Stephen Lee (pictured), a former principal at Samsung Ventures, has joined online phone operator Skype’s new corporate venturing unit.
As head of new ventures development at Skype, a division of software provider Microsoft, Lee’s LinkedIn profile said he is a venture investment professional partnering with innovative entrepreneurs and start-ups focused on digital media and wireless. He was unavailable to comment.
Lee joined Skype in June, following Microsoft’s $8.5bn purchase, and after three years at Samsung Ventures’ Californian office.
His deals for the South Korea-based consumer electronics company’s US corporate venturing unit included Ethertronics (whose antennae are used by Samsung’s mobile devices), Impinj (which pulled its flotation in July to raise more private money) and Widevine, which was acquired by search engine Google.
Previously, Lee spent three years at Japan-based financial services group Mitsui’s technology venture and growth investment team, where his deals had included Beceem Communications (acquired by Broadcom), Synacor (listed on Nasdaq in February 2012), Luidia (maker of the eBeam projector for classrooms) and SmartSignal (acquired by GE).
Microsoft has been expanding its corporate venturing approach, having traditionally relied on provding services-in-kind to start-ups and taking equity only occasionally, including a minority share in social network Facebook.
However, the software group has been developing specific venturing groups for some of its units, including setting up a fund for its Bing search engine in July led by Rahul Sood.