PALO ALTO, CA — (Marketwire) — 12/12/11 — Trident Capital, a leading venture capital firm focusing on Software, Internet, and Business Services companies, today announced that Ashok Srivastava has joined as a Special Advisor on Big Data. Dr. Srivastava remains the Principal Scientist for Data Mining and Systems Health Management and also leads the Intelligent Data Understanding group at NASA Ames Research Center.
Ashok will work with Trident-s growing portfolio of big data companies, and will help the firm-s team with new investment opportunities in this area. Big data companies in Trident-s current portfolio include Extole, Exelate, Jiwire, Pivotlink, Sojern, Solera, Turn, Tiandi, and Zeo.
Evangelos Simoudis, a Senior Managing Director of Trident, said, “Data is becoming a critical resource and data exploitation is an important competitive advantage for companies small and large. Ashok combines a broad range of industry, academic and government experience on big data management and analytics and has done pioneering work in these areas. He will be an invaluable addition to our team.” Simoudis explained that Trident has had a core initiative investing in big data companies for some time. Of particular interest to Trident are companies that have developed applications that exploit or analyze big data and support industries such as health care, financial services, retailing, and pharmaceuticals.
Prior to joining NASA, Srivastava served as a Senior Director at Blue Martini Software and a Senior Data Analytics Consultant at IBM. In these roles, he consulted for numerous Fortune Global 500 companies in the finance, retail, manufacturing, and internet sectors, in the areas of data mining and optimization. He has served on the advisory boards of several internet companies. Srivastava has won numerous awards including the IEEE Computer Society Technical Achievement Award for “pioneering contributions to intelligent information systems,” the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal for contributions to state-of-the-art data mining and analysis, the IBM Golden Circle Award, and the Department of Education Merit Fellowship. Dr. Srivastava is the author of many research articles on data mining, machine learning and text mining, and has edited the book, “Text Mining: Classification, Clustering, and Applications” (with Mehran Sahami, 2009).
“We are just at the earliest stages of seeing how big data applications can impact the daily lives of business users,” said Srivastava. “Some of the most significant evolution in this discipline is likely to happen over the next decade, spurred by entrepreneurs who see the opportunities in new and different ways. I am excited to be in a position to work with Trident to find some of these and help them grow.”
Trident Capital is a leading venture capital firm with more than $1.9 billion of capital under management, including its most recent fund, Trident Capital Fund VII. Trident invests in Software, Internet and Business Services companies across multiple stages, from early startup to growth equity. Trident has substantial investment experience, sector expertise and operating skills together with broad networks of entrepreneurs and industry executives. The firm has helped build large numbers of successful companies within its areas of focus since firm inception in 1993. Trident is broadly recognized as one of the leading investors in Cloud Computing, IT Security, Health Care IT, Online Advertising and Outsourcing. The firm is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. .
Editorial Contact:
Lisa Sheeran
Sheeran/Jager Communication for Trident Capital
Ph: 510-724-2267
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