Bobby Yazdani
Iranian-American entrepreneur and investor From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Babak "Bobby" Yazdani (born 1963)[1] is an Iranian-American entrepreneur and investor specializing in early-stage, private U.S.-based modern enterprise technology companies.[1]
Bobby Yazdani | |
|---|---|
| Born | Babak Yazdani |
| Citizenship | American |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley |
| Occupation | Founder & Managing Partner of Cota Capital Founder & Managing Partner of Signatures Capital |
| Organization | Cota Capital |
| Known for | Entrepreneur & Venture Capital |
| Website | Cota Capital Signatures Capital |
In 1997, he founded Saba Software, a provider of Human Capital Management (HCM) software solutions. He took the company public in 2000.[2] Yazdani founded Signatures Capital in 2006 and co-founded investment firm Cota Capital in 2014, where he serves as a Partner.[1][3][4]
Yazdani was ranked #1 out of 2000 angel investors in a 2014 report by CB Insights as having the most successful track record for investing in companies that received follow-on funding.[5]
Yazdani began investing in 1989 and is an early investor in companies such as Google, Dropbox, Klout, Salesforce and Uber.[3][6][7]
Early life and education
Yazdani was born in Tehran to a middle-class family. He left Iran in 1980 for the United Kingdom, where he completed his high-school education.[1] Yazdani moved to the United States at age 19 and graduated with a B.A. in Applied Mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley.[7][8]
Career
Summarize
Perspective
Oracle
From 1988 to 1997, Yazdani held various senior management positions at Oracle Corporation.[7][8]
Saba Software
Yazdani founded Saba Software in 1997 and took the company public in 2000. He was identified as an industry pioneer in creating the Human Capital Management category.[9] Under his leadership, Saba acquired THINQ Learning Solutions in May 2005,[10] Centra Software in 2006[11][12] and Pedagogue Solutions and Comartis in June 2011.[13] Yazdani stepped down as CEO in 2013 when Saba was acquired by Vector Capital.[14] The following year, Yazdani agreed to an SEC-negotiated claw back of $2.5 million in bonuses. Yazdani was not charged with any wrongdoing.[15] In February 2020, Saba was acquired by Cornerstone OnDemand for $1.3 billion.[16]
Signatures Capital
In 2006, Yazdani founded Signatures Capital, which serves as his family office and focuses on early stage investments.[17][18] Yazdani’s first investment was in medical technology company Masimo, for which he provided capital but also wrote software to improve the accuracy of Masimo’s early neonatal pulse oximeters.[17] According to the Huffington Post, Yazdani has invested in more than 100 companies in the technology sector via Signature Capital.[1] Through Signatures Capital investments, Yazdani invested, among others, in Dropbox, Google,[19] Uber, Masimo,[20] Nextbio (acquired by Illumina),[21][22]SoundHound,[23] Salesforce,[24] Clever Sense (acquired by Google),[25][26] Greensmith Energy (acquired by Wartsila),[27][28] Baarzo (acquired by Google),[29][30] Bina Technologies (acquired by Roche)[31][32] and Checkr.[33]
Cota Capital
In 2014, Yazdani co-founded Cota Capital, a technology investment firm that partners with technology companies to help them grow and develop "the opportunity for improving lives."[34][35] Since its inception, the firm has invested in numerous private and public technology companies, including Berkeley Lights,[36] Capella Space,[37] Cloud Lending (acquired by Q2 Holdings),[38] Tubi (acquired by FoxCorp),[39] Gusto (formerly ZenPayroll),[40] Mission Bio[41] and Movandi,[42] OpenGov, ParkourSC[43] and Truebill (acquired by Rocket Companies),[44][45] and Rhombus Systems.[46]
Philanthropy
Bobby Yazdani is a founding member of the Persian Tech Entrepreneurs network and a member of The Reset Foundation.[47] He also underwrote the Signatures Innovation Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, between 2015 and 2019, which supported "data science projects with commercial promise."[47]
In 2022, Yazdani and other members of the Iranian-American community established the American Legacy Fund, an endowment program meant to support the development of youth soccer in the United States.[48] He serves on the board of trustees of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute and he is a supporter of the Maryam Mirzakhani Endowed Professorship, created in honor of the late Fields medalist.[49][50]
Cota Impact Fund
The Cota Impact Fund provides grants to a number of philanthropic institutions, such as the International Red Cross, the World Central Kitchen and UNICEF.[51]
References
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