Canvas Venture Fund, an early-stage venture capital firm formed in August 2013 with its USD175 million inaugural fund, has appointed Paul Hsiao as a general partner and founding managing member.
Hsiao is a seasoned entrepreneur, operator and venture investor. He spent the last 10 years at New Enterprise Associates (NEA), a global investment firm with USD14 billion in assets under management, where he was best known for his domain expertise in partnering with entrepreneurs building successful enterprise software and marketplace companies. Some of these investments include Houzz, Gaikai, Boingo, Elance-oDesk, SayMedia, and 42Floors.
Hsiao also brings a diverse set of capital market experiences to Canvas, having been involved with seven companies that have since gone public on the NASDAQ or NYSE over the past 10 years and having helped tens of companies through successful acquisitions.
"We couldn't be more excited to have Paul join our team," says Rebecca Lynn, general partner at Canvas. "Paul is both a pleasure to be around and has a stellar record not just in terms of the numbers, but in terms of his reputation among entrepreneurs who have loved working with him."
Before taking the plunge into the world of VC, Hsiao founded a venture-backed startup called Mazu Networks, a pioneer in network security that was based on technology developed at MIT. Today, the company provides enterprise IT organisations with the tools to manage, secure and optimise their business services as a division of Riverbed Technology.
"I feel fortunate to be partnering with Rebecca, Gary, and Gary. There is great chemistry amongst all of us. I have deep respect for their investment acumen and conviction that they'd demonstrated by backing new category creators like Evernote, Lending Club and Siri at the very early stages," Hsiao says. "Moreover, they are a powerhouse in marketing — especially with knowing how to successfully launch new products — which in my experience, is a scarce skillset that is often unavailable to founders in those earliest and most formidable years."
Going forward at Canvas, Hsiao will both deepen and expand his marketplace thesis, as he will look to partner with innovators building mobile software, proprietary data graphs and large peer networks that drive progress in the enterprise, education, real estate and gaming.
Hsiao becomes the fourth general partner at the new firm.
