BUILD THE FUTURE TOGETHER
Who We Are
Point72 Ventures is the early-stage venture capital strategy funded exclusively by Steve Cohen and eligible employees of Point72 Asset Management. We invest in founders catalyzing the changes we see in the global economy.
“The best organizations of the future will empower the most talented people with the most powerful technologies.”
Steven A. Cohen
Focus
Financial Services
We invest in companies that are transforming the global financial services industry.
Artificial Intelligence
We invest in AI, machine learning, and data – the change agent for all industries.
Enterprise Technologies
We invest in entrepreneurs building enterprise infrastructure, applications, and cybersecurity technologies that shape, power, and protect the global economy.
Financial Services
We know how the financial services market works: the complexity of the ecosystem, the agendas and motivations of established players, and what it takes for a new entrant to be successful. We know that fintech isn’t just something in the app store – and we aim to be the most knowledgeable venture investor for entrepreneurs in the industry. Financial Technology | Financial Services | Enterprise Software where FinServ is high value / early adopter
Network
We have personal relationships with the most relevant thinkers and decision makers across the world’s leading investment banks, asset managers, hedge funds, consumer banks, lenders, exchanges, payment networks, insurers, and trading desks. We focus as much on understanding their businesses and strategic direction as we do meeting startups.
Domain Expertise
We know this industry from bare metal to application layer, retail and institutional, across all product categories, in every market across the globe – and we see the next wave of innovation starting at the infrastructure level. We work for one of the most innovative and connected financial firms in the world, and combined with our breadth and depth of experience at VC funds and bulge bracket strategic investment groups, we’re uniquely positioned to understand your business.
Added Value
We partner with our companies to get their products right, and use our vast resources to find the right strategic partners, early adopters, enterprise customers, and champions from across the industry – the true keys to success. We are laser-focused on driving value once we make an investment.
Artificial Intelligence
At Point72, we are practitioners first. We use AI, ML and data-driven strategies in every area of our business. We invest in entrepreneurs who are partners in the journey of tackling hard data problems. Applied AI | Core ML | Hard Tech
Domain Expertise
AI + ML are all we do. We can value what you’ve built on its technical merits. AI investing is a new asset class, and we don’t overfit to rigid priors like traditional revenue metrics.
Conviction
We’ve spent years working on these problems and speak to hundreds of companies. This gets us to conviction quickly, and we match our conviction with an ability to price and lead early stage rounds of all sizes.
Support
Leverage the advice and relationships only a world-class financial institution and fellow practitioners of AI can provide.
Enterprise Technologies
We know enterprise tech because it’s all we do. Our extensive research, significant time with entrepreneurs, and engagement with a vast network of enterprise IT buyers ensures we’re additive from the first meeting. After we invest, we’ll work just as hard as you to build a world-changing company together. Enterprise Infrastructure | Cybersecurity | Enterprise Applications | Infrastructure for the Future
Expertise
We're technical enterprise specialists who focus on helping world-class entrepreneurs solve big problems. We'll roll up our sleeves and help you build a category-defining company, providing market expertise and access to our specialized customer and advisor network.
Flexibility and Conviction
We've spent years growing enterprise businesses as operators and investors. We’ve seen what it takes to build a great company and are conscious of how important it is for you to stay focused to succeed. We know what we're looking for and move with speed and conviction when we see it.
All-In
When we invest, we commit to building a company together through thick and thin. We’ll leverage our relationships with enterprise IT buyers, including Point72, one of the most innovative firms in finance. Our goal is for founders to look back and say that we were the most helpful partner they've ever worked with.
Team
Led by legendary founder Steven A. Cohen, Point72 Ventures has a top-tier team of investment professionals leading our investment strategies.
Steven A. Cohen
Chairman
Steven A. Cohen founded S.A.C. Capital Advisors in 1992 and converted his investment operations to the Point72 Asset Management family office in 2014.
Steve previously headed his own trading division at Gruntal & Co. where he managed proprietary capital for 14 years.
Steve has a B.S. in Economics from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
He is the Co-Founder, Vice President and Treasurer of the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation, which is committed to achieving lasting and meaningful change in our community through children’s health, education, veterans, and the arts.
Steve also serves on the Board of Trustees at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles and the Emeritus Board of the Robin Hood Foundation.
