Paul Naphtali

Paul Naphtali is the co-founder and a Managing Partner of Rampersand, an early-stage technology venture fund he helped launch in 2013 to close the funding gap for Australian and New Zealand startups. Before founding the firm, Naphtali spent roughly 15 years in Silicon Valley, Israel, the UK and Europe as a marketing and strategic-communications executive at venture-backed technology companies, an experience that included several material trade sales and a NASDAQ listing.

His operating career included roles such as VP Global Marketing at Jajah (the VoIP company acquired by Telefónica), Head of Public Relations at Snaptu (a mobile-app platform acquired by Facebook), and public-relations/marketing work at TokBox, the live-video communications platform. Rampersand's partners have collectively been associated with a string of notable exits from their operating and investing careers, including BEA Systems (acquired by Oracle for ~US$7.2bn), Onavo (acquired by Facebook), StepStone (acquired by Axel Springer) and Amobee (acquired by Singtel for over US$300m). He studied at Monash University.

Today Naphtali co-leads Rampersand, which has raised four funds, deployed more than A$100m since inception and backed 30–40+ portfolio companies. The firm is currently investing from its fourth vehicle, the Future Tech Fund, focused on B2B software, AI/data, disruptive marketplaces and emerging "frontier" areas such as quantum. He also serves on the board of enterprise-AI company PredictHQ and has acted as a VC advisory committee member at Wildcard Ventures, and is a frequent commentator on the Australian startup ecosystem (including a long-running column at SmartCompany).

• Invests at the earliest stages — "inception," pre-seed and seed — often as the first institutional money in.
• Typically leads or co-leads rounds and holds deep reserves for follow-on investment as companies scale.
• Backs Australian and New Zealand founders "wherever in the world you've planted the flag," pairing local roots with a Silicon Valley network.
• Sector conviction in B2B software, applied AI/data (vertical AI, horizontal AI agents), deep/hard tech (quantum, robotics), climate tech and life sciences.
• Emphasises hands-on, founder-first support — leveraging Rampersand's network to help companies go from earliest stage through scaling, drawing on the partners' own operating backgrounds.