Venky Ganesan
PartnerCybersecurity, Cloud Infrastructure, Consumer
Venky is a partner at Menlo Ventures focused on investments in both the consumer and enterprise sectors. He currently serves on the boards of Abnormal Security, Aisera, Appdome, BitSight, Breather, Dedrone, MealPal, Rover, Sonrai Security, StackRox, and Unravel Data. Prior to joining Menlo, he was a managing partner at Globespan Capital Partners, where he was part of the investment team since the firm’s inception. At Globespan, Venky led numerous successful investments including Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Upwork (UPWK), Redfin (RDFN), Amobee (acquired by SingTel for $321M), Jajah (acquired by Telefonica for $207M), Virident (acquired by Western Digital for $685M), and Trigo (acquired by IBM). He has also led investments or served on the boards of private companies such as Rev and SMSGupshup. Venky was recognized on the Forbes Midas List from 2013–2015.
Prior to Globespan, Venky was one of the founders of Trigo Technologies and played a critical part in building Trigo into the market leader in the product information management space. IBM acquired the company resulting in a substantial return for all investors. Venky also previously worked at McKinsey & Co., in the firm’s Los Angeles and Johannesburg offices, and at Microsoft where he started his career as a program manager.
Venky holds a bachelor of arts in mathematics–economics from Reed College and a bachelor of science in engineering and applied science, with honors, from the California Institute of Technology. Venky believes strongly in giving back to the community. He was the chair of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), a Trustee of Keys School, a Trustee of Castilleja School, and President of the Indian Community Center in Milpitas.
Supported by: Lauren Centoni, lauren@menlovc.com
Venky is a partner at Menlo Ventures focused on investments in both the consumer and enterprise sectors. He currently serves on the boards of Abnormal Security, Aisera, Appdome, BitSight, Breather, Dedrone, MealPal, Rover, Sonrai Security, StackRox, and Unravel Data. Prior to joining Menlo, he was a managing partner at Globespan Capital Partners, where he was part of the investment team since the firm’s inception. At Globespan, Venky led numerous successful investments including Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Upwork (UPWK), Redfin (RDFN), Amobee (acquired by SingTel for $321M), Jajah (acquired by Telefonica for $207M), Virident (acquired by Western Digital for $685M), and Trigo (acquired by IBM). He has also led investments or served on the boards of private companies such as Rev and SMSGupshup. Venky was recognized on the Forbes Midas List from 2013–2015.
Prior to Globespan, Venky was one of the founders of Trigo Technologies and played a critical part in building Trigo into the market leader in the product information management space. IBM acquired the company resulting in a substantial return for all investors. Venky also previously worked at McKinsey & Co., in the firm’s Los Angeles and Johannesburg offices, and at Microsoft where he started his career as a program manager.
Venky holds a bachelor of arts in mathematics–economics from Reed College and a bachelor of science in engineering and applied science, with honors, from the California Institute of Technology. Venky believes strongly in giving back to the community. He was the chair of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), a Trustee of Keys School, a Trustee of Castilleja School, and President of the Indian Community Center in Milpitas.
Supported by: Lauren Centoni, lauren@menlovc.com
Investments
Our PortfolioAbnormal Security is an integrated email security solution for the cloud office, detecting the whole spectrum of email attacks, from vendor compromise and spear-phishing to unwanted spam and graymail.
Milestones
- 2018 → Founded
- 2020 → Partnered, Series B
Partner
AVI Networks offers a software solution that maximizes application delivery of enterprise and cloud-based applications.
Milestones
- 2012 → Founded
- 2014 → Partnered, Series B
- 2019 → Acquired by VMware
Partner
BitSight Technologies is transforming how companies manage information security risk with objective, evidence-based security ratings.
Milestones
- 2011 → Founded
- 2013 → Partnered, Series A
Partner
Poshmark is a social commerce marketplace where people can buy and sell new or used clothing, shoes, accessories, and home goods.
Milestones
- 2011 → Founded
- 2012 → Partnered, Series B
- 2021 → IPO; NASDAQ: POSH
- 2022 → Acquired by Naver
Partner
Palo Alto Networks is a multinational cybersecurity company. Its core products are a platform that includes advanced firewalls and cloud-based offerings that extend those firewalls to cover other aspects of security.
Milestones
- 2005 → Founded
- 2007 → Partnered (at Globespan)
- 2012 → IPO
Partner
Redfin is a real estate brokerage founded with the hopes of upending the traditional brokerage model.
Milestones
- 2002 → Founded
- 2011 → Partnered (at Globespan)
- 2017 → IPO
Partner
Rover connects dog and cat parents with loving pet sitters and dog walkers in neighborhoods across the US, Canada, UK, and Europe.
