Team

Aydin Senkut is the Founder and Managing Director of Felicis Ventures. He has been named one of the top 25 tech angels by Businessweek recently and was featured as one of the top 8 up and coming VCs by Forbes’ Midas List. Felicis Ventures portfolio encompasses over 50 companies currently including Azumio, Baby.com.br, Clearslide, Dropcam, Chloe & Isabel, Imageshack, Inkling, Justin.tv, Meraki, Room 77, Practice Fusion, Rovio, Shopify, Wildfire and Zaarly. In the last four years, 20 Felicis backed start-ups have been acquired by firms such as Google, Twitter, Groupon, Microsoft, AT&T, Disney, Ebay, Chegg and Intuit.

Prior to starting Felicis Ventures, he was a Senior Manager at Google, responsible for strategic partner development and account management in Asia Pacific (including Japan). Aydin joined Google in 1999 as its first Product Manager to launch Google’s first 10 international sites, its first online search licensing products and its first Safe Search. He then became the first International Sales Manager at Google, responsible for world-wide licensing deals.

Before joining Google, Aydin was the Product Manager for Data Visualization and Data Mining software MineSet, and led the business development efforts for the financial services industry at SGI.

Aydin received a BS in Business Administration with Honors from Boston University. He also earned an MBA in Marketing from the Wharton School and an MA in International Studies from the School of Arts at the University of Pennsylvania. He speaks five languages: English, German, French, Portuguese and Turkish.

Aydin and his wife are Associate Founders of Singularity University, have backed bio-tech research at UCSF and sponsored a scholarship at the University of Pennsylvania. Aydin is on the boards of Clearslide, Massive Health, Imageshack and the Wharton Entrepreneurial Program.

Aydin has been featured on Businessweek, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Financial Times Germany,  and San Francisco Chronicle

Sundeep Peechu focuses on investments in mobile, enterprise and health at Felicis Ventures.

Prior to joining Felicis, he held various product roles at Intel where he helped launch the SOA Expressway for Healthcare, a high-performance platform for extending data interoperability across the hospital information network. He also launched the Intel XML Software Suite and led the development of an XML strategy within the software division. Sundeep joined Intel in 2005 through the acquisition of Sarvega, where he was an early employee responsible for the design and development of the web services security infrastructure. He also had brief stints at NEA where he focused on mobile and emerging markets and at Simbol Mining where he developed key initiatives around the production of battery materials.

Sundeep has a Bachelors in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, an M.S in Computer Science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Renata joined Felicis Ventures in 2011, where she focuses on opportunities in e-commerce, education and health.

Before joining Felicis, she was an institutional investor at the Stanford Management Company, where she helped manage the endowment’s venture capital portfolio and build out its micro-VC exposure. She also worked at JPMorgan’s Tech, Media and Telecom group in San Francisco and coordinated the business, legal and fundraising strategy for a Brazil-based social media start-up.

Prior to pursuing her MBA she practiced tech M&A law both in Brazil and Silicon Valley, her last position being with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom in Palo Alto.

Renata has a Law degree from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, an LL.M in Law, Science and Technology from Stanford Law School and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Kerry Murphy is the Senior Operations Manager at Felicis Ventures.  Kerry has been with the firm since its inception in June 2010.  Kerry is responsible for running the firm’s operations and maintaining its headquarters in Palo Alto.  She manages the firm’s back-office which includes accounting, payroll and investor management, and financial audits.   In her role, she also looks after the banking relationships of the fund.  Kerry also acts as the Executive Assistant to the Founder and Managing Partner, Aydin Senkut.Kerry has worked in the Venture Capital industry since 1988 and has been running operations since 1990. She previously worked at industry firms such as Selby Venture Partners, Doll Capital Management (DCM), Summit Partners. Prior to that, she also worked at well known technology companies such as Sybase Inc. Kerry has been an active member of the VCOMA since 2001.

Anthony is the CFO of Felicis Ventures. He has over 17 years of experience in interim accounting, assurance, tax, mergers and acquisitions for private and public companies and venture capital firms. With previous experience from KPMG and Ruzzo Scholl & Murphy, Anthony earned valuable and constructive public accounting experience, focusing on high-tech and manufacturing institutions. Subsequently, he managed his own practice for four years in which he worked extensively with some of the valley’s most successful startups such as Ironport Systems, Inc., which was part of nearly $1B merger with Cisco Systems in 2007. In addition, Anthony has successfully managed the accounting and finance functions for multiple Felicis Ventures portfolio companies; i.e., RichRelevance, Hourtown and Shopittome. Anthony is a Certified Public Accountant and earned his Bachelors of Science degree in Accounting from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.