# Arif Janmohamed

> Arif Janmohamed is a Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners with over 16 years backing enterprise AI, cloud infrastructure, and SaaS companies. A University of Waterloo computer engineering graduate and Wharton MBA, he has been the first institutional check behind companies like Netskope (Nasdaq: NTSK, IPO 2025) and Navan, and was on the Moveworks board from Day 1 through its $2.85B acquisition by ServiceNow in 2025. A Canadian with Ismaili-East African roots, fluent in French, and a self-taught ice hockey player, Arif blends deep technical fluency with a founder-first philosophy - often describing himself as part coach, part psychologist to the entrepreneurs he backs. As of early 2026, he is stepping back from day-to-day Lightspeed duties to launch a new early-stage investment firm.

- **Role:** Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners
- **Organizations:** Lightspeed Venture Partners, Netskope (board member), Moveworks (former board member), Resilience (board member), Alif Semiconductor (board member), C100 (founding charter member), Redpanda (board member), Celona (board member)
- **Nationality:** Canadian
- **Education:** BSc, Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo, Exchange Study, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) / University of Lausanne, MBA, Finance, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
- **Known for:** Backed Netskope at Series B (2013); board member for 12 years through Nasdaq IPO (NTSK, September 2025), Day 1 board member of Moveworks through $2.85B acquisition by ServiceNow (2025), Led deal team at Cisco for $3.2B WebEx acquisition (2007)

## Career timeline

- **1999-2000** — Hardware Engineer at WebTV (acquired by Microsoft)
- **2000-2003** — Product Manager / Sr. Hardware Engineer at Andes Networks (acquired by Sun Microsystems)
- **2003-2004** — Chief Technology Officer at Sun Microsystems
- **2004-2006** — MBA at Wharton; founded WVP Ventures, a student-run VC fund
- **2005** — Associate at Novitas Capital (early-stage VC)
- **2006-2008** — Manager, Corporate Business Development at Cisco Systems; led deal team for $3.2B WebEx acquisition
- **2008** — Joined Lightspeed Venture Partners as Partner
- **2009** — Founding Charter Member and early board member of C100
- **2012** — Seed investment in ThoughtSpot (data analytics)
- **2013** — Led Netskope Series B - board seat held for 12+ years
- **2015** — Presented at Ismaili Global Innovation Summit in Palo Alto
- **2019** — Led $100M Series C for Redpanda; TechCrunch interview on cybersecurity investing
- **2023** — Led $100M Series C for Redpanda; speaker at Milken Institute Global Conference
- **2025-03** — ServiceNow announced $2.85B acquisition of Moveworks (Day 1 board member)
- **2025-09** — Netskope IPO on Nasdaq (NTSK) - Lightspeed largest shareholder at 16.9%
- **2026-01** — Participated in Zocks $45M Series B (AI for financial advisors)
- **2026-02** — Reported reducing Lightspeed involvement to launch new early-stage investment firm

## Achievements

- Backed Netskope at Series B (2013); board member for 12 years through Nasdaq IPO (NTSK, September 2025)
- Day 1 board member of Moveworks through $2.85B acquisition by ServiceNow (2025)
- Led deal team at Cisco for $3.2B WebEx acquisition (2007)
- Backed 42+ portfolio companies with 6 acquisitions and 1 IPO at Lightspeed
- Backed Navan (formerly TripActions) at Series A and B
- Founding Charter Member of C100 (Canadian tech mentorship organization, since 2009)
- Founded WVP Ventures, a student-run VC fund at Wharton
- Speaker at Milken Institute Global Conference 2023
- Led $100M Series C for Redpanda (June 2023)

## Latest updates

- **2026-02** — Reported by The Information to be reducing involvement at Lightspeed to launch a new early-stage investment firm
- **2026-01** — Participated in Zocks $45M Series B (AI for financial advisors)
- **2025-12** — ServiceNow completed $2.85B acquisition of Moveworks
- **2025-09** — Netskope IPO on Nasdaq (NTSK) - Lightspeed's largest shareholder at 16.9%
- **2025-03** — ServiceNow announced $2.85B acquisition of Moveworks

## Links

- Website: https://lsvp.com/team-member/arif-janmohamed/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arifj/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/arifj

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/arif-janmohamed
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-04