PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Next47, the $1.2 billion global venture fund backed by Siemens, is excited to announce the expansion of its US team with Matthew Cowan and T.J. Rylander joining as Partners and Ching-Yu Hu as a Principal. With backgrounds in venture capital and as founders of businesses, Next47’s newest members expand the firm’s expertise and network, allowing it to build on recent investments in Markforged, Fair, and DeepScale.
“Our goal at Next47 is to identify entrepreneurs who will create the industries of tomorrow, and multiply their endeavors with the power of the Siemens ecosystem,” said Lak Ananth, CEO and Managing Partner at Next47. “Matthew, T.J., and Ching-Yu all bring unique perspectives, expertise and relationships that will enable us to partner with the best entrepreneurs across a variety of industry sectors.”
As Next47’s newest Partner, Matthew Cowan came from Breezeworks, a mobile CRM platform for small business owners, where he was the CEO and co-founder. Prior to Breezeworks, Matthew was the co-founder of Bridgescale Partners, a venture capital fund with investments in companies such as BitGo, Jasper Wireless, Plum Organics and Proofpoint. Matthew was also the founding General Partner of Bowman Capital’s venture capital group in 1998, focusing on expansion-stage technology companies. In the earlier part of his career, he worked in Intel Corporation’s business development group focused on broadband and internet media. Matthew holds a BA from Tufts University.
Prior to joining Next47 as a Partner, T.J. Rylander was a Managing Partner at In-Q-Tel (“IQT”), the strategic venture firm affiliated with the U.S. Intelligence Community. During T.J.’s 10 year tenure at IQT, he led investments in 20 leading technology startups, including Pure Storage, Cloudera, and FireEye. He also served as co-lead for the company’s Infrastructure and Security practice. Prior to IQT, T.J. spent several years at Boston Consulting Group and also held various finance roles focused on international energy development and clean energy M&A. T.J. has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BS in Finance from the University of Virginia.
In addition, Ching-Yu Hu joined Next47 as a Principal based in the Palo Alto office. Ching-Yu co-founded Skybox Imaging, a data and aerospace startup that designed, built, and launched the world's largest constellation of high resolution imaging satellites which was acquired by Google in 2014. Prior to joining Next47, Ching-Yu was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence in Google's internal startup incubator, Area 120. Ching-Yu received her MS in Management Science & Engineering from Stanford University and her dual bachelor’s degrees in Statistics and Operations Research from UC Berkeley.
About Next47:
Next47 is a global venture firm created by Siemens that invests in, and partners with, entrepreneurs who think big and build industry-defining companies. With offices in Boston, Beijing, London, Munich, Paris, Palo Alto and Stockholm, Next47 gives start-ups unparalleled access to one of the world’s largest portfolios of customers in the areas of industry, energy and infrastructure as well as domain expertise in the deep technologies that impact those customers.
