Venture capital fund Canaan Partners has appointed former Yahoo and Syamtec executive Sharad Sharma as an entrepreneur-in-residence. Sharma earlier led Yahoo! India R&D and was the India General Manager and VP of Product Operations with Symantec. Sharma was responsible for turning around the operations of Symantec's, formerly VERITAS Software, operations in India. Sharma, who has more than 22 years of experience, will help strengthen Canaan’s presence and focus on the cloud computing market. Canaan already has investments in this area like Virsto Software and SOASTA, Inc.
“Cloud Computing is a global phenomenon and Canaan is very well positioned to be a partner for pioneering companies worldwide. Sharad will help us expand our investments in this space by identifying key trends and attracting innovative entrepreneurs across the globe,” said Alok Mittal, General Partner at Canaan.
Sharma was also a co-founder and CEO of Teltier Technologies, a wireless infrastructure start-up that is now part of Cisco. He has also established AT&T’s and later Lucent’s R&D organization in India.
“Sharad brings a unique mix of investment, leadership and product experience in both infrastructure technology and global markets to Canaan,” said Maha Ibrahim, General Partner at Canaan. “His experience will be a real asset as we continue our growth in India and other global markets. Sharad’s insight will also help us build on the momentum we’ve established in the virtualization and Cloud Computing markets with investments in companies like Virsto.”
Canaan Partners has been active investor in the Indian venture capital market with around half a dozen investments. Some of its investments include BharatMatrimony, Cellcast and more recently Bollywood website Chakpak and mobile VAS firm mCarbon.
