Premji Invest

Aidan Pak joined Premji Invest in 2026, where he works on growth-stage investing with a focus on enterprise software, including AI, data and cloud infrastructure, developer tools, and cybersecurity. He was previously an investor at Adams Street Partners specializing in infrastructure software, and earlier worked at Summit Partners and its portfolio company Invicti Security. He holds a B.A. in Mathematics with minors in Computer Science and Business from Vanderbilt University.

Akshay Kini joined Premji Invest in 2022, where he leads enterprise technology investing with a focus on application software, data infrastructure, and AI, as well as B2B payments and vertical software & payments. He previously worked at General Atlantic on growth-stage consumer internet and enterprise software investments. He holds a B.S. in Operations Research from Columbia University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School.

Akshay Rai leads healthcare and life sciences investments at Premji Invest, which he joined in 2010, holding multiple roles across India and the U.S. He helped establish the firm's U.S. healthcare investing practice and focuses on platforms using emerging technologies for drug discovery and improved care models. Before Premji Invest, he was a healthcare analyst at Citigroup India, and he holds a Bachelor of Engineering from NITK Suratkal and an M.B.A. from IIM Bangalore.

Alex Zhang is a public markets investor at Premji Invest focused on TMT and adjacent sectors, using primary research and first-principles analysis to find mispriced investments. He previously worked as an equity analyst at Orbis Investments in San Francisco covering Tech, Industrials, and Healthcare, and began his career in strategy consulting for advanced technology sectors. He holds a B.A. in Physics and Mathematics from Cornell University.

Amy Covey is a go-to-market and revenue executive with over 20 years of experience scaling revenue organizations in technology, advertising, and AI-enabled businesses. She spent more than a decade at Amazon in senior leadership roles within Amazon Advertising, and later served as Chief Revenue Officer of Advertising at Wayfair. She now works with founders, executive teams, and investors as a hands-on go-to-market operator and fractional revenue leader, with a focus on AI-enabled go-to-market execution.

Ana Mendy is an executive with over 15 years of experience in enterprise growth, operational transformation, and risk management. At PayPal she has held roles including Vice President and Head of Channel Partnerships, Vice President of Strategy, and Global Head of Talent, and she previously spent more than a decade at McKinsey & Company, where she became a Partner advising boards and CEOs on strategy, risk, and organizational transformation. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an A.B. in History from Harvard College.

Brad Arkin is Principal of LeverSec, where he advises private capital firms, public boards, and growing founders on risk and technology. He previously held senior security leadership roles as Chief Trust Officer at Salesforce, Chief Security & Trust Officer at Cisco, and Chief Security Officer at Adobe.

Curt Herberts has over 20 years of experience in operations, corporate development, and strategy at cell and gene therapy companies. He was President and COO at Kriya Therapeutics, and previously held CFO, CBO, and COO roles at Senti Biosciences and Chief Business Officer at Sangamo Therapeutics, along with consulting work at Campbell Alliance Group. He holds a B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University and a Master of Business and Science from the Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences.

Ed Anuff is Chief Product Officer at DataStax and has more than 30 years of experience in technology and product leadership. He previously worked on early internet search technology and helped lead Apigee through its IPO and subsequent acquisition by Google. His work has focused on data, APIs, and enterprise platforms.

Eva Olbers leads Portfolio Support and Business Development at Premji Invest, working with portfolio company teams on growth strategies and developing the firm's investor and expert network. She was previously an Operating Partner at Point72 Ventures, where she built the Value Creation function for AI/DeepTech investments, and earlier led Portfolio Success at the Microsoft Accelerator in London, handled EMEA business development for Knewton, and advised companies at the Boston Consulting Group. She holds master's degrees from the London Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Isabel Aguirre is an Office Manager and Executive Assistant at Premji Invest, where she supports executive leadership and oversees office operations, scheduling, and internal coordination. Before Premji Invest, she spent over four years in venture capital supporting operations and marketing, and previously worked in retail, food service, and childcare. She is a Bay Area native.

Jake Epstein co-leads Premji Invest's early-stage practice, focusing on AI, enterprise software, and deep tech. He previously invested at Canaan across enterprise software, cybersecurity, and deep tech, and began his career as a product manager at Uber. He holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College with a double major in Engineering Sciences (modified with Economics) and Computer Science.

Jeff Capone is a technology executive and entrepreneur with over two decades of leadership experience across cybersecurity, Zero Trust data protection, and cloud/SaaS platforms. He most recently served as Vice President of Data Protection at CrowdStrike, and previously co-founded and led SecureCircle, a Data Access Governance and Zero-Trust DLP company acquired by CrowdStrike. He was earlier CTO of NETGEAR, founded Leaf Networks and Aligo, and holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University and a B.S. from the University of Vermont.

Justin Yannix joined Premji Invest in 2024, where he works on growth-stage investing with a focus on enterprise technology. He was previously a private equity investor at Warburg Pincus covering growth-stage enterprise software and fintech, and earlier worked in technology investment banking at Qatalyst Partners and J.P. Morgan. He holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago.

Kevin Cook is Chief Financial Officer of Bumble Inc., with a background in finance, strategy and business operations, including experience taking companies public. He previously served as CFO of Cloudera and held senior finance and strategy roles at Barracuda, as well as investment banking leadership positions at Cowen, Credit Suisse, Wells Fargo and RBC Capital Markets. He began his career at Morrison Foerster and holds a BA in Business-Economics from UCLA and a JD from Georgetown University.

