Michael Stewart has departed from Applied Ventures, part of semiconductor technology producer Applied Materials, and joined M12, another US-based corporate venturing group formed by software provider Microsoft, as a partner.
Applied Ventures had hired Stewart in 2015 as a principal before promoting him to an investment director position three and a half years later.
His duties included identifying and investing in deep technology developers focusing on areas such as advanced materials, biomedical equipment, the industrial internet of things, energy generation and mechanical process automation technologies.
Stewart held board observer seats at various Applied Ventures portfolio companies including silicon photonic semiconductor manufacturer Rockley Photonics, computer storage technology developer Antaios and Inpria, which is working on semiconductor lithography systems.
Global Corporate Venturing named Stewart an Emerging Leader in January this year. Previously, he co-founded solar charger provider Juse in 2014, having spent a decade at Applied Materials from 2005 in two senior process technology-related roles.
Regarding Stewart’s new job, Tamara Steffens, general manager and managing director for M12, said: “Based in San Francisco, Michael will focus on early-stage investments in deeptech and enterprise software in North America.”
Photo of Michael Stewart courtesy of M12.
