Cota Capital

Adit Singh joined Cota Capital in 2021 as a Partner on the investment team, focusing on early-stage company building alongside founders. He previously co-founded and served as Managing Director at Neotribe Ventures and was a Partner at Foundation Capital, where he co-founded networking appliance company Bitsplay Systems. Earlier, he was an early employee and Senior Director of Product Management at Enphase Energy, and led the data center infrastructure team at Cisco after starting his career as an engineer at Growth Networks. He holds a B.S. and M.S. in ECE from UIUC and an MBA from Chicago Booth.

Kevin Jacques joined Cota Capital in 2021 and works on early-stage fintech investments. He previously served as Vice President and Head of Corporate Ventures at Visa, where he led venture investing and acted as lead partner on more than 25 fintech transactions, and earlier spent seven years directing Corporate Development and Investments at Intuit. His background also includes roles as a venture capital partner at Sevin Rosen Funds and Palomar Ventures, CEO of RFID middleware company Globeranger, and consultant at The Boston Consulting Group; he holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Stanford and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School.

Murat Kilicoglu joined Cota Capital as a Principal in 2022, working on sourcing, evaluating, and monitoring private investments. He previously served as a Vice President in the Investment Banking Division at Evercore focusing on technology M&A, and earlier at Credit Suisse advising software and fintech companies, following roles at TRPE Capital and Roland Berger. He holds a B.S. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Bogazici University and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Pete Williams is a Partner and COO of Cota Capital, where he oversees operations, finance, legal, and compliance and sits on the Investment Committee. He previously held executive roles at Saba, including CFO, EVP of Corporate Development, and General Counsel, and was earlier a Corporate Finance Partner at the law firm Morrison & Foerster. He holds a B.A. in Economics and Psychology from UCLA and a J.D. from Santa Clara University.

Albert Azout is co-founder and managing partner at Level Ventures. His investment interests include machine learning, advanced computing, distributed systems, and developer/data/ML operations.

Babak Poushanchi is Founder and Managing Partner of Cota Capital, a San Francisco-based technology investment firm. His career includes roles as Venture Partner at Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator in New York, Co-Founder and Co-Portfolio Manager of Newbrook Capital (a global long/short equity fund), Investment Analyst at Karsch Capital, and Investment Associate at Indosuez Capital. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Northwestern University.

Vikram Venkat joined Cota Capital as a Principal in 2025, working on the investment team to source, evaluate, and monitor private investments. He previously held early-stage investing roles at Rocketship VC, Jump Capital, and the 49ers Enterprises, and spent over four years as a management consultant at Boston Consulting Group. He earned an undergraduate engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Ashkan Marsh is a Partner at Crimson Drawbridge, where he leads commercial activities across AI compute infrastructure transactions including datacenter campuses, power, and fiber investments. Previously, he was at Cota Capital, where he helped scale the firm from approximately $200 million to $2 billion in assets under management and led thirty investment professionals across seventy portfolio companies. He has also held roles at Goldman Sachs Special Situations Group, managing approximately $24 billion in equity and debt transactions for private companies undergoing M&A, restructuring, and IPO processes.

Ben Malka joined Cota Capital in 2019, where he focuses on early-stage investments in fintech companies. He was previously a General Partner at F-Prime Capital, serving as lead partner on several investments, and has been a General Partner at North Hill Ventures since 1999. Earlier in his career he worked at The Boston Consulting Group and began at Bank of America as a statistical analyst; he holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.

Suresh Batchu is COO and Co-founder of Seraphic Security. He previously co-founded MobileIron, an enterprise mobility management company that went public in 2014 and was later acquired by Ivanti, where he led engineering before becoming CTO. He has since invested in and advised more than 25 technology startups and holds 46 patents across networking, security, identity, and mobility, along with an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of South Florida.

Val Vaden joined Cota Capital in 2025 as a Venture Partner, bringing four decades of experience in enterprise technology as a management consultant, software executive, and investor. He co-founded Benchmark Capital, an early-stage venture firm, and Vector Capital, a private equity and credit firm focused on technology businesses. He began his career as a consultant at Bain and Company and later invested at The Cypress Fund and Feibusch & Co. He holds an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and an A.B. in Economics and Political Science from Stanford University.

Allison Chapman has been Director of Administration at Cota Capital since 2019. She previously held Executive Assistant roles at Blockchain Capital and Brunswick Group. She holds a B.A. in Human Geography and Humanistic Psychology from the University of West Georgia.

Arif Farooqui joined Cota Capital in 2020 as Vice President, Finance, with a background spanning audit and industry roles across venture capital, private equity, hedge funds, and cryptocurrency funds. He previously worked as a Finance Manager at Venrock, an Experienced Assurance Manager at BDO in San Francisco's Asset Management practice, and a Manager at EY in Bahrain focused on financial services. He is a Fellow Chartered Accountant (FCA) of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Christopher Yazdani joined Cota Capital as an Associate in 2024, where he works on sourcing and evaluating investments and supporting existing portfolio companies. Before Cota, he was Vice President of an investment group managing public equities and was a founding member of a technology-focused sales club, the Collegiate Sales Society. He earned a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business.

