Passionate.Pioneering.

Neotribe is led by a team of serial entrepreneurs with a track record of building highly successful companies and investing in bold new ideas. We’re here because we love what we do. Our passion lies in helping founders to usher in the next wave of transformative technology.

NeoTribe history:

Origins of the tribe

A decade ago, tech entrepreneur and author Seth Godin wrote a book called “Tribes,” about the idea that for the first time, the Internet enabled people to form dedicated groups around concepts and beliefs, completely free of geographical boundaries. He talked about the new leaders of tribes as the outliers developing the world’s most audacious ideas. “Heretics are the new leaders,” Godin wrote. “The ones who challenge the status quo, who get out in front of their tribes, who create movements.” Today, Neotribe seeks out and funds such movement creators.

Founded in 2017 by Swaroop ‘Kittu’ Kolluri, Neotribe Ventures is based in the heart of Silicon Valley. We seek entrepreneurs developing breakthrough technologies that stretch the imagination. We value great ideas, as well as a strong commitment and desire to transform businesses and positively impact people’s lives.

Just as tribes represent small, protective and caring groups, we believe that startups with innovative and aspirational teams thrive if provided the security and backing to be unafraid in the pursuit of new ideas, excellence and success.

We collaborate with our portfolio companies, providing them the full benefit of our experience, relationships and industry affiliations.

Guiding values:

Authenticity

Affection

Trustworthiness

Respect

Integrity

Transparency

Intellectual Honesty

Founder & Managing Director

Swaroop 'Kittu' Kolluri

Kittu is a Silicon Valley veteran with a career spanning three decades as entrepreneur, CEO, senior operating executive and venture capitalist. Career highlights include working as an engineer at Silicon Graphics, co-founding Healtheon/WebMD, being founder and CEO of Neoteris, and investing in over four dozen successful companies as a general partner at NEA. Kittu is also a serious cricket lover—The Hyderabad Sunrisers are his favorite team.

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Co-Founder & Chief Financial Officer

Steve Bragonier

Steve has over 25 years of experience providing strong financial management to Silicon Valley tech companies, as well as assisting startups in effective financial planning, establishing proper financial controls and raising capital. He’s also a pretty decent basketball player and Warriors fan.

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Partner

Alex Salazar

Alex is the rare combination of founder, engineer, and early-stage go-to-market expert. Before becoming a venture capitalist, he was the founder-CEO of Stormpath (acquired by Okta), where he built an authentication API service for developers and grew a bottoms-up model that attracted thousands of developers every week. At Okta, as VP/GM of New Products, Alex introduced a new IT product and scaled it from zero to $9 million in sales in under four quarters. Alex holds a BS in Computer Science from Georgia Tech and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Alex loves any excuse to get in the water to surf the breaks in Capitola.

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Partner

Rebecca Mitchem

Rebecca co-leads Neotribe’s growth-stage fund, Ignite, with Kittu Kolluri. Rebecca spent the first decade of her career at JPMorgan. She is experienced in both public and private markets and spent the last five years investing in Growth Stage companies as well as in private equity funds. She has worked as a board member or observor with private companies across sectors including Menlo Security, Callsign, ClearMotion and Top Aces. In her spare time, you'll often find her hiking with her 75 pound pup, Auggie.

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Partner

Neeraj Hablani

Neeraj has experience working with upstart teams and established organizations. Prior to Neotribe, he launched Google's artificial intelligence assistant to mobile devices and led Waymo's driverless deployment program. When not in the office you can find Neeraj bombing down Hawk Hill on his bike, testing the power of his brakes.

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Venture Advisor & Executive-in-Residence

Azeez Mohammed

Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Giantleap, former executive at General Electric

Venture Advisor

Kevin Patrick Mahaffey

CTO and Founder of Lookout, Founder at SNR

Venture Advisor

KS Jangbahadur

Investment Banker (CS, UBS, JPM) and Investor (ICICI Venture, JPM Global Special Opportunities)

Venture Advisor

Sridhar Tayur

Professor of Operations Management at the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University

Venture Advisor

Srini Devadas

Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, MIT

Venture Advisor

Sriram Ramachandran

Serial entrepreneur, operating executive, CEO coach/mentor

NeoTribe history:

Investment history

Neotribe may be new, but our team has a strong track record of growing and advising startups from seed round to IPO. With over 30 years of experience, we provide a unique and seasoned perspective that spans the entire startup journey.

Unlike many early-stage investment firms, we seek out companies solving really hard technical problems and embrace investing in technologies that disrupt non-traditional industry sectors.