We are a team of investors who help underserved entrepreneurs reach their highest potential. Our team is exceptionally positioned to execute on Elevate Capital’s investment strategy.
At Elevate Capital, we provide the venture capital and mentorship needed to build a successful company. Because we believe in the great possibilities of the next entrepreneur.
Nitin is a highly successful AI software technology leader and entrepreneur-turned-venture capitalist. Nitin is the Founder and Managing Partner of Elevate Capital. Launched in 2016, Elevate Capital is the nation’s first institutional venture capital fund that specifically targets investments in underrepresented entrepreneurs, such as women and BIPOCs, or those with limited regional access to capital and opportunities. Nitin serves as a board member on many of Elevate Capital’s portfolio companies.
Before turning to venture capital, Nitin built a distinguished career as an entrepreneur. He began in Silicon Valley as an engineer at two startups before founding First Insight Corporation in 1994, a highly successful AI-powered electronic health records (EHR), practice management, and ophthalmic image management software company, and a revenue cycle management service (Fast Pay Health) for eye care professionals. First Insight is a leader in the optometry, ophthalmology, and optical software industry with its flagship software, MaximEyes and EVAA.AI.
Kumar is a technology entrepreneur, business consultant, investor, and a mentor with more than 30 years of experience. Kumar was a founding member of Redback Networks, a hugely successful IPO company. He has held several senior and executive positions in various startups.
Kumar is an executive board member of Arc Angel Fund, NYC. He is involved with several venture and angel Funds. He served on the boards of Incentive Logic and MetaCert. He is an advisor at Moesif and True Lark. As an active investor he has invested in more than 70 companies with many successful exits. He is also a mentor and an advisor at many Silicon Valley accelerators and incubators. He is the Chair for TiE Angels Silicon Valley and a board member of TIE Silicon Valley.
Ben joined the Elevate Capital team in October 2018. He is a neuroscientist-turned-investor who uses a data-driven approach to identify, research, and recommend investment opportunities. As Partner, Ben will oversee investments across Elevate’s expanding funds, mentor founders, and help scale early-stage companies into thriving, sustainable businesses. He is well known throughout the ecosystem for his collaborative approach and commitment to serving as a mentor, advisor, and connector within Elevate’s portfolio community.
Beyond his work at Elevate Capital, Ben has been a cornerstone of Oregon’s startup community for over a decade through his involvement with TiE Oregon Angels and TiE Global Angels, providing strategic guidance and capital insights to early-stage entrepreneurs. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Oregon Translational Research and Development Institute (OTRADI) and the Oregon Biosciences Incubator (OBI).
Ben received his BS in Mathematical Biology from Harvey Mudd, his MBA from Portland State University, and a Doctorate in Philosophy and Neuroscience from the University of Florida.
Vageesh brings years of specialized experience in fund operations, platform administration, and client support within the wealth and investment management sector.
Before joining Elevate Capital in April 2026, Vageesh worked at HUB24 Limited in Sydney, Australia, where he led end-to-end adviser onboarding, enhanced SLA compliance, and achieved a 75% increase in transaction settlement efficiency through process automation. His expertise spans financial risk management, stakeholder engagement, and driving operational excellence.
Vageesh received an MBA and a Master’s in Applied Finance from Western Sydney University, as well as a Bachelor's degree in International Business & Marketing from the IPAC School of Management in France. His academic background provides a strong global perspective that enriches the team.
Brandon joined the Elevate Capital investment team in October 2019. Prior to Elevate Capital, Brandon worked as a Senior Associate with the Meketa Investment Group in 2019 as part of the merger with Pension Consulting Alliance (PCA).
At Elevate Capital, Brandon will be responsible for portfolio and investment level performance measurement and analytics, investment manager due diligence, working with clients to establish their investment beliefs and investment policies, and assisting with various client and internal projects.
Brandon received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science with a focus on Race and Politics from Reed College.
Allie is a serial entrepreneur, operating executive, and events-technology innovator, best known as the founder of Dynamic Events and Hubb. She built Dynamic Events into a leading experiential and technology-focused events agency, then founded Hubb to solve the industry’s biggest content-management pain points, ultimately leading to its acquisition by Notified, where she served as Chief Product Officer in 2021.
In addition to her work as a founder and product leader, Allie is a mentor and Operating Partner at Elevate Capital, supporting underrepresented founders and early-stage companies across the US. A longtime advocate for women in tech, she is widely respected for her resilience, customer-centric leadership, and commitment to strengthening the broader entrepreneurial community.
Anu is a serial entrepreneur with more than 25 years of high-tech industry experience. She is an active angel investor personally supporting and investing in women and minority led enterprises.
Anu has founded and exited several software companies: Fintech loyalty currency company RewardsPay, Mobile adtech and monetization player Tapjoy, e-commerce personalization company MyBuys, and early marketing automation pioneer Rubric, Inc. She has successfully exited two startups with $600M enterprise value.
Anu is the CEO of RewardsPay and is the Co-Founder and Executive Chair of Botco.ai, an emerging player in the application of AI/NLP to enterprise marketing automation use cases. She serves on several non-profit boards and has experience in SaaS, Adtech and Martech product companies. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Stephens College, and an MBA and Doctorate (Honorary) in Business Administration and Management from Youngstown State University.
