Andrew Cleland is managing director at Comcast Ventures, US-headquartered mass media group Comcast’s corporate venture capital (CVC) arm.
The unit has had a relatively diverse focus, investing across the consumer, enterprise and frontier technology sectors. Cleland focuses on data, machine learning and the future of work segments, having joined Comcast Ventures in 2011 after nearly a decade at media and entertainment conglomerate WarnerMedia. The latter half of his stint was spent at the now-defunct corporate venturing unit, Time Warner Investments, where he targeted early-stage media and technology companies.
Comcast Ventures currently has more than 120 portfolio companies, and has made more than 350 investments to date. Its more highly valued portfolio companies include social network NextDoor, autonomous driving technology producer Pony.ai, scooter rental service Bird, online home insurer Hippo and luggage brand Away.
Recent deals include the seed round for IT development platform Architect.io, the $65m series B round for Curbio, a real estate promotion company, and the $30m series A raise for Neural Magic, a developer of machine learning technology.
Some of the unit’s most notable exits in recent years have included digital signature technology provider DocuSign, enterprise communication platform Slack and ride hailing service Lyft.
Cleland began his career at consulting firm Booz Allen & Hamilton where he was involved in the media practice, before moving to serve as chief operating officer for UK-based music startup TrustTheDJ. He holds a master’s degree in economics from Edinburgh University and received his MBA from Insead in France.