Matthew Granade plays three critical roles at Point72 Ventures and Point72 Asset Management reflecting his expertise in finance, advanced analytics, and technology:
- Matthew manages Point72 Ventures, which funds early-stage companies in financial technology, enterprise automation, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity as the fund’s Managing Partner
- At Point72 Asset Management, Matthew oversees the Firm’s efforts to develop unique information assets for its investors as Point72’s Chief Market Intelligence Officer
- He also directs the Firm’s central portfolio, which collects stock ideas from a broad array of sources and systematically monetizes them
Before joining Point72 in 2015, Matthew co-founded Domino Data Lab, a data science platform that model-driven firms use to accelerate research, increase collaboration, and deliver high-impact models. Matthew currently serves on its Board of Directors.
Earlier in his career, Matthew served as Co-Head of Research for Bridgewater Associates, where he built and led teams that developed insights on the global economy, created new algorithmic systems for capturing alpha, and published Bridgewater’s market commentary, Daily Observations.
He serves on the Boards of Directors of several private companies, including Say, Inc. and Quantopian, Inc.
Matthew earned his A.B. from Harvard College, where he was President of The Harvard Crimson, and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, where he was a George F. Baker Scholar.
Pete Casella leads Point72 Ventures investment activities in financial services related technologies. He is based in New York.
Prior to joining Point72 to build the Venture Capital business, Pete spent 13 years specializing in fintech venture capital for JPMorgan Chase Strategic Investments, Credit Suisse Principal Investments, and FTV Capital.
Pete started his career in Investment Banking at JPMorgan, followed by Corporate Strategy for JPMorgan Asset Management.
Pete earned a BS from Indiana University.
Sri Chandrasekar co-leads Point72 Ventures investment activities and technical due diligence in artificial intelligence, machine learning and related technologies. He is based in Palo Alto.
Sri joined Point72 from In-Q-Tel, the strategic investment arm of the CIA and the U.S. Intelligence Community. At In-Q-Tel, Sri led Lab41, an AI-focused Lab that built and delivered solutions to some of the Intelligence Community’s toughest problems. Before Lab41, Sri led the Analytics practice at In-Q-Tel, a role in which he was responsible for setting the investment priorities for a team of technical investment professionals. Prior to In-Q-Tel, Sri spent nearly a decade designing and building communication systems for the military at BAE Systems.
Sri earned his undergraduate and Masters degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from NYU.
Dan Gwak co-leads Point72 Ventures investment activities in artificial intelligence, machine learning and related technologies. He is based in Palo Alto.
Before joining Point72, Dan was a Partner on the Investment Team at In-Q-Tel, the strategic investment firm of the CIA and U.S. Intelligence Community. At In-Q-Tel, Dan focused on enterprise analytics and infrastructure companies whose technologies were impactful to the mission of the U.S. Intelligence Community.
Previously, Dan was an investment banking analyst in the M&A group at Credit Suisse, a private equity associate at The Carlyle Group and a fireteam leader in the United States Marine Corps, where he was awarded the Combat Action Ribbon and Purple Heart for actions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
Dan has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics from Cornell University.
Tripp Shriner is a Partner focused on financial services investments for Point72 Ventures, working from our New York and Connecticut offices.
Tripp joined Point72 from City Light Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm, where he was a Principal. Before City Light, he worked in J.P. Morgan’s Strategic Investments group, responsible for sourcing, executing, and managing early and growth-stage venture capital investments in financial technology businesses. Tripp began his career working for J.P. Morgan in the Investment Bank’s Equity Capital Markets group.
Tripp earned his AB in Politics from Princeton University, and is a CFA Charterholder.
Noah Carr co-leads Point72 Ventures’ investment activity in enterprise technologies, focusing on enterprise infrastructure, cybersecurity, and applications. He is based in San Francisco.
Prior to joining Point72 Ventures, Noah worked at Bain Capital Ventures, where he sourced, managed, and supported investments in DocuSign, Evident.io, Attivo, Awake, BetterCloud, LeapYear, Red Balloon, and ShieldX, among others. Noah loves spending time with passionate entrepreneurs and partnering with them to build category-defining companies.
Prior to venture capital, Noah spent time in the Technology Investment Banking group at Deutsche Bank, focused on helping software companies raise capital and explore strategic alternatives.
Noah graduated from Hamilton College with degrees in Computer Science and Economics.
Kevin Berardinelli is an Operating Partner for Point72 Ventures, supporting investment activities and portfolio companies in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and related technologies.
Kevin joined Point72 Ventures from Plaid, a financial technology company based in San Francisco. Prior to Plaid, Kevin led portfolio management at In-Q-Tel, the strategic investment arm of the CIA and the U.S. Intelligence Community. In his role at In-Q-Tel, he was responsible for managing portfolio company relationships and ensuring the successful delivery of technology solutions to meet U.S. Intelligence Community needs.
