# Daniel Karp

> Daniel Karp is General Partner at Cervin Ventures, a Palo Alto-based early-stage VC firm with $162M in its latest fund. A veteran of Cisco's corporate venture arm - where his portfolio generated over $2.5B in exits including Habana Labs (acquired by Intel for $2B) and GuardiCore - Karp brings a rare combination of chip engineering roots, Microsoft Azure product strategy, Israeli IDF intelligence experience, and nearly a decade of corporate M&A deal-making to his current focus on enterprise infrastructure, DevOps, cybersecurity, and AI-native startups.

- **Role:** General Partner at Cervin Ventures
- **Organizations:** Cervin Ventures, Cisco Investments, Microsoft, Comsys Communication and Signal Processing Ltd, Israeli Defense Forces
- **Nationality:** Israeli-American
- **Education:** MBA, Finance, Strategic Management & Entrepreneurship, University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, B.Sc. Electrical Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Military Service, Israeli Defense Forces - Elite Intelligence Unit (Unit 8200)
- **Known for:** Portfolio at Cisco generated over $2.5B in cumulative exits, Series A investor in Habana Labs, acquired by Intel for $2B, Early investor in Gong.io (valued at $2.15B post-Series D)

## Career timeline

- **~1994-1997** — Served 3 years in Israeli Defense Forces elite intelligence unit (Unit 8200)
- **~1997-2001** — B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering at Tel Aviv University
- **~2001-2005** — ASIC chip design lead and team leader at Comsys Communication and Signal Processing Ltd (later acquired by Intel)
- **~2005-2006** — Associate at a financial VC firm
- **~2006-2008** — MBA at University of Chicago Booth School of Business
- **~2008-2013** — Microsoft - Strategy, Business Development, and Product Management across Azure team and Startup Business Group (Microsoft Research)
- **2013** — Joined Cisco Investments as Director of M&A and Venture Capital
- **2013-2022** — Led Cisco Investments geographic efforts in Israel and Latin America; led billion-dollar cloud, networking, and data center domains
- **2017** — Led Cisco's Series A investment in Habana Labs (AI chipsets)
- **2019** — Habana Labs acquired by Intel for $2B
- **2021** — Named GCV Emerging Leaders Award winner
- **January 2022** — Left Cisco Investments for Cervin Ventures as Partner
- **February 2022** — Announced as Partner at Cervin Ventures, became the firm's fourth partner
- **2023** — Cervin Ventures closes $162M fund - its largest to date; Karp promoted to General Partner

## Achievements

- Portfolio at Cisco generated over $2.5B in cumulative exits
- Series A investor in Habana Labs, acquired by Intel for $2B
- Early investor in Gong.io (valued at $2.15B post-Series D)
- Early investor in GuardiCore (acquired by Akamai)
- Early investor in Elastifile (acquired by Google Cloud)
- Early investor in Prospera (agricultural AI, acquired)
- Named GCV Emerging Leaders Award Winner 2021
- Led Cisco's Israel and Latin America investment strategy
- Joined Cervin Ventures as its fourth partner in February 2022
- Helped Cervin close $162M fund (largest in firm history) in 2023

## Latest updates

- **2023-09** — Cervin Ventures closes $162M fund, its largest capital raise to date, with Karp as General Partner
- **2023-08** — Led Cervin's seed investment in OwnID ($7M round)
- **2022-02** — Joined Cervin Ventures as Partner, becoming the firm's fourth partner

## Links

- Website: https://www.cervinventures.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-karp-2771242
- Twitter/X: https://www.twitter.com/cervinventures
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w2rivHteo0
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cervinventures

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/daniel-karp
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-19