Deepak Kamra

Worth knowing

He has taken companies from an early cheque to IPO fourteen times, as well as acquisitions by Oracle, SAP, Meta and Google, and sat on the boards through all of it, so he knows what a marketplace, an enterprise software business or a satellite company looks like when it is working.

Story

Born in India, Deepak arrived in Halifax as a child and later went to Kitchener Waterloo Collegiate before heading to Ottawa for university. Early jobs at TRW Datacomm International and ROLM Corp led him to the startup team at Aspect Communications, the call centre software pioneer he helped take public in 1990. A year later he joined Canaan Partners, and stayed for more than three decades. In 2021 he established a scholarship in innovation at Carleton's Sprott School of Business. He now advises impact and VC funds and backs private companies directly.

In Deepak's words

Born in India, grew up in Halifax, Guelph, Kitchener and Ottawa. Got a Bachelor of Commerce from Carleton and an MBA from Harvard, then fell into a career in Silicon Valley. Helped started a company and to take it public, then became a VC at Canaan Partners for 34 years. Now I’m working on a bunch of projects and trying to keep up with AI.

Highlights

• Led Canaan's investments in SuccessFactors (SAP), Acme Packet (Oracle), Skybox (Google) and Kustomer (Meta).
• Forbes Midas List, 2008 and 2009
• Board member, National Venture Capital Association, 2008-2012
• BCom, Carleton University, 1978; MBA, Harvard Business School
• Chaired Investment Committee, Deutsche Bank Global Commercial Microfinance Consortium. Board of Advisors, International Rescue Committee.