MENLO PARK, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 02/20/13 -- Menlo Ventures announced today that Venky Ganesan will be joining the firm as a Managing Director. Ganesan will focus on seed and early stage investments in the consumer and enterprise spaces.

Previously, Ganesan was a Managing Director at Globespan Capital Partners, where his investments included Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Amobee (acquired by Singtel), Jajah (acquired by Telefonica), Plaxo (acquired by Comcast), Sendia (acquired by Salesforce.com) and oDesk. A former entrepreneur as well, Ganesan grew his company Trigo Technologies into a market leader in the product information management space before the company's sale to IBM in 2004.

"We couldn't be more excited to have Venky join the Menlo team. Over the past 15 years, he's established a highly successful track record investing in both enterprise and consumer companies such as Palo Alto Networks, Jajah, and Plaxo," said Pravin Vazirani, Managing Director at Menlo Ventures. "He is also a strong contributor to the venture capital community, currently serving on the board of the NVCA. Menlo has been searching for a Managing Director for more than a year, and Venky is the perfect fit."

"Menlo has an amazing reputation of working collaboratively with entrepreneurs and building great companies from seed to growth stages. Their 'Venture Right' approach to company building is why so many entrepreneurs select Menlo as their preferred partner, and why I chose Menlo as well," said Ganesan. "It's an honor to join a group with such a long-standing reputation in Silicon Valley, having backed leading companies such as Hotmail, Cavium Networks, Acme Packet and 3PAR over the past 37 years. I believe they are one of the firms that will define the venture industry in the next decade."

Menlo's current portfolio includes notable companies such as Uber, Fab, Roku, Flurry, and Coraid. Recent exits include 3PAR (acquired by HP for $2.35 Billion), Siri (acquired by Apple), IronPort (acquired by Cisco for $830 Million), Pliant Technology (acquired by Sandisk for $327 Million), PlaySpan (acquired by Visa for $229 Million) and Q1 Labs (acquired by IBM.) Other successes include Acme Packet (APKT, currently being acquired by Oracle for $2.1 Billion), Carbonite (CARB), Cavium (CAVM) and TeleNav (TNAV).

About Menlo Ventures
Menlo Ventures provides capital for seed through growth technology companies in the consumer and enterprise sectors. For decades, the firm's market-driven research analysis has led to the identification of and successful exits in innovative technology markets. Notable research areas of investment include Mobile (Siri, Uber, TeleNav), Enterprise Storage (3PAR, Spinnaker Networks, Coraid), Communications (Acme Packet, Cavium Networks), and Consumer (Fab, Carbonite, Roku). Founded in 1976, Menlo's portfolio includes 70 public companies and more than 100 mergers and acquisitions. Throughout the firm's history, Menlo's deep network of portfolio entrepreneurs, angels and advisors are a key resource made available to all of our family of investments. Menlo Ventures has $4 billion under management and is currently investing Menlo Ventures XI, a $400 million fund with $20 million allocated to our Menlo Talent Fund for fast seed funding. For more information, visit www.menlovc.com.

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