Frank Lee and Michael Stewart are investment directors at Applied Ventures (AV), US-based chip and display designer Applied Materials’ corporate venture capital (CVC) arm. For over a decade, AV has been partnering startups that leverage the materials engineering expertise of Applied Materials.
Anand Kamannavar, AV global head, said of Lee: “Frank has over two decades of VC experience and has been a key part of Applied Ventures senior management team. He spent 10 years at Vertex Ventures and another 10 years at UMC Capital, leading their US operations. At Applied, Frank was responsible for setting up the unique AVITIC fund jointly with ITRI-Taiwan and working with the ITRI (Industrial Technology Investment Corporation) team to add new investors as well as drive new investments through the fund.”
Regarding Stewart, Kamannavar added: “Michael was over decades of experience in technology and investment field in the semiconductor and clean energy sector. He was previously the 2019 GCV Rising Stars and spearheaded Applied Ventures investments in artificial intelligence and the broader deeptech sector. He is an active board member on several AV portfolio companies and is well respected by startups, VCs and internal product groups.”
Lee joined in 2018 from UMC Capital, where he had spent more than 12 years as managing director, while Stewart joined in 2015 after more than 12 years at Applied Materials and chipmaker Intel.
Lee has been driving AV’s investment opportunities in many deeptech inflexions, including advanced displays where he invested in PlayNitride, a global microLED company based in Taiwan, while Stewart’s most recent investment was in printed electronics company Electroninks where he serves as a board observer.
Prior to joining Applied Ventures, Lee was at UMC Capital and Vertex Ventures, respective VC subsidiaries of Taiwan-headquartered semiconductor producer UMC and Singaporean state-owned investment firm Temasek. Stewart, on the other hand, had previously co-founded consumer electronics startup Juse.
