Yashwanth Hemaraj

I am a Venture Capital Investor at Benhamou Global Ventures investing in enterprise startups exclusively. At BGV, we are helping entrepreneurs leading early stage companies build great companies within the enterprise software space. We invest in Series A companies that have reached what we refer to as a "minimum sellable product" stage. In 2018, I started a India focused cross border accelerator called Arka Venture Labs to provide a platform for Indian b2b focused start-ups to scale to the global marketson partnership with Blume and Emergent Ventures. Our goal in both of these is to roll up our sleeves and work with the entrepreneurs we fund, much like an extension of the team... Previously, I worked as a Product Manager at SpiderCloud, a startup in the wireless telecommunication space that I joined as an early engineer. We raised more than $100MM between 2008-2012 and was ranked #5 in the “top venture backed companies” by Wall Street Journal. I have 4 patents in this area that form an integral part of the SpiderCloud IP portfolio. I obtained my MBA at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, IL with focus on Finance, Entrepreneurship and Business Strategy, MS at the University of Maryland in Electrical Engineering and BE at National Institute of Technology in Electronics and Communication. I am a fellow of the Startup leadership program in Silicon Valley (2013.) I was on the board of United Way of Silicon Valley, where I led the emerging leaders affiliate group as the chair of the steering committee. I was the President of the undergraduate alumni association, NITKAN (501c3).