Yashwanth Hemaraj

Yash Hemaraj is a General Partner at Benhamou Global Ventures (BGV), an early-stage venture firm founded by Eric Benhamou (former CEO of 3Com and Palm, former chairman of 3Com, Palm, and Cypress Semiconductor). BGV focuses on "digital enterprise" startups, and Yash's practice centers on intelligent automation, robotics, and customer-centric applications powered by AI/ML, IoT, and computer vision. He is also the co-founder and Founding Partner of Arka Venture Labs, a cross-border accelerator and fund (launched in 2018) that helps India-based B2B companies scale into global enterprise markets.

Before moving into venture investing, Yash was one of the first engineers at SpiderCloud Wireless, a venture-backed Bay Area startup building indoor/small-cell wireless systems that was later acquired by Corning Incorporated (NYSE: GLW). There he architected key components of the product, was named on four patents related to indoor wireless systems, and went on to manage the company's 3G product line as a product manager.

He holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, and a bachelor's degree (BE) in Electronics and Communication Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), Surathkal, India. His engineering-plus-product background informs a hands-on, technically deep approach to enterprise investing.

Yash sits on the boards of several BGV portfolio companies, including Tagnos, Macrometa, Folloze, Totango, 6d Bytes, AiDash, and Arka Venture Labs.

• Invests at the pre-seed, seed, and early (Series A) stages in B2B enterprise technology companies.
• Core themes: "Intelligent automation, robotics and customer-centric applications powered by a combination of enabling technologies such as AI/ML, IoT and computer vision." (his own stated focus at BGV)
• Broader enterprise interests span digital enterprise transformation — cloud and edge technologies, cybersecurity, IoT, and data/analytics.
• Strong cross-border thesis: through Arka Venture Labs, he backs India-founded B2B startups that intend to build for and sell into global (particularly U.S.) enterprise markets, providing capital plus a Silicon Valley go-to-market platform.
• Looks for technically strong founding teams building enterprise-grade products, and offers operational help with the "art and science of building an enterprise-stack startup" (the theme of his Arka Showcase keynote).