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Downing Ventures appoints Silicon Valley Venture Partner

Downing Ventures has appointed Joe Raffa as a Venture Partner as it scales up for global expansion and sector specialisation. 

Raffa is an investor and executive with extensive expertise in early stage and Fortune 100 technology companies bringing with him a wealth of knowledge to the Downing team and portfolio companies, as Downing Ventures continues to increase value added across the board.

Raffa is currently advising several startups across Europe and the US on product strategy, engineering execution and international expansion. Prior to joining Downing Ventures, Joe worked with BCG Tech Ventures, the research commercialisation and spinout arm of Boston Consulting Group. Prior to that, Raffa was an executive at IBM, serving as Director of IBM Ventures and Corporate Development, focusing on direct investments and partnerships with startups in AI, cloud computing, quantum computing and storage. As a Partner at Adams Capital, a financial VC with USD800 million under management, Joe led early stage investments in deep tech startups and served in interim CEO roles, successfully turning around TimeSys. Before entering venture capital, as CEO of NuCORE Technology, Joe raised $30 million and built the company from the seed stage, leading to the successful acquisition by MediaTek. Raffa holds an Msc in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard.

Raffa works across all stages of venture investment, from deal sourcing through to exit with experience in deep tech IT segments, including the disruptive aspects of machine learning applied to industrial problems, hard sciences and finance, cloud infrastructure, design automation, high performance computing, image processing and semiconductors.

Warren Rogers, Partner and Head of Ventures, says: “We are delighted that Joe is joining as our Silicon Valley based Venture Partner taking Downing Ventures team global. Joe brings an exceptional track record of investment and operational achievements in a variety of deep tech and enterprise sectors, amplifying our momentum in building a leading global franchise in Venture Capital.”

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