Navin Chaddha

Navin Chaddha is an investor, serial entrepreneur and executive, who is managing partner of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Mayfield. He founded several companies including VXtreme, Rovio, and iBeam Broadcasting.

Education and early life

Chaddha was born in India to an affluent family. He received an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, and came to the US in 1992 on a fellowship to earn a Masters in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He credited a fascination with Thomas Edison for his interest in science. After he completed his masters, he started working on his doctorate when he decided to go into business instead.

Career

Vxtreme Inc.

In 1996, Chaddha founded his first company, Internet streaming company Vxtreme, when he was 25. He sold the company to Microsoft in 1997, when he was 26, for a reported $75 million. He served with Microsoft in various management roles after the acquisition, including Chief Architect and Director, Commercial Network Solutions, Microsoft's Network Solutions Group, and Director, Broadband and Infrastructure, Streaming Media Division.

iBeam Broadcasting

While still at Microsoft, Chaddha co-founded iBeam Broadcasting (sometimes stylized as iBEAM) a provider of an Internet broadcast network for streaming media. Because of Chaddha's employment agreement with Microsoft, he could only participate with iBeam as a technical advisor. iBeam launched its commercial service in October 1999, and included Microsoft as one of its customers. The company went public in March 2000, and in 2001 was acquired by Williams Communications.

Rivio

In 1999, Chaddha left Microsoft and founded Rivio (originally called Biztro), a developer of a web platform allowing small businesses to manage their payroll, HR, procurement, expense reporting and other administrative tasks from a single web portal. In February 2002, the company had 25,000 customers, and was acquired by CPA2Biz, a subsidiary of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Chaddha became CPA2Biz's President. CPA2Biz would later change its name to CPA.com.

Investment career

In 2003, Chaddha started his career in venture capital by joining Mobius Venture Capital as an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR), eventually becoming a venture partner. In 2004, he joined Gabriel Venture partners as a general partner, and in September 2006 joined venture capital company Mayfield as managing director.

In 2007, Chaddha appeared on Forbes magazine's Midas List of top investors for the first time.

Mayfield

Chaddha has been managing director for Mayfield since September 2006. During that time, Chaddha has expanded the company's investments in early stage companies in India, in the areas of banking, retail and consumer goods.

Honors and recognition

In 2001, Chaddha was named one of Fortune Magazine's 25 Rising Stars.

In 2002, he was one of 100 young people chosen for the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Leaders for Tomorrow program, the precursor to the WEF's Young Global Leaders program.

In 2007, Chaddha appeared on Forbes' Midas List for the first time.

In 2014, after several more appearances on the annual Midas List, Chaddha was again included. Forbes noted at the time that by then he had invested in 35 companies, of which 12 had gone public and 12 had been acquired.

By 2019, when Chaddha appeared on the Midas List for the 11th time, he had invested in 28 companies that had been acquired or had gone public.

Personal life

Chaddha is married to Pooja Chaddha, who he met in 1997 on a trip to India. They reside in Saratoga, California.