Tony Chao (pictured), has left his position as senior investment director and general manager at Applied Ventures, semiconductor maker Applied Materials’ corporate venturing unit, to assume a new role at venture capital firm Tyche Partners this month.
“After a decade in CVC and at Applied Ventures, I have accepted a partner position with Tyche Partners,” Chao said.
A feature of Global Corporate Venturing’s Powerlist in 2017 and 2018, Chao had joined Applied Ventures in 2007 and had been senior investment director and general manager of Applied Ventures since 2015. Chao led the charge for Applied Ventures into Asia first by serving as an expatriate in Shanghai and then opening operations in Singapore and finally a Korea fund.
Tyche Partners invests in disruptive technologies such as cloud and enterprise data storage, 3D printing, robotics, semiconductors and internet-of-things and wearable devices.
Chao is being succeeded by Rajesh Swaminathan, an investment director who has been at Applied Ventures since 2009. He was unavailable for comment.
The longest-serving member of the Applied Ventures team to date, Chao hit many milestones during his time at the unit, including a strong financial performance after closing more than 30 deals and deploying over $100m of capital; the first acquisition of a portfolio company by corporate parent Applied Materials; and the first time taking an external partner – Korea Venture Investment Corporation.
Chao also played a leadership role in the CVC world, taking the chairman role at National Venture Capital Association’s Corporate Venture Group. Chao, who has begun work at Tyche Partners, is looking forward to the increased flexibility in investment scope but pleased to stick to his hard tech-focused roots.
“We at Tyche are financially driven but leverage the operational and technical background of the partners,” Chao said. He considers the service-oriented mindset to be similar to his CVC roots, which adds value to portfolio companies.
As for the future outlook, Chao commented: “It is still a small firm, but with big ambitions. We are lucky to have built a strong portfolio so far with a number of companies reaching unicorn status. Our strong relationships with leading financial VCs and strategic CVCs are key elements in our success.”
Before joining Applied Ventures, Chao was an investment associate at Shanghai-based Mustang Ventures and the technical lead for the engineering team at Cymfony, which provides market influence analytics by scanning and interpreting voices on social and traditional media.
Chao holds an MBA from Harvard Business School as well as an undergraduate and a master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
– Photo courtesy of Applied Materials, Inc.
