Rakesh Sood
Rakesh Sood is currently Managing Director of Sood Ventures, the firm he founded for his investment and advisory services practice. He also serves as Venture Advisor to NTT Docomo which currently manages multiple funds for strategic interest to NTT and Docomo. Earlier, Rakesh served as Venture Advisor to Docomo Capital directing the investment activity of Docomo Capital’s $100m fund in mobile/wireless start-ups in N. America, while delivering significant strategic benefits to Docomo. The portfolio of 26 companies accumulated over the past 8 years ranks in the top quartile of returns in the venture capital industry. Recruited as a Partner for Reed Elsevier Ventures, Rakesh Sood previously established the Silicon Valley headquarters for the London- based media company’s strategic venture operation in the US, generating stellar returns for the fund. Prior to joining Reed Elsevier Ventures, Rakesh was a General Partner at Sprout Group in Menlo Park. Prior to his career as a VC, Rakesh was a leading senior equity analyst at Goldman Sachs in New York, and prior to that at Hambrecht & Quist in San Francisco where he did pioneering work in wireless, Internet and software sectors. In senior operating roles prior to becoming an analyst, Rakesh was worldwide director of marketing and business development at AT&T's Personal Communications Systems division, and previously held sales and marketing positions at Hewlett-Packard and Intel. Throughout his career, Rakesh has engaged in several professional organizations, quoted extensively in business and technical publications, and an invited speaker at major industry conferences. Rakesh received a BSEE/CS (with Distinction) from the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi, India; an MSEE from the State University of New York, Stony Brook; and an MBA (Dean's List) in finance from the Wharton School.