Janice Roberts

Janice Roberts is a veteran venture capitalist and global technology executive who has spent more than two decades in Silicon Valley. She earned a Bachelor of Commerce (honors) degree in Economics from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom before moving into the networking and mobile technology industries. Early in her career she was Managing Director of BICC Data Networks Ltd, which was acquired by 3Com Corporation in 1992.

From 1992 to 2000 Roberts held a series of senior executive roles at 3Com (later acquired by Hewlett-Packard), including Senior Vice President of Global Marketing and Business Development, President of 3Com Ventures, and President of the Palm Computing Business Unit — placing her at the center of the mobile and handheld-computing boom. This is also where she built a long professional relationship with BGV founder Eric Benhamou, the former chairman and CEO of 3Com and Palm.

In 2000 she moved into venture capital as a Managing Director at Mayfield Fund, where for more than a decade (through roughly 2013–2014) she invested in wireless, mobile, enterprise, and consumer technology companies. Since 2014 she has been affiliated with Benhamou Global Ventures, currently as a Partner / Advisory Partner, focused on early-stage enterprise companies. BGV is a Silicon Valley firm that sources B2B technology startups globally and recently closed its fourth fund at roughly $110 million, with a focus on enterprise automation, AI, and ethical/responsible technology.

Beyond investing, Roberts is an active public- and private-company board director. She has served on the boards of Zebra Technologies (NASDAQ: ZBRA, since 2013), Zynga (since 2017), NETGEAR, and RealNetworks, and previously was a director of ARM Holdings until its 2016 acquisition by SoftBank. She has also held roles with GBx (a UK-government-linked organization), an advisory role with Illuminate Ventures, and community leadership as co-chair of the Ronald McDonald House at Stanford capital campaign.

• Invests at the early stage — seed through Series A/B — in B2B/enterprise technology companies, typically writing checks in the $500K–$3M range (BGV's sweet spot is around $2M).
• BGV's stated thesis sits "at the intersection of Enterprise 5.0 companies and cross-border innovation" — startups making leapfrog shifts in enterprise automation that combine "intelligent machines with human ingenuity," grounded in responsible, human-centric design.
• Strong emphasis on ethical/responsible AI — solutions that address data privacy and security while avoiding race, gender, or age bias.
• Sector interests span AI, cloud, IoT, robotics, autonomous systems, cybersecurity, AR/VR, and mobile/wireless — reflecting Roberts' own operating and investing history in mobile and communications technology.
• Values founders who can build global B2B companies; BGV positions itself as providing "high-value human capital expertise" beyond just capital, leveraging an operator network.