Milestones
- 2011 → Founded
- 2014 → Partnered, Series C
- 2021 → SPAC; NASDAQ: ROVR
Partner
Unravel Data automates and simplifies Big Data operations (DataOps) with a full-stack performance intelligence platform that accelerates application performance, optimizes multi-tenant resource usage, and provides operations intelligence—all from a single location.
Milestones
- 2013 → Founded
- 2015 → Partnered, Series A
Partner
Abnormal Security is an integrated email security solution for the cloud office, detecting the whole spectrum of email attacks, from vendor compromise and spear-phishing to unwanted spam and graymail.
Milestones
- 2018 → Founded
- 2020 → Partnered, Series B
Partner
Aisera transforms the service, support, and operations experience for enterprises with its generative AI and automation platform.
Milestones
- 2017 → Founded
- 2018 → Partnered, Series A
Partner
AVI Networks offers a software solution that maximizes application delivery of enterprise and cloud-based applications.
Milestones
- 2012 → Founded
- 2014 → Partnered, Series B
- 2019 → Acquired by VMware
Partner
BitSight Technologies is transforming how companies manage information security risk with objective, evidence-based security ratings.
Milestones
- 2011 → Founded
- 2013 → Partnered, Series A
Partner
Cequence is an API security platform that unifies API visibility and risk assessment with native, enterprise-grade attack and vulnerability protection.
Milestones
- 2014 → Founded
- 2021 → Partnered, Series C
Partner
Dedrone is the international market and technology leader in the field of drone detection.
Milestones
- 2014 → Founded
- 2016 → Partnered, Series A
- 2024 → Acquired by Axon
Partner
Exeros operated as a data relationship discovery and management company offering data migration solutions for enterprises.
Milestones
- 2009 → Acquired by IBM
Partner
Immersive Labs is empowering organizations to measure and improve cybersecurity skills across technical and non-technical teams with its Cyber Workforce Optimization platform.
Milestones
- 2017 → Founded
- 2021 → Partnered, Series C
Partner
Machine Zone develops mobile games in various genres that include fantasy, RPG, and MMO.
Milestones
- 2008 → Founded
- 2012 → Partnered, Series B
- 2020 → Acquired by AppLovin
Partner
MealPal offers a subscription service that makes lunch pickup from restaurants convenient and affordable.
Milestones
- 2016 → Founded
- 2017 → Partnered, Series B
Partner
Obsidian aggregates, normalizes, and enriches user activity, access, and privilege data across SaaS applications to help organizations identify potential account compromise, data leakage, or insider threats.
Milestones
- 2017 → Founded
- 2022 → Partnered, Series C
Partner
Palo Alto Networks is a multinational cybersecurity company. Its core products are a platform that includes advanced firewalls and cloud-based offerings that extend those firewalls to cover other aspects of security.
Milestones
- 2005 → Founded
- 2007 → Partnered (at Globespan)
- 2012 → IPO
Partner
Poshmark is a social commerce marketplace where people can buy and sell new or used clothing, shoes, accessories, and home goods.
Milestones
- 2011 → Founded
- 2012 → Partnered, Series B
- 2021 → IPO; NASDAQ: POSH
- 2022 → Acquired by Naver
Partner
Prodigal gives lenders and collections agencies insights from customer interactions using advanced conversational AI.
Milestones
- 2018 → Founded
- 2021 → Partnered, Series A
Partner
Redfin is a real estate brokerage founded with the hopes of upending the traditional brokerage model.
Milestones
- 2002 → Founded
- 2011 → Partnered (at Globespan)
- 2017 → IPO
Partner
Rover connects dog and cat parents with loving pet sitters and dog walkers in neighborhoods across the US, Canada, UK, and Europe.
Milestones
- 2011 → Founded
- 2014 → Partnered, Series C
- 2021 → SPAC; NASDAQ: ROVR
Partner
Sonrai Security delivers an enterprise identity and data governance platform for AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and Kubernetes.
Milestones
- 2017 → Founded
- 2020 → Partnered, Series B
Partner
StackRox is a Kubernetes-native security platform for cloud-native applications, containers, serverless, and Kubernetes
Milestones
- 2014 → Founded
- 2020 → Partnered, Series B
- 2021 → Acquired by Red Hat
Partner
Strata is pioneering distributed identity orchestration, enabling enterprises to seamlessly unify on-premises and cloud-based authentication and access systems for consistent identity management in multi-cloud environments.
Milestones
- 2019 → Founded
- 2020 → Partnered, Series A
Partner
Unravel Data automates and simplifies Big Data operations (DataOps) with a full-stack performance intelligence platform that accelerates application performance, optimizes multi-tenant resource usage, and provides operations intelligence—all from a single location.
Milestones
- 2013 → Founded
- 2015 → Partnered, Series A
Partner
Upwork is a global freelancing platform where businesses or individuals connect to conduct business.
Milestones
- 2018 → IPO