Rahim Amidi

Rahim Amidi is a Silicon Valley–based technology investor, serial entrepreneur, and real estate executive. He has been an active technology investor since 1996 and, together with his brother Saeed Amidi, has built a multi-decade track record in early-stage venture capital alongside a substantial commercial real estate business. In 1980 the brothers co-founded the Amidi Group, a conglomerate of privately held enterprises spanning manufacturing, distribution, trading, retail, and real estate holdings in the U.S. and internationally.

In 2000 he co-founded Amidzad (Amidzad Partners), a seed-stage investment firm where he serves as Founding General Partner. Through Amidzad and his angel activity he has been closely involved with more than twenty emerging growth companies, two of which went public — most notably as an early backer of PayPal (acquired by eBay) and Preview Systems. His firm's broader portfolio is associated with multiple IPOs and dozens of acquisitions.

Rahim is also a co-founder of the Plug and Play Tech Center, the Sunnyvale-based startup accelerator and investment platform launched in 2006 that has helped startups raise hundreds of millions in venture funding. His career blends operating and transactional experience in commercial real estate (the family's real estate arm includes properties such as TENTEN Wilshire) with hands-on early-stage technology investing, giving him an unusually long runway in both Silicon Valley real estate and venture capital.

• Focuses on seed and early-stage technology startups, typically as a founding/angel-style backer who gets involved early.
• Invests across internet, enterprise applications, and consumer/enterprise infrastructure sectors.
• Primarily backs U.S. (Silicon Valley) companies, leveraging the Amidzad and Plug and Play networks.
• Track record favors companies he can be "closely involved" with as a hands-on partner rather than a passive check-writer — emphasizing emerging growth companies with paths to acquisition or IPO.