RR

Rishi Ratan

Tech Growth Investor | Direct & Fund Investments | ex Micron, In-Q-Tel, Microsoft | CBS MBA | BS/MS ECE UIUC

New York City Metropolitan Area

Work Experience

  • Investment Director

    2023

    Lead the investment team for direct and fund investments focused on deep-tech & frontier-tech using flexible permanent capital for long-term growth. Established by the founding shareholders of Lazard and Eurazeo, as well as shareholders of First Eagle Investment Management, The Gate is multi-generational family-owned multi-asset investment firm that provides permanent growth capital via flexible financing structures to funds seeking liquidity and management teams for high-quality mission-critical technology companies.

  • Managing Partner

    2020

    Lead venture investments for my family office in a concentrated long term oriented strategy focused on companies and funds leveraging breakthrough digital technologies to modernize critical infrastructure. Notable Private Investments - Shield AI (Series F), Machina Labs (Series B), Saronic (Series A), Anthropic (Series B), Formic (Series B), 201 Ventures (European Defense Tech Fund), Pryon (Series B), Modern Intelligence (Series A), Red Leader Tech (Series A), Cion Digital (Series B), Bastille Networks (Series B), Uniswap Labs (Series B), D-Graph Labs (Seed), Qunnect (Seed), and Normal Computing (Seed).

2021 - 2023

  • Senior Manager (Principal) - Venture Capital

    2021 - 2023

    Led early/mid-stage [Series A - C] investments in disruptive startups within Applied AI, Edge Computing, Web3 + Metaverse enabling technologies & infrastructure tools, and Autonomous Systems sectors as part of Micron's $300M AI & Deep-Tech Fund. Notable investments: Eliyan, Red Leader, InWorld.ai, Avicena, Virtualness, and Normal Computing.

2020 - 2021

  • Investor

    2020 - 2021

    Focused on early growth (Series A - Series C) investment opportunities within Enterprise SW and Deep-Tech/Hard-Tech (i.e. the Field Technology) sectors encompassing Next-Gen Communications/Computing technologies (ex: 5G, Space Communication, AI/Edge Hardware, and Quantum Computing), AI/ML Autonomous Systems, and Industry 4.0 (ex: IoT/Edge Computing, Next-Gen Battery/Energy Storage, Additive Manufacturing, and Advanced Materials) technologies. In-Q-Tel is the strategic venture capital arm of the US Intelligence Community and accelerates innovation by investing in cutting-edge technologies from prominent startups to strengthen the security of the US and it’s allies by supporting the missions of the CIA, NSA, NRO, DIA and the broader US Intelligence Community (IC).

2020 - 2020

  • MBA Investment Associate

    2020 - 2020

    Led enterprise AI/ML, FinTech, and HW Security investment thesis development efforts. JVP is a full-service deep-tech focused VC firm with >$2B in AUM and global investments across Israel, North America, and Europe.

2019 - 2020

  • Investment Director

    2019 - 2020

    Evaluated tech-focused lower-middle market buyout opportunities and performed strategic + financial LBO analysis to close the acquisition of target after ETA focused search. Honor Equity is a lower-middle market growth oriented investment firm with an operational focus built on the foundation of creating a unique alternative for business owners looking to transition their business or bring on a partner to lead future growth.

2014 - 2019

  • Corporate Development & Strategy Manager - AI & Intelligent Edge Devices/Experiences

    2018 - 2019

    Led the portfolio planning and strategic investment efforts to evangelize new experiences platforms, device form-factors, and promote new services across the next generation Intelligent Edge Devices (AI/Machine-Teaching, industrial-IoT autonomous systems, drones, connected cars) ecosystem with global partners.

  • Lead Product Manager - Wireless System in Surface & Mixed Reality Devices

    2015 - 2017

    Youngest lead PM in the WDG (Windows Devices Group) organization at Microsoft leading next generation product strategy and development. Evangelized wireless product features and system architecture of device with industrial design, mechanical/electrical engineering, manufacturing, and user-experience cross-functional teams to lead product development from design concept --> engineering prototype --> final mass-production product for Windows Mixed Reality Headsets, Surface Pro LTE, Surface Pro 4, Surface Book, and the Surface Dial.

  • Hardware Design Engineer - Surface Devices

    2014 - 2015

    Designed the 4G LTE hardware architecture and diagnosed/devised key system level noise mitigations needed for carrier certification and oversaw production at contract manufacturing facilities in Asia.

  • Family and Graduate Upper Division Housing Resident Advisor

    2013 - 2014

    One of 8 RAs selected for Graduate/Upper Division housing to develop, lead, and conduct programs on diversity, academic performance, personal development, chemical abuse, technology & relationships for over 800 students living in Family & Graduate Housing.

  • Graduate Teaching Assistant

    2011 - 2014

    Lead TA for several upper-division undergraduate and graduate level courses - ECE 445 (Senior Design Capstone), ECE 451 (Adv Microwave Systems Lab), ECE 459 (Communication Systems), and ECE 342 (Electronic Circuit Design).

2012 - 2013

  • Hardware Design Engineering Intern

    2012 - 2013

    Developed reference-handset design for QC WTR 9x35 Modem/Wireless transceiver chip used in iPhone 6S as part of the IPS (Integrated Platform Solution) group.

  • Wireless System Engineering Intern-CR&D

    2012 - 2012

    Deployed OTA LTE networks on AWS band and TV-White Space channel bands for the Advanced LTE Group and developed test-setup for LTE heterogeneous networks involving Relays, eNBs and UEs.

  • Undergraduate Research Assistant

    2010 - 2010

    Tested and debugged MATLAB programs developed for speech processing applications using HNM Speech Synthesis Model to design voice transformation applications.