We are thrilled to welcome, one of Silicon Valley’s early AI and Deep Tech startup investors, Vijay Reddy who brings to Clear a track-record of successful investments and partnerships with AI luminaries and academics.
With $330 million of assets under management from a world-class investor base, Clear is a Silicon Valley frontier technology venture capital firm that is purpose-built to help startup teams win.
Founded by Chris Rust and Rajeev Madhavan, who collectively founded 5 successful startups and invested in more than 60 companies, including 8 IPOs and 26 acquisitions from 36 exits, Clear focuses on early-stage Enterprise IT companies, thus many are aimed at the convergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and deep domain or functional expertise. We refer to this as “AI + X”, or AI applied to a specific industry or function. In 90 percent of its past portfolio companies, a majority of which are led by first time CEO’s, Clear has been a founding investor.
Clear is dedicated to bringing early capital, connections, and company-building insights to startups that are focused on creating innovations leveraging AI and machine learning (ML) solutions to the world’s largest industries. With an investment philosophy that is intrinsically aligned with this approach, Vijay Reddy will allow Clear to broaden its hyper-focus on investing in early-stage AI and disruptive emerging technology companies that help businesses win.
Vijay brings to Clear his background, domain expertise and well-established reputation as a leading AI and frontier technology venture investor. Having invested in 20 AI and frontier technology startups, including 4 unicorns and 2 IPOs, he has helped his portfolio raise more than $3.5B and achieve aggregate valuations in excess of $20B. Some of Vijay Reddy’s notable deals at Intel Capital included Sambanova, DataRobot, Lilt, Joby (Nasdaq: Joby), Aeye (Nasdaq: LIDR), Hypersonix, KatanaGraph, Landing.ai, Babblelabs (Acquired Cisco), Matroid, Avaamo, Opaque, Inferencio, Paperspace and Common Sense Machines.
“While at Intel, Vijay distinguished himself as a leading early stage investor in AI, big data analytics and cloud-to-edge technologies. This is a perfect fit for his new role at Clear,” said Rajeev Madhavan, co-founder and General Partner at Clear Ventures. “Vijay’s thoughtful and respectful approach to venture investing, and his tireless commitment to help his portfolio companies flourish, have earned him an excellent reputation. Vijay is distinguished by an exceptional financial track record, a world class relationship ecosystem, and nearly a decade of hands-on early stage technology venture investment experience. His positive attitude, keen intellect, and sound business judgement are a perfect fit for the Clear investment team. We’re thrilled to welcome him as our newest partner.”
He began his career as an entrepreneur after dropping out of the PhD program to co-found his first startup. He also has held several senior Business Development and Product Development roles in the communications, software, and semiconductor industries. He takes a founder-first approach while being actively involved with the startup community as a mentor and advisor. A Kauffman Fellow, Vijay received his MBA from Chicago Booth (Finance and Entrepreneurship) and has a BS & MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering with top honors.
