Shankar Chandran

Partner

2021 - Current

Walden Catalyst is a venture capital firm helping early-stage companies in the U.S., Europe, and Israel build the next generation of category-defining businesses in deep tech. We back the bold and the daring—trailblazers who are changing the world and making life better for all of us. With over $550 million in our recently announced inaugural fund (November 2021), Walden Catalyst is a team of innovators and entrepreneurs who are passionate about disruption and committed to excellence. For startups, this translates into unparalleled access to operational expertise, global reach, and a network of industry captains eager to help build and scale the companies of the future. My investments on behalf of Walden Catalyst: MindsDB, Opaque Systems, Galileo & 3DGS

Managing Director, SVP & Co-Head of Samsung Catalyst Fund (SCF)

2013 - 2021

Samsung Catalyst Fund is Samsung Electronics’ evergreen multi-stage venture capital fund that invests globally in the new data economy and core technologies in new Samsung business areas - launched by Young Sohn, Francis Ho and myself in February 2013. Samsung Catalyst Fund invests in and works with startups whose technologies have the potential to make the world a better place—helping people everywhere lead happier, healthier lives. The start-ups and investments where I closely worked with founders as a member of board of directors, include: Ring (acquired by Amazon), Datrium (acquired by VMWare), Pixeom (acquired by Intel), Fungible, Graphcore, Afero, Soundhound, Keyssa, Bitglass (acquired by Forecepoint), Renovo (acquired by Toyota), Blaize, Landing.ai and Rescale.

Partner

2002 - 2013

Investments and board involvements include: Portalplayer (acquired by Nvidia), Validity (acquired by Synaptics), Brion (acquired by ASML), Belair (acquired by Ericcson), Skyfire (acquired by Opera), ChiL Semiconductor (acquired by International Rectifiers)

Engineer / Manager

1995 - 2000