Ran Kurup is a director at Intel Capital, the corporate venture capital (CVC) unit of US-based chipmaker Intel, where he leads the global business development team. In this role, he engages actively with portfolio companies, Intel’s global sales organisation and customers to forge tactic partnerships and identify sales opportunities.
Tamiko Hutchinson, vice-president and senior managing director at Intel Capital, said of Kurup: “Ran understands and helps drive the value that Intel Capital brings to entrepreneurs beyond funding. He leads a team that engages with Intel’s business units and sales organisation and makes connections for our portfolio companies. He is engaged in the venture community and extends his knowledge as a mentor to other CVCs in the GCV Institute programme.”
In his role, Kurup manages Intel Capital’s business unit relations group in portfolio management. His team helps portfolio companies access Intel’s business and technical experience by managing interactions between portfolio companies and Intel’s different business units to create strategic synergies.
With more than two decades in the server, networking and storage industry areas, Kurup has held various positions in business strategy, product development and marketing at Intel Corporation. He said: “I have been working with Intel Capital for over 12 years in my strategy roles with business units at Intel and the opportunity to work with early-stage companies at the leading edge of technology was eye opening in providing key insights for the strategies that business units were developing.
“Working closely with entrepreneurs was immensely rewarding both in being a key part of their growth by bringing them the vast resources of Intel while also bringing back key insights to the business units. So, when I was offered this role at Intel Capital I had no hesitation in jumping at it and have never looked back.”
