# Rajesh Swaminathan

> Rajesh Swaminathan is a Partner at Khosla Ventures, where he backs bold founders reinventing how the world powers, builds, and heals itself. With two decades of deep-tech investing experience spanning Bell Labs, Deutsche Bank, Applied Materials' venture arm, and now one of Silicon Valley's most storied VC firms, he leads investments across renewables, industrial decarbonization, advanced manufacturing, critical minerals, compute infrastructure, and the intersection of all of these with AI. A chemical engineer by training who was awarded the President of India Medal at IIT Madras and later earned an MBA from Harvard, Rajesh brings rare depth - scientific rigor, financial discipline, and operational empathy - to backing the founders who will, as he puts it, 'save the world.'

- **Role:** Partner at Khosla Ventures
- **Organizations:** Khosla Ventures, Applied Ventures (Applied Materials), Third Point Ventures, Bell Labs (Lucent Technologies), Deutsche Bank
- **Nationality:** Indian-American
- **Education:** MBA, Harvard Business School, MS (MEMS / Nanotechnology), University of Maryland, College Park, Bachelor of Technology, Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras
- **Known for:** President of India (Shankar Dayal Sharma) Medal for overall excellence at IIT Madras, Global Corporate Venturing (GCV) Powerlist award in 2019, Led Applied Ventures to manage 85+ deep-tech startups across 13 countries with >$300M deployed

## Career timeline

- **~2001-2006** — Bell Labs / Lucent Technologies - drove due diligence and partnerships in nanotechnology, optical, and III-V startups; led DFR program for 10Gb/s and 40Gb/s telecom systems
- **~2007** — Deutsche Bank - internship on the renewable energy investment banking team
- **~2008-2009** — Worked with early solar company Stion and collaborated with Khosla Ventures and Greylock on water desalination
- **~2009-2010** — Third Point Ventures - developed venture and public investment strategy in Cleantech and Semiconductors
- **~2010-2020** — Applied Ventures LLC (Applied Materials) - Head of Venture Capital arm; managed 85+ hardware startups across 13 countries; led $850M META facility in NY; exits include Enphase Energy, Solid Energy, Rockley, Infinite Power Solutions, Adaptive3D, Tango, Inpria, PlayNitride, Norsk Ti
- **2019** — Received Global Corporate Venturing (GCV) Powerlist award
- **2020-present** — Partner at Khosla Ventures - leads investments in renewables, industrial decarbonization, advanced manufacturing, critical minerals, compute infrastructure, and AI convergence

## Achievements

- President of India (Shankar Dayal Sharma) Medal for overall excellence at IIT Madras
- Global Corporate Venturing (GCV) Powerlist award in 2019
- Led Applied Ventures to manage 85+ deep-tech startups across 13 countries with >$300M deployed
- Drove establishment of $850M Materials Engineering Technology Accelerator (META) facility in New York
- Successful investment exits including Enphase Energy (NYSE: ENPH), Solid Energy, Rockley, and others
- Partner at Khosla Ventures, overseeing a $1.1B fund
- Speaker at PDAC 2025, Hello Tomorrow Summit 2025, FusionXInvest Global, and SF Climate Week

## Latest updates

- **2025-03** — Spoke at PDAC 2025 (Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention) on deep tech and minerals investment
- **2025-02** — Featured speaker at Hello Tomorrow Summit 2025 panel on the future of climate tech
- **2025-01** — Participated in SF Climate Week panel on AI and mineral exploration alongside BHP Ventures
- **2024-12** — Featured in Down to Zero podcast: 'Chase Value, Not Valuation'
- **2026-03** — Listed as presenter at PDAC 2026 convention

## Links

- Website: https://www.khoslaventures.com/team/rajesh-swaminathan
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajeshswaminathan
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/rajesh_swamin

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/rajesh-swaminathan
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-08