Raman Khanna

As a managing director, Raman leads investments in early-stage companies that are building in areas including cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, data management, and SaaS apps. He delights in finding teams that are solving tomorrow’s technological bottlenecks and in working with founders for whom $1B in revenue – not valuation – is the goal.

Raman appreciates that DTC represents the “best of both worlds” to founders. Portfolio companies benefit from access to a tight knit, deeply technical, and collaborative team as well as the broader network of technical, go-to-market, and sale experts in the larger Dell Technologies ecosystem.

Beginning his career as an operator, Raman spent 16 years at Stanford University in roles including Chief Information Officer where he was responsible for IT infrastructure and both the academic and business systems for the university. During his time with Stanford, he also served on CIO Advisory Boards for many leading companies including Cisco, Dell, and Microsoft.

In 2000, Raman left academia to co-found Diamondhead Ventures where he led investments in Cavium Networks (Nasdaq: CAVM), Reactivity (acquired by Cisco Systems), PassMark Security (acquired by RSA Security/EMC) and Orative (acquired by Cisco Systems). Diamondhead Ventures merged with ONSET Ventures in 2007 where Raman continued to invest before leaving to join EMC Ventures as a managing director in 2013.

Raman is one of the early charter members of The Indus Entrepreneur (TiE), the world’s largest non-profit organization for entrepreneurs, is a contributing editor for four technical books, and has twice been named to the Forbes Midas List of the top 100 venture investors.

Raman holds an MBA from Golden Gate University and an MS in Computer Science from Virginia Tech. He earned his undergraduate degree from Delhi College of Engineering, where he studied electrical and electronics engineering.

Fun Facts

Favorite meals: Anything that his very talented wife makes and/or are enjoyed with good friends.

Non-tech activities: Tennis and Golf.

Life-long learning: Recently took up the study of Indian classical music for a more informed appreciation.