Raj Sandhu
General Partner at Great Oaks Investor
Raj Sandhu
General Partner at Great Oaks Investor
San Francisco Bay Area
Overview
Work Experience
General Partner
2021 - Current
Great Oaks VC, a New York City headquartered firm, is among the most active and successful Early-stage investors. We partner with driven founders to build enduring businesses across AI, Enterprise Software, Consumer, Healthcare, Marketplaces and other technology sectors. We typically invest at Seed or Series A to start.
Managing Partner
2000 - 2020
Venture capital firm in AI, Enterprise Software, marketplaces, e-commerce, web3/crypto/blockchain and healthcare. Select Current Investments: Learneo (fka Course Hero), Rescale, HealthSherpa, Philz Coffee, Blueshift, Avaamo AI, Innovative Targeting, Ternary. Select Exits by Acquisition (acquirer): BitPlay (Jive Software), Growth Networks (Cisco Systems acquired for $400m) Sirocco Systems (Sycamore Networks for $3b), Quake Technologies (AMCC), Modulus Video (Motorola/Google), DramaFever (Softbank), CloudVolumes (VMWare), Identified (Workday), EventJoy (TicketMaster), Robin Systems (Rakuten Symphony), Reflektion (Sitecore), Hinge (IAC Interactive / Match.com) Select Exits by IPO: Fortinet (FTNT, $60b peak market cap), Ginkgo Bioworks (DNA)
General Partner
2009 - 2015
Venture capital investment firm in emerging platforms, software, e-commerce, social media, and health care systems. Select Exits by Acquisition (acquirer): Invite Media (Google), CardPool (BlackHawk Networks), iTriage / Healthagen (Aetna), Mertado (Groupon), FutureAdvisor (Blackrock), 500 Friends (Merkle), Counsyl (Myriad Genetics), Movity (Trulia). Select Exits by IPO: Movity / Trulia / Zillow (TRLA / ZG),
Co-Founder, Seed Investor, Chairman, Acting CEO
2002 - 2004
Co-founder, principal seed investor and chairman of Modulus Video, the leading carrier grade H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video compression systems company. Acquired by Motorola.
Managing Director, General Partner
1997 - 1999
Private equity, venture capital and public equity Investment affiliate of Soros Fund Management with $2 billion under management. Invested in new media, Internet, communications and software companies. Extensively and sourced investments in the U.S. and Europe, negotiated, closed, served on the boards, led further capital raises. All Investments realized exits at meaningful multiples. Select Exits by IPO: Selectica (eCommerce software, peak market capitalization $3+ bn), Update Marketing (Frankfurt, CRM software, peak cap. $500 mm), Promotions.com (Internet promotions, peak cap. $500 mm), Commerce One (eCommerce software and services, peak cap. $10+ bn), and Illuminet Holdings (telecom services, later acquired. by VeriSign for $1.2 bn). Select Exits by Acquisition (acquirer): JobDirect.com, eCommerce services (Korn/Ferry International).
Director & Partner
1994 - 1997
Technology investment banking, Head of East Coast and Europe Software Banking, Co-head of European Communications Banking. Managed 32 public offerings and private placements worth $2.0 billion, and 13 financial advisory assignments worth $500 million.
Software Developer, Product Manager, Product Marketing Manager
1983 - 1986
Key software developer of networking protocols, file and operating systems. Patent on networked file system. Product Manager for systems products, Metaphor was a Xerox PARC spin-out, a technology trailblazer and developed many technologies emulated by Apple, Microsoft and others. Acquired by IBM.