Faie Dorin is General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Cota Capital, joining the firm in 2021. Before Cota, Faie was Associate General Counsel for GE's growth and innovation business, covering GE Ventures, GE Licensing, and New Business Creation, and earlier practiced as an attorney at the law firm Sidley Austin LLP. Faie holds a B.A. in English and Psychology from Rice University and a J.D. from the University of Virginia.

Gabi Schindler is Chief Marketing Officer at Cota Capital, which she joined in 2021, with a background leading marketing and communications for organizations ranging from startups to Fortune 100 companies. She previously served as Partner and CMO at Sansa Advisors, CMO of Nexmo (acquired by Vonage), CMO of Amobee (acquired by SingTel), CMO of Saba, and SVP of Global Marketing at PalmSource, and earlier held marketing and PR roles at AT&T and Apple. She holds a B.S. in Communications from San Jose State University.

Kim DeCarlis is a go-to-market executive with a background in product marketing, brand building, and high-tech sales across both large enterprises and startups. She most recently served as CMO of PerimeterX (prior to its merger with HUMAN Security), and previously held CMO roles at Gigamon, Imperva, and BMC Software, with earlier marketing roles at Citrix Systems, IRI, Saba, and Documentum, and sales roles at IBM. She holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University.

Nilla Oyunchuluun joined Cota Capital in 2026 as Team Administrator. She previously held workplace operations and administrative roles at professional services organizations, including Latham & Watkins LLP, where she handled office operations, event coordination, and workplace experience for the San Francisco office. She holds a Project Management Certificate from Year Up United.

Pete Abrams has worked for over 30 years in enterprise IT across product management, product marketing, and sales, with a focus over the past decade on DevOps tooling. He was the first sales/product marketing hire at AppDynamics, helping land its first US customers and build early sales teams in Europe and Asia, and in 2015 co-founded Instana, which IBM acquired in 2020. He now advises early-stage enterprise IT product companies on go-to-market strategy, including positioning, sales process, and funnel creation.

Rich Ellinger is a Partner and Chief Technology Officer at Cota Capital, which he joined in 2022, having earlier served as an Operating Partner working with portfolio companies on product and go-to-market strategy. He co-founded Saba in 1997 and led its global R&D organization, later served as COO of Webs (acquired by Vistaprint in 2011), and was founder and CEO of Wealthminder (acquired by AdvisorEngine in 2017). He began his career as a software engineer at Oracle and holds M.S., B.S., and B.A. degrees from Stanford University.

Sam Blumenfeld joined Cota Capital as a Senior Fund Accountant in 2025. He was previously a Senior Audit Associate at Frank, Rimerman + Co. LLP, providing assurance and advisory services to venture capital clients and working with fund managers, administrators, and investors on financial reporting and compliance. He holds a B.A. in Business/Managerial Economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and is a licensed CPA in California.

Sara Shabani joined Cota Capital as a Senior Associate in 2026, where she works on sourcing, evaluating, and monitoring private investments. She previously worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company's Technology Practice, advising enterprises on AI, data, and compute strategy, and worked with software providers on product strategy and go-to-market efforts. She holds a Ph.D. in Physics from Columbia University, with research in quantum computing and semiconductors, and also conducted quantum AI research at Google.

Tala Farhatnia joined Cota Capital in 2026 as an Investor Relations Senior Analyst, working with limited partners and supporting the firm's capital raising and investor engagement. She previously led capital-raising efforts at a hardware/software startup, managed investment operations at Laird Norton Wetherby, and handled client services for UHNW clients at a family office, after starting her career as an Analyst in the Synthetic Products Group at Goldman Sachs in London and Salt Lake City. She holds a B.S. in Business Administration in Finance from the University of San Francisco.

Vince Plot is an Associate on the investment team at Cota Capital, where he works on sourcing, diligence, and investment analysis in enterprise technology and infrastructure. He collaborates with founders and portfolio companies to assess markets, business models, and growth opportunities. Before joining Cota, he was an Investor Relations Analyst at IFA AG, and he holds an M.A. in Business from the University of Applied Sciences St. Poelten in Austria.

Vivienne Chua is Chief Financial Officer at Cota Capital, which she joined in 2021, with a background in alternative investments and international fund operations in jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands. She previously served as a Controller at Numerai GP LLC and Grand Trunk Capital, and spent seven years in Ernst & Young's Asset Management audit practice. She holds a B.A. in Communication Studies with a Business Administration specialization from UCLA and is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive) in California.