Kevin earned his B.A. in Physics from Wake Forest University and his M.S. in Mathematics and Statistics from Georgetown University. He is originally from Burlington, Connecticut.
Adam Carson is a member of the Point72 Ventures FinTech team, based out of San Francisco. Adam is responsible for expanding the Fintech team to the west coast.
Prior to joining Point72 Ventures, Adam held positions at Morgan Stanley, Bain & Company, and eBay. Most recently, he was the Head of Digital/FinTech Strategy and Partnerships at JPMorgan Chase.
Adam earned his BSE in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University, and his MBA from Tuck School of Business. He is originally from Merion, Pennsylvania.
Anup Chamrajnagar is a member of the Investment Team at Point72 Ventures.
He joins Point72 Ventures from the Point72 Academy, the Firm’s year-long training program, where he rotated through various long/short teams covering public companies in the technology and healthcare spaces. Prior to joining Point72, Anup worked in the healthcare space at TAP Advisors and at Ferghana Partners.
Anup earned his B.A. in Mathematics and Theater from Dartmouth College. While in school, he was the President of the Dartmouth Brovertones A Cappella Group, the Lead Researcher at Dartmouth Fu Labs, the Co-Founder and President of the Dartmouth Computational Mathematics Society, and the Treasurer of D-Style, Dartmouth’s freestyle rap performance group.
Anup is originally from Tacoma, Washington and enjoys singing, songwriting, tennis, soccer, and hiking.
Meena Cruz is based out of Point72 Ventures’ Palo Alto office, where she provides administrative support for the AI team.
Prior to joining Point72 Ventures, Meena was an Executive Assistant at KKR for over ten years, supporting various Private Equity Investment Professionals. She also supported the CEO of Wealth Architects.
Meena is originally from Palo Alto and earned her BS in Commerce (Economics) from Santa Clara University.
Tyler Dean is a member of the Investment Team at Point72 Ventures, based in New York.
Prior to joining Point72 Ventures, Tyler was an Analyst and Student Ambassador at Morgan Stanley and the first Venture Capital Analyst at 8VC. While at 8VC, he was a full-time student at Claremont McKenna through a Claremont Consortium selective enrollment Silicon Valley Program.
Tyler earned his B.A. in Financial Engineering from Claremont McKenna College. While in college, he was a managing member of Claremont McKenna’s $2M investment fund, the founder of the Claremont Young Entrepreneurs Summit, and a defensive captain for the Varsity Lacrosse Team.
Prior to joining Point72, Florie worked as an Executive Assistant at various hedge funds, including FrontPoint Partners LP. Florie works from our New York and Connecticut offices.
Florie earned her AB in Psychology from Iona College.
David Grossman is the Data Engineer Lead for the Point72 Ventures AI Investing Team, helping evaluate portfolio companies’ potential for ML assisted growth.
David was previously a Security Engineer for Facebook, where he wrote big data and machine learning analytics, provided hardware and software reverse engineering services, and modernized logging to reliably capture security analytics data.
He began his career as an Engineer for the National Security Agency, where he performed rapid prototyping of machine learning and deep learning architectures. In 2011, David received the NSA Adjust Faculty Instructor of the Year award.
David earned his BS in Computer Engineering from Pennsylvania State University.
Daniel Kwak is a member of the Investment Team at Point72 Ventures. In this role, he sources, evaluates, and executes early stage investment activities in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and related technologies. He is based in Palo Alto.
Prior to joining Point72 Ventures, Daniel was an Investment Banking Analyst in the Technology, Media, and Telecom group at Goldman Sachs.
Daniel earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Michigan and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he did his PhD research in high energy plasma physics and nuclear fusion. He is originally from Atlanta, Georgia and loves snowboarding in Squaw Valley.
Cesar Lugo
IT Operations Engineer
- Artificial Intelligence
- Enterprise Technologies
- Palo Alto
- San Francisco
Cesar Lugo is based out of Point72 Ventures’ Palo Alto office, where he provides IT support to both the San Francisco and Palo Alto offices. In this role he considers abstract technological applications to meet each unique need of the team, forcing him to be quick, innovative, and to think outside the box.
Prior to joining the Firm, Cesar has had various IT roles at AIG Trading Group, RBS, Basso Capital Management, Sempra Energy Trading, and Société Générale.
Cesar is originally from Inwood Heights, New York and earned his AAS in Computer Programming from LaGuardia Community College.
Emily Man is a member of the Investment Team at Point72 Ventures, helping evaluate and execute investments.
Emily joined Point72 Ventures from the Point72 Academy, the Firm’s year-long training program, where she rotated through various long/short teams covering public companies in the consumer and technology spaces.
