Mayfield Expands Team With Former Executive From Twitter & Square

MENLO PARK, CA--(Marketwired - October 10, 2016) - Mayfield, a global, early-stage venture firm with a 47-year history of championing entrepreneurs, today added Rishi Garg, a former senior corporate and business development executive from Twitter and Square to its investment team. Garg is the sixth investing partner at Mayfield and will continue Mayfield's focus on backing world-class Internet entrepreneurs, especially those changing the way people live, work, and play. Garg's focus areas include social media and new media platforms, disruptive financial services and technology businesses, and new marketplaces.

Mayfield has championed a team of entrepreneurs around key areas of consumer Internet innovation including:

• Disrupting transportation (Logan and John of Lyft);
  
• Creating the first solar utility provider (Lyndon and Peter of SolarCity);
  
• Establishing next generation adtech platforms (Frank of Rubicon Project and Jonah of Moat);
  
• Creating India's largest matrimonial marketplace (J. Muruga of Matrimony.com);
  
• Delivering China's leading travel search engine (CC Zhang of Qunar);
  
• Delivering delightful mobile experiences (Akshay and Ankit of Pulse/LinkedIn);
  
• Building the first mobile and social fashion marketplace (Manish of Poshmark);
  
• Scaling community commerce platforms (Steve of Massdrop);
  
• Building the first dedicated small business professional network (Eric and Venkat of Alignable);
  
• Democratizing fintech (Avi and Dan of Stockpile);
  
• Pioneering digital health devices and communities (Jef of Basis/Intel and Ron of HealthTap);
  
• Delivering drone platforms (Chris of 3D Robotics).

"Rishi's entrepreneurial DNA and product-first approach to business leadership at two iconic consumer Internet companies makes for a perfect fit with our entrepreneur-friendly team," said Navin Chaddha, who joined Mayfield a decade ago, leads the Firm, and represents its current and former consumer investments in Lyft, Matrimony.com, Poshmark, Pulse, and SolarCity. "His product strategy insights coupled with his entrepreneurial empathy and hustle enabled Square and Twitter to expand their offerings, build new products, and greatly amplify their impact in the world. This expertise is now available to our current and future entrepreneurs. When you combine his unique experiences with his global thinking and access to a rich next-generation entrepreneur network, he is the ideal candidate to enhance our mission to create lasting companies."

"Mayfield has a long and extraordinary track record of working with incredible entrepreneurs to build amazing companies," said Garg. "Every Mayfield-backed entrepreneur I know feels truly supported for the long term, and that long-term approach is core to how Mayfield is building the Firm. This team is driven to back the world's best entrepreneurs, and I could not be more excited to join forces with them."

Garg, 39, has over a decade of experience as a strategy, corporate development, and business development executive at iconic companies such as Twitter, Square, Google, and MTV Networks. He co-founded FanSnap, a leading live event ticket search company acquired by Wize, Inc., and is an investor or advisor to several early-stage companies. He began his career as a venture investor at Highland Capital Partners and as an investment banker at the Morgan Stanley Technology Group. In addition to his startup advisory work, Rishi serves on the Board of Directors at Rent-A-Center, Inc. (NASDAQ: RCII). He holds a BA in Economics and an MS in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

About Mayfield

Mayfield is a global venture capital firm with over $2.7 billion under management. The Firm has been championing entrepreneurs for more than 47 years. Mayfield invests primarily in early-stage IT companies in enterprise and consumer sectors. Mayfield invests in India-based companies through a dedicated fund. Since its founding in 1969, the Firm has invested in more than 520 companies resulting in 114 IPOs and more than 160 mergers or acquisitions. Some recent successes include Elastica (acquired by Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC)), Marketo (acquired by Vista Equity Partners), SolarCity (NASDAQ: SCTY), and The Rubicon Project (NYSE: RUBI).

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