VC, Investor | Ex Operator (Product/GTM) - AWS, Oracle, Aerospike, Persistent | Ex co-founder/CEO | 1x exit
California, USA
Joined January 2011
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Viraj Phanse retweeted
Coming up at Tech Weekend September 2025
@vrphanse, Partner at @ArkaVentureLabs, investing in: Enterprise AI, Deep Tech, Frontier Tech
Stage: Pre-Seed & Seed
📅 Friday, September 5th | ⏰ 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Viraj Phanse is a Partner at Arka Venture Labs, a BGV-backed cross-border fund focused on pre-seed and seed-stage enterprise AI startups. He brings extensive operational, investment, and entrepreneurial experience across enterprise AI, SaaS, infrastructure, data, analytics, and cloud.
Previously, Viraj was the CEO and co-founder of a venture-backed AI and data startup that exited in just two years, led product and strategy at AWS and Oracle, and drove go-to-market efforts at Aerospike and Persistent Systems. He has also served as a Venture Partner at U First Capital and as a Fellow and Selection Committee Member at Berkeley Angel Network.
With an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, an MS in Computer Science from UCLA, and a B.Eng from Pune University, Viraj blends deep technical expertise with hands-on scaling experience—making him an invaluable partner for founders building in enterprise tech.
What Are VC Office Hours?
✔️ One-on-one meetings with VCs during Tech Weekend
✔️ Book your meeting slots in advance
✔️ Each meeting lasts 15 minutes
✔️ Pitch, get tailored advice, and refine your strategy
🔗 Link to Sign up for Tech Weekend: TWsep.eventbrite.com
If you’re building in enterprise AI, deep tech, or frontier markets—this is your chance to connect with a cross-border investor who’s been a founder, operator, and backer.
Viraj Phanse retweeted
@"A primer on pricing for pre-seed and seed enterprise startups"linkedin.com/pulse/primer-pr… on @LinkedIn
Viraj Phanse retweeted
Nailing PMF sets the stage. Traction fuels sustainable growth. Brilliant perspective
Viraj Phanse retweeted
@vrphanse there's definitely a shift happening in the tech landscape. adapting to ai for better roi seems crucial. what's your take on transitioning from saas to sas?
Viraj Phanse retweeted
#Blockfenders reels in $1.5M for its #blockchain-powered secure data sharing platform siliconangle.com/2023/02/07/… via @thecubetv
Viraj Phanse retweeted
The information security start-up #Blockfenders has attracted $1.5M in a seed round from Blume Ventures, Together Fund. The start-up creates a mechanism for secure real-time data exchange between two or more parties using #ZeroTrust and #zeroknowledge technologies
Viraj Phanse retweeted
Blockfenders reels in $1.5M for its blockchain-powered secure data sharing platform dlvr.it/Sl196B
Viraj Phanse retweeted
#FXGIPstartups #IntroductionSeries. We are thrilled to introduce our first GIP startup Blockfenders, co-founded by the dynamic duo Viraj and Niraj. Paving the way for the next generation of entrepreneurs, we are excited to have Blockfenders participating in #FXGIP in May
Viraj Phanse retweeted
Blockfenders Successfully Achieves SOC 2 TYPE 2, HIPAA and GDPR Compliance dlvr.it/SpSR2C
Viraj Phanse retweeted
Congratulations to Blockfenders for accomplishing the trifecta of certifications - SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA, and GDPR, using Akitra's compliance automation platform.
Want to learn how Akitra can help your business achieve compliance goals? Book a demo today at akitra.com/demo
Viraj Phanse retweeted
Massive congratulations to Blockfenders - they just raised a pre-seed round of $1.5M from Blume, Together Fund, Better Capital, and others! Excited to see them unlock the potential of zettabytes of enterprise data!
Viraj Phanse retweeted
Our latest Investment is in #Blockfenders a Data Integrity, Exchange & Trust as a Service. It took part in GSF Academy Summer Cohort. It’s funding round is oversubscribed by 40%.
Caught up with its CEO @VirajPhanse at @orenshummus in Palo Alto. Exciting times ahead.
@gsf_fund – at Palo Alto, CA
Viraj Phanse retweeted
On Aug 25, 2021, @jon_handler and I will be talking about getting started with Amazon Elasticsearch Service’s #coldstorage tier. Please register using the link below-
pages.awscloud.com/AWS-Onlin…
Viraj Phanse retweeted
Spotlight on @tnahsus and his talk: Derisking Migrations of API Backends
youtu.be/LD3zB5rYn3I
#gopherconEU #golang
Viraj Phanse retweeted
Learn what reporting capabilities #OpenSearch has to offer! Big thanks to @ianirudha for working with me to write this blog post. opensearch.org/blog/feature/…
Viraj Phanse retweeted
Hot off the presses. Open Distro for Elasticsearch 1.13.0 now available. Historical data analysis for Anomaly Detection, the ability to run on ARM processors (with a 20-28% performance improvement!), and new SQL capabilities. opendistro.github.io/for-ela…