Emily earned her B.A. in Financial Economics, with a Special Concentration in Business Management, from Columbia University. In college she was the Chair and later advisor of the Undergraduate Committee on Global Thought, a member of the Columbia International Relations Association, and a mentor for the Columbia Mentoring Initiative.
Originally from Indiana, she has lived in Beijing, Shanghai, and Chicago, and currently resides in New York.
Jason Miller is an Operating Partner for Point72 Ventures. He is responsible for a wide range of functions across operations, technology, analytics, and business process design. Prior to joining Point72 Ventures, Jason was a Director at BlackRock where he was responsible for the global delivery of data and analytics across all asset classes to the front office users via the Aladdin platform.
Prior to BlackRock, Jason was a Captain in the U.S. Army, where he served as a combat platoon leader in Germany and Iraq, and was awarded the Bronze Star and Presidential Unit Citation for actions in Fallujah. Jason earned a BS in History from the United States Military Academy at West Point. Jason serves as a mentor for veterans and speaks at veteran events on career transition and development.
Jocelyn Morales is an Administrative Assistant supporting the Artificial Intelligence team in Palo Alto.
Prior to joining Point72, Jocelyn was an Executive Administrative Assistant at Holland & Associates and a Marketing Administrator at Simon Property Group.
Jocelyn earned her BA in Communications from California State University, Los Angeles.
Arjo Mozumder is a member of the Investment Team at Point72 Ventures, based in Palo Alto. He is responsible for sourcing, diligence, and execution on artificial intelligence investments. Arjo’s focus areas include industrial AI/robotics, autonomous vehicles, and other field-specific themes such as oil & gas and agriculture.
Prior to joining Point72 Ventures, Arjo was a Founding Fellow at the Blackstone LaunchPad in Austin and founded Convergent, a cross-disciplinary innovation program and non-profit incubator.
Arjo earned his B.B.A. in Finance from The University of Texas at Austin, where he received the Barbara Jordan Legacy Award for his lasting impact on the school. Arjo spends his free time seeking inspiration in music, nature, and people.
Ivy Nguyen is a member of the Investment Team at Point72 Ventures. In this role, she invests in AI model-driven businesses applying artificial intelligence to solve a broad range of problems that traditional software could not tackle.
Prior to joining Point72, Ivy was an Accelerator Program Manager at Imagine H2O, a Senior Associate at NewGen Capital, and an Associate at Zetta Venture Partners. During her career, Ivy has been named to Forbes’ 30 under 30 in Venture Capital, joined the Steering Committee for First Republic Bank Rising Stars in VC, and has been published in TechCrunch and VentureBeat.
Originally from Ba Ria, Vietnam, Ivy graduated from Stanford University in 2013 with a BS in Chemical Engineering. While attending Stanford, she was the Managing News Editor of the Stanford Daily and runs AI-ROI.com, a collection of playbooks for startup founders to build AI model-driven businesses.
Eva-Maria Olbers leads Platform and Operations at Point72 Ventures’ Artificial Intelligence group, supporting investment activities and working alongside the AI portfolio companies to assist them in their growth strategy and access to resources.
Prior to joining Point72 Ventures, Eva worked at the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator in London, managing a portfolio of global startups across industries including AI, cybersecurity, and Finance. She previously worked as a consultant at The Boston Consulting Group, directly advising Fortune 500 companies, and at the Machine Learning startup Knewton. She is the former co-founder of STEMgem, a IoT company aiming to engage teenage girls in the STEM fields, and a winner of the Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge.
Eva holds a MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School and a MSc from the London Business School. She is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper and a selected invitee to the Annual Meeting in Davos. Originally from Germany and Luxembourg, Eva is conversational in seven languages, including Spanish, French, and Mandarin Chinese.
Mike Saeks is a member of the Investment Team at Point72 Ventures, investing in model-driven businesses that use artificial intelligence to solve previously unsolvable problems.
Prior to joining Point72 Ventures, Mike was on the Technology Buyouts team at KKR where he focused on enterprise software. Before joining KKR, Mike worked in Software Investment Banking at UBS, focusing on enterprise software and cyber security.
Mike earned his B.S. in Finance from the University of Oregon, where he was on the leadership team of the University of Oregon Investment Group and was recognized by the faculty as the top finance student in his graduating class.
He is originally from Portland, Oregon, and like any good Oregonian, Mike loves the outdoors and can be found snowboarding in Tahoe, mountain biking at Skeggs Point, or hiking in Marin.
Jay Schneider a member of the Investment Team for Point72 Ventures, leading the Venture Buyout group.
