Kaushik Roy is an executive of ecosystem strategy at Western Digital Capital, the corporate venturing arm of US-based data storage technology provider Western Digital.
Daniel Flynn, vice-president of corporate development at Western Digital Capital, said: “Kaushik has been at Western Digital since January 2015, and he leads our outreach and engagement in the US technology startup ecosystem as a member of Western Digital Capital. Kaushik screens over 20 opportunities a month and has led over 13 initial and follow-on investments for Western Digital Capital, totalling over $75m invested. His past experience as a stock analyst covering IT infrastructure companies helps in aligning the startups with our corporate strategy and evaluating the potential and risk profiles of the startups.”
In early 2018, Roy oversaw a $50.6m strategic series C financing round for US-based fabless provider of customised semiconductors SiFive. Other investors included Huami, Intel Capital and Samsung Venture Investment . As a part of the deal, SiFive signed a multi-year Freedom Platform licence with Western Digital, promising to produce a billion Risc-V cores.
Having spent a couple of years in the VC industry in Silicon Valley before joining Western Digital Capital, Roy was a principal at Hercules Technology Growth Capital, where he invested in Virident Systems, later acquired by Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, a subsidiary of Western Digital, for $685m.
Earlier he spent a decade as a Wall Street analyst covering IT infrastructure companies both on the sell and buy sides, and before that he was a product manager and a strategic investment manager at IT infrastructure services provider EMC.
