Team

Preetish Nijhawan

Co-Founder and General Partner

Preetish Nijhawan is a co-founder and partner at Cervin. When it comes to day-to-day operations, Preetish serves on the board of several portfolio companies, mentoring and advising their founders. He also meets entrepreneurs for potential investments and builds connections across other venture capital firms, alumni networks, and potential investors.

He is especially interested in the future of work, and his areas of investment focus are; the application layer in the IT stack, HR Tech, Sales & Marketing Tech, and DevOps tools.

Previously, he worked at McKinsey & Company, Neon, BMC, and iVita, an asset management software startup he co-founded. Preetish was also a co-founder of Akamai Technologies. Prior to Akamai he held various roles at Intel in engineering and program management. He earned a BS in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the BITS, Pilani, India, an MS in Computer Engineering from USC, and an MBA from MIT Sloan.

When he’s not mentoring the next generation of entrepreneurs, Preetish enjoys reading, sports, traveling, and discovering new movies and TV shows.

Neeraj Gupta

Co-Founder and General Partner

Neeraj Gupta is a co-founder and partner at Cervin. One of his favorite parts of his job is working with entrepreneurs to build their market and competitive strategies - reimagining the world they can create together. Neeraj’s investment focus areas are industry solutions and data infrastructure.

Previously, Neeraj was the founder and CEO of Nexient, a digital experience consulting firm, and Cymbal, a telecommunications consultancy (acquired by Patni/Cap Gemini). He also held engineering and product management positions at Octel and Genesys. Neeraj has a BS in Electronics and Electrical Engineering from Punjab University and an MSEE from the University of Alabama. He is a Kauffman fellow.

Outside of the office, Neeraj can be found on a favorite hiking trail or traveling to interesting new destinations. He also loves reading anything about Stoicism, leadership, and public policy.

Shirish Sathaye

General Partner

Shirish Sathaye is a General Partner at Cervin. He focuses on investments in next-generation enterprise software, cloud-based software, AI-powered businesses, wireless and wireline networking, data infrastructure and systems.

For 20+ years, Shirish has served as a General Partner across several venture firms. Prior to joining Cervin, he spent 10 years at Matrix Partners, 3 years at Khosla Ventures, and the remainder at Formation 8. His very first investment was Aruba Networks (NASDAQ:ARUN) which had a multi-billion IPO and acquisition. Shirish’s investment career was preceded by 15 years as leader in category-creating technology companies. He was VP of Engineering and CTO at Alteon Websystems, growing the startup from 20 to 800+ employees and taking it through a multi-billion IPO and acquisition. In addition, he headed the largest engineering group at FORE Systems, which also had a multi-billion IPO.

Shirish has a Ph.D in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, an MSEE from Virginia Tech, and a Bachelor's Degree in Electronics Engineering from IIT-BHU, Varanasi, India.

Outside of the office, Shirish enjoys hiking, running, and reading non-fiction. He is also a foodie who enjoys trying new restaurants and cuisines.

Mila Ferrell

Partner

Mila Ferrell is a partner at Cervin focused on investments in AI and API-first companies that will define the future of work and shape fintech infrastructure in the next decade and beyond.

Before joining Cervin, Mila spent four years at Zoom as a founding member of the Product team. She is credited with designing the app and delivering a delightful user experience to more than 300 million users worldwide. She was also instrumental in creating the Zoom App Marketplace and helping develop the ecosystem of startups building on top of the Zoom platform at its inception.

Prior to Zoom, Mila founded Ketchy, a messaging-based mobile personal assistant, where she raised early-stage funding, built and took a product to market, and grew a world-class team. She additionally spent four years at Google as a strategic partner manager and served as a financial analyst Deutsche Bank’s Private Equity arm with $55 billion in AUM, helping source, conduct due diligence, and structure several multi-billion dollar deals.

Mila holds a BA in Economics from University College London and a certificate of Project Management from Stanford University. She is a member of the Reforge community of top Product and Growth practitioners.

Outside of the office, Mila enjoys spending time outdoors skiing in Tahoe in winter and hiking, jet skiing, and boating in summer. She loves learning about innovations in health and wellness industries and thinks that meditation is the best workout for the mind.

Daniel Karp

Partner

Daniel Karp is a partner at Cervin focused on investments in Enterprise Infrastructure, across Cloud-native infrastructure, DevOps, ITOps, developer tools, cyber security, networking, data management, and open-source-first enterprise motions. In addition, he aims to partner with Enterprise-focused Entrepreneurs who are taking on bold challenges, looking to disrupt major markets, and create companies of consequence.

Before joining Cevin, Daniel led Investments and Acquisitions for multiple billion-dollar domains at Cisco, including Networking, Cloud and Data Centers, and the geographic efforts in regions such as Israel and Latin America. He also worked for several years at Microsoft across roles in strategy, business development, and product management with the Azure team and the company’s internal incubation projects arm, the Startup Business Group, as part of the firm’s research subsidiary, Microsoft Research. Early in his career, Daniel was a Venture Capital Associate at Amiti Capital and held various engineering roles at Comsys Communications (acquired by Intel) and Saifun Semiconductors (acquired by Cypress Semiconductors).