Prior to joining Point72 Ventures, Jay held investing and operations roles within the technology sector. Most recently, he was a growth equity investor at Riverwood Capital, where he focused on sourcing, executing, and monitoring investments. Prior to that, he was the CFO of Scratch and a private equity investor with Francisco Partners and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.
Jay earned his MBA from Stanford University, where he was an Arbuckle Leadership Fellow, and his BA in Economics from Pomona College.
He has served as a board member or board observer of Cloudvirga, PayLease, Aesynt, Vendavo, Shoregroup, Attachment, Source Photonics, API Healthcare, and Aricent.
Katherine Schykerynyc is an Investment Assistant for the Enterprise Technologies team, focusing on early stage investments.
Katherine has been in the venture capital industry for 15 years, holding numerous Investment Assistant and Investor Relations roles. She began her career at U.S. Venture Partners, and most recently held roles at Sapphire Ventures and C.M. Capital Advisors.
Originally from the Bay Area, Katherine attended college in the area and majored in Mathematics.
Ishan is a member of the Investment Team at Point72 Ventures, helping evaluate and execute investments with a focus on emerging and international markets.
Ishan joined Point72 Ventures after rotating through long/short teams within Point72, covering public companies in the technology and financial services sectors. Before joining Point72, Ishan was an investment banking analyst at Goldman Sachs.
He graduated from Yale University with a BA in Economics. He serves as a mentor as a part of Endeavor’s Mentor Capital initiative, giving one-on-one support to international entrepreneurs.
Alex Tarhini is an Operating Partner at Point72 Ventures. He focuses on investments and portfolio company growth in financial services technology companies globally. In this capacity, he regularly engages with financial services leaders aiming to drive industry innovation.
Before Point72 Ventures, Alex launched and managed the Barclays Accelerator with Techstars in New York City. Alex was responsible for working with bank executives on solving industry wide technology issues through the sourcing and support of over 20 early stage companies.
Alex is passionate about impact oriented initiatives, experiencing new cultures and surfing. Growing up in Miami, Florida Alex earned his BBA at Florida International University.
Yonas Tesfaye is the Data Science Lead for the Point72 Ventures AI Investing Team, building ML proof of concepts and supporting portfolio companies in their machine learning and software engineering efforts.
Yonas began his career at Northrop Grumman, where he worked on a variety of projects including signal processing systems, satellites, and UAVs. He then worked at In-Q-Tel in a machine learning focused applied research laboratory. Most recently, Yonas led a team at Apple focused on natural language processing for knowledge seeking Siri inquiries.
Yonas earned his BS in Aeronautics/Astronautics from MIT and an MS in Aerospace Engineering from Stanford.
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Updates
Point72 Ventures: Flybits
Flybits Secures $35M Investment from World’s Top Financial Institutions
Fauna Raises $25M in Series A Funding, Led by Point72 Ventures
Artificial Intelligence Leader, Netradyne, Raises $21 Million in Series B Funding, Accelerating Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Improving Road and Driver Safety
Tempo Closes $20M Series B to Build New Connected Factory in San Francisco For Electronics Manufacturing
Fintech Finance’s Power Players
Announcing our third focus area: Enterprise Technologies
inVia Robotics Raises $20 Million Series B Funding for Warehouse Automation Robots
Steve Cohen’s Point72 Ventures leads $21M venture capital round in Flare
Models Will Run the World
Hedge funds fight back against tech in the war for talent
Cohen-backed venture capital firm eyes emerging technologies
Steve Cohen is backing a former Amex exec solving a financial pain point facing 35% of the American workforce
Term Sheet – Tuesday, April 24
Point72 leads $3 mln seed financing round for Extend
Steve Cohen is backing a ‘virtual credit card’ app
While tragedy surrounds some billionaires, others are breaking new ground
Hedge fund manager Cohen heads east to ‘swing big’ with Point72 Ventures
Steve Cohen is plowing into fintech
Steve Cohen’s Point72 Ventures backs new trading site that combats high-speed traders
Steven Cohen Targets High-Frequency Trading With ‘Dark Pool’ Venture
Steve Cohen Invests in Dark Pool Aiming to Defang Speed Traders
Steve Cohen’s Point72 Ventures backs new trading site that combats high-speed traders
We talked to Steve Cohen’s right-hand man about Point72 Ventures’ latest investment, tech on Wall Street, and cryptocurrency
Point72-Backed Start-Up to Rock the Proxy Vote
Point72 invests in artificial-intelligence firm
Steve Cohen’s VC firm led a $21 million investment in a startup that wants to power free stock trading
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