Anand Kamannavar is the global head role of Applied Ventures (AV), the corporate venture capital (CVC) arm of semiconductor manufacturing technology provider Applied Materials (Amat).
Omkaram ‘Om’ Nalamasu, senior vice-president and chief technical officer of Amat and president of AV, said of Kamannavar: “Anand has been a great leader in reinvigorating our Ventures organisation as a force in deep tech global investments and making Ventures an indispensable corporate strategic tool for profitable growth.
“Under Anand’s leadership, Applied Ventures has significantly expanded its scope and reach to collaborate with entrepreneurs across the globe with value-added investments to accelerate the market success of start-ups in materials to systems sector.
“This has included doubling the investment dollars, leading investment syndicates, taking board of director positions, making investments in public companies while continuing to building strategic partnerships with the portfolio companies with good financial outcomes.
“In addition, Anand has taken an active role to drive best practices to drive synergies between ventures and business development organizations across the enterprise.”
During his time at the fund, Kamannavar has strengthened the collaboration between AV’s portfolio companies and Amat business units, as well as supporting portfolio companies through follow-on deals, staffing and introducing them to channel partners.
The unit most recently took part in funding rounds for lithium-metal battery developer SES (formerly SolidEnergy Systems), fabless semiconductor group Ideal Semiconductor Devices, optical lens technology developer Metalenz, computer memory provider Antaios and connectivity technology developer Ayar Labs.
A portfolio company, silicon photonic chipmaker Rockley Photonics, agreed to a reverse merger with special purpose acquisition company SC Health Corp in March 2021 and will involve the combined company acquiring the spot on the New York Stock Exchange when the latter listed in mid-2019.
AV hired two corporate venturers in the past year: John Wei, formerly senior investment manager at chemicals producer Saudi Basic Industries Corporation’s Sabic Ventures unit, as an investment director in October 2020, and Yuan-Ping Huang, previously life sciences associate and proteomics strategy lead at semiconductor technology producer Lam Research’s Lam Capital subsidiary, as an investment manager five months before.
Frank Lee, a GCV Emerging Leader in 2020 and 2021, meanwhile was promoted from investment director to senior investment director earlier this year. The AV team also includes senior investment managers Rajesh Ramanujam and Saewook Lee – the latter featured in GCV Rising Stars 2021 roster – and GCV Emerging Leader and investment director Michael Stewart, as well as a senior associate, Blair Georgakas.
Kamannavar had worked for AV as a senior VC director for 12 years from 2006, then assumed the head of new BD role simultaneously from 2013. Before rejoining the unit in January 2020, he held a two-year stint as general partner at Partnership Ventures.
He started his career as a co-founder of financial data technology provider Precision Information Systems, then worked for enterprise technology producer Hewlett Packard.
He then joined Atlas Ventures and Arch Development Partners to identify investment opportunities for alternative energy, internet, web 2.0, media, software and medical technology developers.
Kamannavar holds an MBA with honours from University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and earned a master of science degree in electrical and electronics engineering from University of Wisconsin-Madison.
