; GroundWork Open Source, the leader in commercial open source systems and network management software; ON24, the global leader of webcasting and video communications solutions; Plixi, a real-time media sharing platform for the social web; Zmanda, world’s leading provider of open source backup and recovery software; and Zoosk, the largest social dating network in the world. He also directed Canaan’s investments in AllBusiness.com (Acquired by NBCi), Bharat Matrimony, Concord Communications (acquired by CA), Impulse! Buy Network (acquired by Inktomi/Yahoo!), iPrint.com (acquired by MadeToOrder.com), Latitude Communications (acquired by Cisco), PriorityCall Management (acquired by LHS), Recourse Technologies (acquired by Symantec), and SalesLogix (acquired by The Sage Group).  Recognizing early the global nature of venture capital, Deepak initiated Canaan’s investments in the India market starting in 2001.

Before joining Canaan, Deepak was a key member of the startup team at Aspect Communications, helping lead the pioneer in call center technologies to a successful IPO in 1990. He has also held leadership roles at telecommunications companies like ROLM Corp. and TRW Datacomm International.

Deepak received a BA from Carleton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. In his spare time, he is involved in several microfinance initiatives to spur economic growth in developing nations and currently serves as Chairman of the Investment Committee at Deutsche Bank’s Global Microfinance Consortium. He was included on the Forbes Midas List in 2008 and 2009, a prominent list ranking the best dealmakers in technology and the 2009 AlwaysOn Venture Capital 100 which highlights the one hundred individuals who have backed the most profitable winners in the last four years. He currently serves on the Board of the National Venture Capital Association.

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