Anand Kamannavar is vice-president and global head of Applied Materials’ venture capital fund, Applied Ventures (AV). In this role, he manages AV’s $400m global venture investment portfolio of over 90 companies across 17 countries in the Materials to Systems stack. Kamannavar has led over a dozen venture investments with successful exits including Adesto, Enphase, Solid Energy and Voltaix.
Kamannavar has over two decades of experience in the technology and venture capital industry and new business development. He first joined Applied Ventures in 2006, with a focus on identifying and leading investments in the area of semiconductors, energy, materials and India. He then went on to head Applied’s new business group which led to Applied’s entry into optics, life sciences, materials and other high-growth markets.
Previously, Kamannavar worked at Atlas Ventures and Arch Development Partners looking at startups in the broader alternative energy, internet, Web 2.0, media, software and medical sectors.
Before his career in venture capital, Kamannavar held various engineering and business development roles with Hewlett-Packard’s server group in Richardson, Texas where he was awarded key US patents. He also co-founded Precision Information Systems which provides financial data and tools to leading financial institutions like Ameritrade, New York Life and Intuit.
Kamannavar received an MBA with honours from University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business and holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in electrical and electronics Engineering from University of Wisconsin Madison.
