Kanwal rekhi venture capitalist
Kanwal Rekhi
Indian-American businessman (born )
Kanwal Singh Rekhi (born August 29, ) (Punjabi&#;: ਕੰਵਲ ਰੇਖੀ) is an Indian-American businessman. He was the first Indian-American founder and CEO to take a venture-backed company public on the Nasdaq stock exchange.[2]
Career
Rekhi had worked as an engineer, systems analyst, and manager before venturing into entrepreneurship.
At the age of 36, he moved to San Jose, California and co-founded Excelan in , a manufacturer of smart Ethernet components, and was named president and CEO in [citation needed] The company went public on the Nasdaq in , and merged with Novell in He remained at Novell as an executive vice-president and the -chief technology officer of the company, later joining the board of directors.[citation needed] Rekhi retired from Novell in [3] After leaving Novell, he was the CEO at CyberMedia[citation needed] from January until its merger with Network Associates (now McAfee) in September [citation needed]
In , Rekhi became a full-time angel investor, investing in more than 50 startups,[citation needed] of which he led the initial financing and was a member of the board of directors for 23 companies.[citation needed] His venture financings have resulted in 21 exits including six IPOs to date.[citation needed] Also active in Indian public policy related to venture, Rekhi advised India government policy makers[who?] in reforming venture regulations.[citation needed] This encouraged fund formation in India,[citation needed] and Rekhi was the founding limited partner behind Infinity Capital-India a successful early-stage India venture fund.[4]
In , Rekhi co-founded Inventus Capital Partners, and currently serves as managing director.[citation needed] During his time at Inventus, he has invested in companies including GENWI, Salorix, Poshmark, and Sierra Atlantic (acquired by Hitachi Consulting).[citation needed]
In , he co-founded TiE, The Indus Entrepreneurs, a nonprofit support network to provide advice, contacts, and funding to Indian Americans hoping to start businesses.[citation needed] He also acted as an expert in advising the Prime Minister of India[which?] and his government for laying the foundation for the country's Information technology expansion.[citation needed] Rekhi has served as a trustee on the global board of TiE.
He is also a former chairman of the Centre for Civil Society.[5]
Philanthropy
Rekhi contributed $5 million to Michigan Tech in [6] To help set up a new school of Information Technology, he donated $3 million to IIT Bombay which named one of its schools after him as the "Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology (KReSIT)"(which was merged in with the department of computer science and engineering).[7]
Awards and recognition
In Rekhi was awarded the Bina Chaudhuri Award for Distinguished Service from the California Institute of Integral Studies.[citation needed] He was also awarded "Entrepreneur of the Year" in by Arthur Young and Venture magazine.[8][better&#;source&#;needed]