Sierra Ventures Hires New Managing Partner

Shashank Saxena joins early-stage venture capital firm as a Managing Partner.

SAN MATEO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / April 9, 2024 / Sierra Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in the future of enterprise and frontier technologies, is excited to announce Shashank Saxena as its newest Managing Partner. Saxena is a successful entrepreneur and an accomplished executive in the software industry. His Cincinnati-based startup VNDLY was acquired by Workday for $510 million just four years after its founding.

"Shashank is the investor that every B2B SaaS founder is looking for," said Sierra's Managing Partner, Mark Fernandes. "I serve on a board with him, and it is very clear that he has a deep understanding of the enterprise software world and a strong blend of technical and commercial expertise."

After VNDLY's exit, Saxena stayed at Workday as the General Manager of their Workday VNDLY division. Saxena's experience in digital transformation in Fortune 25 companies goes beyond his time at Workday. Prior to building VNDLY, Saxena led the e-commerce and corporate strategy at Kroger and ran Citi Group's strategy and planning for their mobile division. He was also an early-stage venture partner and active angel investor with a robust network of enterprise technologists and founders.

In his new role, Saxena will focus on investments primarily in the applications software space. Sierra recently announced the closing of their $270 million Fund 13. The firm has a disciplined model of right-sized funds to focus on being an early investor in the best B2B companies across North America at the Seed and Series A stages. Utilizing this approach, Sierra has generated top-performing funds by being an early investor in unicorns like Reify Health (Healthcare SaaS) in Boston, Phenom (Enterprise HR software) in Philadelphia, and Astronomer (Data Management) in Cincinnati.

"We are on the cusp of a generational shift in business software, moving towards 'Intelligent Applications' with AI and automation at their core," said Saxena. "Sierra's commitment to early-stage enterprise software positions us uniquely to lead this transformative era, and I closely identify with Sierra's founder-first philosophy."

ABOUT SIERRA VENTURES:

Sierra Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based early-stage venture firm investing globally, focusing on core B2B enterprise and next-frontier technologies. With over four decades of experience and over $2 billion of assets under management, Sierra has created a vast network of successful entrepreneurs, Global 1000 CXOs, operational executives, and deep domain experts, providing a platform for entrepreneurs worldwide. Learn more at https://www.sierraventures.com/.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Anne Gherini, CMO at Sierra Ventures
E: anne@sierraventures.com
Telephone: (650) 233-6116

Nina Pfister, Co-Founder of MAG PR
E: nina@mooringadvisorygroup.com

SOURCE: Sierra Ventures