Daniel has an MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business and a Bachelor’s of Science in Electrical Engineering from Tel-Aviv University. He is also a graduate of an Elite Intelligence Unit of the Israeli Defense Forces.

Outside of the office, he enjoys swimming, hiking, and exploring the outdoors with his family. Daniel has a rapidly growing collection of Bourbons and American and Spanish wines.

Courtney McKee

Director Of Finance

Courtney McKee joined the Cervin team with over 12 years of operations management and back office experience in mutual funds, hedge funds, private equity and venture capital to fund administration.

Courtney is a Certified Public Accountant and graduated from the University of California, Davis and Santa Clara University. She has served as Treasurer on the Board of Directors for the San Francisco Chapter of the American Marketing Association.

Rohit Rao

Associate

Rohit Rao joined the Cervin team in 2021. He helps source deals through a variety of channels including accelerators and incubators and researches new companies, themes, and industries for current and future investments aligned with Cervin’s investment thesis.

Prior to joining Cervin, Rohit worked as an analyst at ICONIQ Capital and an Associate at Kingfish Group. He has a BA in Economics from Northwestern University. Rohit is an avid tennis player and enjoys watching football and basketball as a Lakers fan.

McKayla Nevins

Program Analyst

McKayla has many years of administrative experience, previously working as Cervin’s office manager. As a Program Analyst, McKayla tracks the new deal pipeline, manages the cadence and program reviews of existing portfolio companies, and collects quarterly performance data. In addition, she also facilitates collaboration for our partners in the venture community and manages Cervin’s customer advisory board.

McKayla has a Bachelor’s Degree in Health Services with a concentration in Health Administration from the University of Southern Indiana.

Outside of the office, McKayla enjoys traveling, reading, and spending time with family and friends.

Ashley Daniels

Marketing Manager

Ashley Daniels joined the Cervin team in 2020. She orchestrates digital marketing strategies across social media, email, and Cervin's blog and works with partners and portfolio companies to create thought leadership content.

Ashley started her career as a content writer at a digital marketing agency in her home state of Michigan. After moving to California, she worked as content marketing manager at Pinger, leading content production for blogs, social media, email, and lifecycle engagement messaging. She has a BA in Communication Studies and Environmental Studies from Western Michigan University. Ashley is an avid reader, amateur chef, and adventurous hiker.

Samir Shah

Operating Partner

Samir Shah is an operating partner at Cervin. He focuses on pre and post-investments that include sourcing, investing, onboarding, and portfolio company building. He also oversees the Cervin brand and content strategies. Samir’s investment focus areas are DevOps/Tools, Industry SaaS, Retail Tech, and Quantum Computing.

As a Silicon Valley native for 30 years, Samir held engineering and executive positions at multiple tech startups. Most recently, he founded and ran Zephyr, a cloud-based enterprise testing company that SmartBear acquired in 2018. The products he designed continue to remain at the top of the charts on the Atlassian Marketplace and are being used by millions of testers worldwide. Before Zephyr, Samir headed the quality line-of-business at Patni Computers and quality engineering at PointCast, Attachmate, and Wollongong.

Samir holds an MS in EE from The University of Alabama, where he was recently named a Distinguished Engineering Fellow. He has also completed the Stanford Executive Program at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.

Samir enjoys all sports and is a big fan of the Crimson Tide, San Francisco Giants, Golden State Warriors, and San Francisco 49ers. He recently reached the last screen on Netflix that said there is no content left for him to watch.

Track Record

$270M Assets Under Management

Across four funds, as well as opportunity funds, we have $270 million in assets under management (AUM).

$8B+ Value Created

Across our portfolio companies, more than $8 billion in value has been created.

47 Active Startups

Our portfolio is made up of disciplined entrepreneurs who are disrupting the Enterprise application, infrastructure, and tools spaces.

100+ Total Investments

Over the years, the members of the Cervin team have collectively made numerous investments across the Enterprise.

"We're excited to be working with Shirish Sathaye and the Cervin Ventures team who have a great eye for finding solutions that are disrupting the market. They truly understand the vision for Anvilogic and know how to help make companies successful. I also know that Shirish and team are solid founder-friendly investors who are in for the long haul, which is very important as we build a large company with a bright future."

Karthik Kannan - Founder & CEO, Anvilogic

"I have always believed that your investors are your partners in the startup journey - every step of the way. Cervin's partners domain and operational expertise and readiness to offer guidance and support has been tremendously helpful in solving many of the critical challenges. We are fortunate to have Cervin as one of our investors."

Ritesh Agrawal - Founder & CEO, Airgap Networks

"Building a company from scratch is more challenging than you can ever read about. Cervin Ventures has had my back when I've had to punch my way out of numerous corners. Whether they gave us a boost of oxygen or the confidence to charge forward, even when it seemed improbable; it made all the difference in taking on and winning against billion $ competitors."

Will Salcido - Founder and CEO, Bedrock Analytics

Cervin is an early stage fund founded
by entrepreneurs who built and operated
successful companies such as

Nexient