Krista Peters leads operations, marketing strategy, and platform support at Premji Invest, where she manages firm-wide processes, cross-functional initiatives, and HR, IT, and team operations, and organizes networking and platform events. She previously worked at Propel Venture Partners, managing firm operations and its events program and supporting portfolio companies. She holds a B.A. in International Business from UNLV and has a background in hospitality along with a sommelier certification.

Lauren Nemeth is a go-to-market leader and executive with over 20 years of experience commercializing products across companies from pre-revenue startups to businesses with $4.5+ billion in revenue, with a focus on enterprise, product-led (PLG), and partner-led sales strategies. She currently serves as Chief Revenue Officer of New Relic, overseeing global sales, partnerships, revenue operations, field engineering, customer success, and support. She has previously held C-level roles at Pinecone, Twilio, Nextdoor, Turn, and URX, and has helped guide six companies through acquisitions and two through IPOs.

Lutz Beck is the Chief Information Officer at Daimler Truck North America (DTNA), where he leads IT strategy and digital transformation. He previously served as CIO at Daimler Truck Asia (Mitsubishi Fuso in Japan and Bharat Benz in India), overseeing the Connected X IT technology strategy and establishing connectivity and big data analytics initiatives. Earlier in his career he held various management positions at Daimler in Germany.

Marc Martin Casas works on growth-stage life sciences and healthcare investments at Premji Invest. He previously built and led the early-stage practice at Illumina Ventures, backing genomics-focused biotech startups, and earlier ran Illumina Accelerator; he was also on the investment team at Lam Research Capital. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from UC Berkeley, a Masters in Biochemical Engineering from University College London, and a Bachelor's in Biotechnology from Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona.

Nitzan Mekel-Bobrov serves as Chief AI Officer at eBay, where he oversees the company's artificial intelligence and technology innovation strategy and acts as GM of eBay NYC. Trained as an R&D scientist, he has built machine learning systems and led enterprise AI organizations across healthcare, financial services, and ecommerce. He holds a PhD from the University of Chicago.

Paul Daugherty is a member of the board of directors at Quantinuum and serves as AI Advisory Chair at TPG, a role he began in May 2025. He retired from Accenture after a 38-year career, during which he was CEO of the company's technology business and Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, launched Accenture Ventures, and led its cloud, AI, and quantum businesses along with its research and development efforts. He is also an angel investor, a limited partner in several venture capital funds, an author, and a public speaker.

Prakhar Mehrotra is Senior Vice President and Head of AI at PayPal, overseeing companywide AI efforts. He previously served as Managing Director of AI at Blackstone, where he led AI implementation across portfolio companies, and as Vice President & Officer of AI at Walmart, leading data science teams across merchandising, supply chain, store operations, and energy. Earlier in his career he led ML teams at Uber and worked as a data scientist at Twitter.

Rishabh Bardia joined Premji Invest in 2023, where he focuses on enterprise technology and gaming investments. He previously worked in the Strategy and Operations team at Hevo Data, and spent 3.5 years at Exfinity Venture Partners in Bangalore investing in enterprise technology and deep tech companies, where he also worked on portfolio exits and fundraising. He began his career as a software developer at Oracle, holds a B.Tech from IIT Guwahati, and is a CFA Charterholder.

Sandesh Patnam is Managing Partner at Premji Invest, where he runs the firm's private and listed equities investing practice in the US and leads tech investing globally, having joined to establish the firm's US presence. Before Premji Invest, he was a Senior Equity Analyst and Investment Officer at the Seligman Technology Group at Ameriprise, and earlier a General Partner at Bay Partners leading its IT infrastructure and SaaS practices. He previously worked at TeleSoft Partners and held roles at Malleable Technologies, Silicon Graphics, Integrated Device Technologies, and Cirrus Logic.

T K Kurien is the CEO of Premji Invest, the investment office sponsored by Azim Premji. He previously served as Vice Chairman and CEO of Wipro Ltd, which he joined in 2000, leading and scaling divisions including Wipro Eco Energy, Business Process Services, Media, Telecom, and Consulting. Earlier in his career he was Managing Director of GE X Ray and CFO of GE Medical Systems (South Asia); he is a Chartered Accountant by training.

Varun Mehta was most recently CEO of Atlas Data Systems, a company developing DNA-based data storage from the chip level for synthesizing and sequencing DNA. He previously served as CEO of Sneller Inc, co-founded and led Nimble Storage (which IPO'd in 2013 and was acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprise in 2017), and held engineering leadership roles at Data Domain and NetApp. He holds an MBA from UC Berkeley, an MS from Rice University, and a BE from BITS, Pilani.

Vedant Agrawal leads Premji Invest's early-stage practice, concentrating on software, consumer, fintech, and healthcare. He was previously an early-stage investor at Sequoia Capital India, where he worked on seed and Series A deals and was an early member of the Surge program, and earlier co-led a new education product line at Scaler Academy and began his career as a business analyst at McKinsey & Company. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.Tech in mechanical engineering from IIT Madras.

Vijendar Dwarakanath manages the US external fund investment portfolio at Premji Invest and leads finance for its US portfolio, with over 17 years of experience in operating and investment support roles. He executes the firm's external VC/PE fund investment strategy in the US and partners with investment teams on deal evaluation, negotiation, closing, portfolio management, and exit planning. He previously headed portfolio finance for the firm's India Industrials strategy, working on buyouts, M&A, and IPOs, and is a chartered accountant.

Violetta Ostafin is a healthcare executive who previously served as Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at CVS Health. Earlier she was CEO of Aon Health Solutions, Latin America, and Global COO of Aon Health Solutions, and before that a Managing Director and Partner at BCG advising on growth and business model innovation. She holds an MBA from the Wharton School and a Master of Arts in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, was a Fulbright Scholar at the Warsaw School of Economics, and earned a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University.