Venture Capital Panel: Funding for IoT Startups

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_things

Our distinguished panel will discuss  the latest developments in IOT (Internet of Things) and the current state of funding for IoT startups.
Please come with questions and comments.

There will be demo tables for startups and sponsor tables for service providers for the networking portion of the event. If you would like to have space on a demo table or sponsor table  for the networking portion of the event, send an email message to:
idea.to.ipo@gmail.com
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W 11/8  Tabler

Agenda
6:00 pm to 7:00 pm   Check In, Food, Networking Reception
7:00 pm to 8:30 pm    Panel Discussion,  Q & A
8:30 pm to 9:00 pm    More Networking

About the Panelists:
(More panelists TBA.)

Dr. May Wang is chief technology officer (CTO) and Co-founder of ZingBox, a Gartner Cool Vendor in IoT Security. May was previously the Head of Asia Pac Research and a Principal Architect in the Cisco CTO office, leading the Internet of Things (IoT) innovation. She was responsible for driving new technology initiatives. The security algorithm developed in her Ph.D. dissertation is deployed in Cisco’s best-selling network switches.  May’s work focuses on real-time large data analysis, cybersecurity, and next generation network architecture. 
May also serves as a Venture Partner at SAIF, a $4B Private Equity firm. She is on advisory board of several VC firms and tech companies, as well as a Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs member.  May has authored a book of biographies titled “Women Executives in Silicon Valley” and was the 10th President of NACSA, a high-tech professional organization with over 4,000 members.
May has been the recipient of numerous awards including Silicon Valley Women of Influence.  She received her Ph.D. from Stanford University in Electrical Engineering.

Yashwanth (Yash) Hemaraj is a venture capital investor at Benhamou Global Ventures. Prior to BGV, Yash was one of the first engineers and product manager at SpiderCloud Wireless, a venture backed bay area startup building indoor wireless systems. At BGV, his focus areas are technologies that drive the digital transformation of enterprises - ranging from cloud technologies, customer centric applications, cyber security, industrial IoT, to blockchain and advanced analytics solutions. His investments include companies such as Totango, 6d bytes and OneMob. He regularly advises entrepreneurs in multiple aspects of startups, including fundraising, go-to-market strategy and product development and is a mentor at various accelerators. He graduated with a MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, and MS in Electrical Engineering from University of Maryland. 

John Wong is a Principal at NextStar Partners, a venture capital firm in San Francisco, and leads the fund’s IoT investment activities. John was most recently a Director, Strategy & Transformation at GE Digital’s Predix platform where he helped to drive M&A, technology partnerships, and the launch of Predix globally. Prior to GE, John was a Director, Strategy at SoftBank’s Innovation Center where he was focused on creating new and disruptive mobile products and services, and spearheaded the development and launch of the Space IoT platform, an open IoT ecosystem for consumer-related solutions. 
Previously, John was a Principal at Exigen Capital, a $560 million transformational private equity fund, and was an Associate at GE Antares Capital, GE Energy Financial Services, and Fog City Capital. He began his career in consulting where he was an engagement manager at Deloitte.
John holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and has a BA in International Relations / Russian Studies from Tufts University.

Ankur Saxena is an investment manager at Cisco Investments, Cisco’s $2B global VC arm. In this role, he looks at investments and acquisitions in Industrial IoT, connected cars, IoT analytics, IoT security, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning. Prior to joining Cisco, Ankur worked in a variety of roles in venture capital and investment banking in Amazon’s Corporate Development team, The Carlyle Group, Helion Venture Partners and Avendus Capital in the US and India. Ankur earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and holds a B. Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur.

About the Moderator:

Bill Ahmann is a partner in the Intellectual Property Practice Group in Sheppard Mullin’s Palo Alto office. 
Bill focuses on intellectual property law in the fields of wireless networks, telecommunications, computers, software, semiconductors, electronics, security, business methods, and the Internet.
Other areas of his practice include patent prosecution, licensing, litigation, copyright, trademark procurement, and designs protection.  Bill has worked with a number of clients, rendering patent opinions, including invalidity and noninfringement opinions, focusing on patent prosecution and patent analysis, and establishing internal patent procurement programs and competitive analysis.
Bill has drafted, supervised, and/or prosecuted approximately 600 patent applications, and has filed and/or prosecuted dozens of reexaminations.  He has been involved in multiple litigations matters and monetization efforts.  He also has served as primary counsel in many licensing negotiations.
Bill holds a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of Law and a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Missouri.

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