Zimbra Founder and Ex-Yahoo Exec Dharmaraj to Redpoint Ventures
by Kara Swisher
Posted on March 23, 2009 at 12:54 PM PT
Another former Yahoo exec has landed at a Silicon Valley venture firm. This time, well-regarded serial entrepreneur Satish Dharmaraj will become a partner at Redpoint Ventures, according to sources.
The move of Dharmaraj is interesting, given that he is not starting a new company or taking a post as an entrepreneur-in-residence at the venture capital firm, as many operating execs do after leaving a company.
Dharmaraj left Yahoo (YHOO) in late January, as was reported here.
He worked there after one of the companies he founded, open-source email start-up Zimbra, was bought by the Internet giant for $350 million in late 2007.
Zimbra’s technology has been an important part of the effort to turbocharge Yahoo’s powerful communications properties as competitors like Google (GOOG) have become more aggressive.
Sources close to the situation said Dharmaraj would focus on business software, the enterprise arena and infrastructure at Redpoint.
Other former Yahoo execs who have gone to VC firms over the last year in a variety of roles include David Goldberg, Jeff Weiner (who has since become president of LinkedIn) and Andrew Braccia.
Here is a video interview I did with Dhamaraj last year after Yahoo bought Zimbra:
Follow Kara on Twitter | Follow AllThingsD on Twitter
