Nvidia had quite a 2023, seeing demand for its chips skyrocket from artificial intelligence tech developers. It also introduced a new corporate venture capital arm, NVentures, with John Wesley as investment director.
Wesley’s early career took in roles at investment banks and private equity firms including Morgan Stanley, Bain Capital, Concourse Capital Management and HIG Capital, before he became senior vice president at hedge fund Pequot Capital Management.
Biotech company Omniox represented Wesley’s entry into early-stage tech. He spent four years as vice president of finance and business development and retains a board observer position at the company, but moved to protein engineering technology developer Dren Bio in 2020 to take on the chief financial officer role.
“Nvidia introduced a new corporate venture capital arm, NVentures, with John Wesley as investment director.”
That biotech expertise has come in handy at Nvidia, which relaunched NVentures last year as the successor to the defunct Nvidia GPU Ventures. Led by Nvidia corporate vice president Sid Siddeek, the unit has expanded its strategic remit to invest in early-stage drug developers that are using generative AI in their work.
The NVentures portfolio includes Terray Therapeutics, which is using generative AI to find druggable small molecule targets; RNA molecule designer Inceptive; and ArtiSight, which is creating an internet-of-things sensor network with the potential to enhance healthcare. It is a step forward for a corporate that traditionally focused on IT startups.
The unit operates alongside Nvidia Inception, a free initiative that provides access to technology and VC connections for startups. With Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently stating that he believes 2024 will see every company become a technology company, NVentures is only set to expand further.
Wesley’s qualifications include a degree from Yale and an MBA from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.