Kanwal Rekhi

Kanwal Rekhi
Kanwal Rekhi in Bangalore on 23 September 2013.
Born	Kanwal Rekhi 1945 (age 71–72) Rawalpindi, Punjab, British India (now in Punjab, Pakistan, Pakistan)
Residence	San Francisco
Nationality	Indian American
Alma mater	Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, BS Michigan Technological University, MS Electrical engineering
Occupation	Managing director at Inventus Capital Partners
Years active	1982–present
Known for	Co-Founder of Excelan, Co-Founder of TiE, Venture capitalist, EVP of Novell
Awards	Arthur-Young/Venture Magazine Entrepreneur of the Year, 1987 Bina Chaudhuri Award for Distinguished Service by California Institute of Integral Studies
Website	inventuscap.com/team/kanwal-rekhi/

Kanwal Rekhi (born August 29, 1945) is an Indian-American businessman, Venture capitalist Angel investor and entrepreneur, currently serving as the managing director at Inventus Capital Partners. Kanwal is credited as the first Indo-American Founder & CEO to take a venture-backed company public on the NASDAQ.

Kanwal was born in Rawalpindi, Punjab. After the partition of India, his family settled in Kanpur, India. In 1967 Rekhi graduated as an electrical engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India and in 1969 he received a Master of Science degree from Michigan Technological University. Kanwal earned honorary doctorates in both Business and Engineering from the Michigan Technological University.

Rekhi had worked as an engineer, systems analyst, and manager before venturing into business. At the age of 36, he moved to San Jose, California and co-founded Excelan in 1982, a manufacturer of smart Ethernet, and was named President and CEO in 1985. The company went public on the NASDAQ in 1987, and merged with Novell in 1989. Kanwal remained at Novell as an Executive Vice-President and the Chief Technology Officer of the company, later joining the board of directors. Kanwal retired from Novell in 1995. After leaving Novell, Kanwal also served as the CEO at CyberMedia from January 1998 until its merger with Network Associates (now McAfee) in September 1998.

In 1994, Kanwal became a full-time Angel investor, investing in more than 50 startups of which he led the initial financing and was a member of the board of directors for 23 companies. His venture financings have resulted in 21 exits including 6 IPOs to date. Also active in Indian Public policy related to venture, Kanwal advised India government policy makers in reforming venture regulations. This encouraged fund formation in India, and Kanwal was the founding limited partner behind Infinity Capital-India a successful early-stage India venture fund.