Dipty is the Head of the West Coast Division of USISPF, where she works with the US and Indian government, enterprises/MNCs, and late-stage startups supporting their needs for policy advocacy, state engagements, and business to business interactions for cross border growth across sectors including healthcare.
She was the co-founder and CEO of FalconX, a leading startup engine and investment vehicle focused on building, growing, and scaling technology-driven startups. Dipty was Senior Director of Operations and Business Development at TiE Silicon Valley, where she helped create programs focused on inspiring, educating, mentoring, incubating, funding, and connecting the entrepreneurs.
She is the co-chair of TiE Global Health and TiEcon Healthcare Track and heads AI ML Healthcare for Pluto7. She is an advisor for healthcare startups and has contributed to due diligence, screening, and curating of entrepreneurial ideas for pitch presentations and venture investments.
With a strong science and business expertise, she has been responsible for industry research, company analysis, business development, and thought leadership, which has helped position Dipty at the forefront of disruptions in the tech industry.
Dipty carried out her doctoral work on cancer research at the UCSF Med Center and her post-doctoral research is in human genomics at Stanford University. She has worked for NASA, Roche, and Hoechst in addition to a few startups. Her scientific expertise and peer-reviewed publications are in biochemistry, molecular biology, genomics, and cancer research. Her passion for innovation and entrepreneurship and solving problems that impact the world has led her to work with entrepreneurs at the cutting edge of science and technology.
Giovanni is a veteran Senior Executive, C-Suite Officer, and Board Member with over 40 years of success in biotech, life sciences, pharma, medical diagnostics, and hospitals. Leveraging extensive experience in strategic leadership, commercialization, and international business, he is a valuable asset for similar-sector companies looking for acumen in R&D challenges, product development, commercialization, market research, growth, and expansion.
His broad areas of expertise include product concept, design, development, launch, and management; business strategy and development; sales management; market analysis and development; competitive analysis; global marketing; international sales; and cross-functional team leadership and development.
In his executive career, Giovanni has held leadership positions at Bio-Rad Laboratories (EVP and Chief Strategy Officer, EVP International Sales and Marketing); Bio-Rad Laboratories Srl (Southern Europe GM); Baxter Diagnostics; Chemetron Chimica S.p.a.; and Clinica del Lavoro. He has been responsible for developing and executing a company's long-range global strategic plans and objectives, overseeing the analysis of trends and developments, and formulating strategy for growth and profitability of product lines and geographies.
Giovanni earned a Degree in Pharmacy from Università degli Studi di Pavia; and a Master’s Degree in Pharmacy from State University of Pavia. He has professional working fluency in English, Italian, and Spanish.
Soumitra is a Product Development Executive, Serial Entrepreneur, Mentor / Advisor to startup founders and a Venture Investor. He is passionate about building and nurturing teams that develop innovative products and services to solve problems for their customers.
Currently he is spending most of his time as Venture Partner at Elevate Capital, Portland, OR and Board Member and Executive-in-Residence at The Idea Village in New Orleans, LA. Soumitra has over 30 years of experience leading product development teams at companies like Microsoft, UiPath, Kanari Digital, Corio, B-Bop, Philips Electronics, Laitram Corporation.
In his 15 years at Microsoft, Soumitra and his teams contributed to the development of Azure, SQL Server, Windows Phone, Power BI, Microsoft Store and Hololens. Soumitra began his career in New Orleans, LA developing Computer Vision and ML powered autonomous systems at Compugrade, Laitram Corporation and Philips Electronics Research Labs.
Soumitra is collaborating with multiple technology startups in the New Orleans and Seattle area in an Advisory role. He is an alumni of Tulane University, Indian Institute of Science and Jadavpur University. He lives in Seattle, WA and spends winter and spring in New Orleans, LA.
Dr. Navani is the founder of Comprehensive Spine and Sports Center, a leader in interventional and multidisciplinary spine, musculoskeletal, and orthopedic care. Over the last decade, she scaled a solo practice to a large multispecialty group practice with more than 20 service lines that operate via multiple state-of-the-art centers in the western U.S. and Nevada. She then led it through an acquisition and merged it with IPM Medical Group, a large multidisciplinary group of clinics treating chronic pain patients.
Dr. Navani serves as the Chief Medical Officer of the joint CSSC-IPM Medical Groups, which represents 28 clinics and more than 250 medical providers. She is an Adjunct Clinical Faculty at the Division of Pain at Stanford University where she has established herself for almost 20 years. She also serves as an Advisor to Le Reve Regenerative Wellness, the center for cutting-edge restorative and regenerative solutions for clinical applications and research.
Navani has published many publications in the field of interventional spine and regenerative medicine and has contributed via several peer-reviewed journal articles, visionary editorials, and book chapters.
Krishna is the Founder and CEO of 3K Technologies, bringing over two decades of leadership in delivering innovative technology solutions across healthcare, manufacturing, and the public sector. Under his leadership, 3K Technologies has built a strong reputation for providing cost-effective, high-impact solutions while fostering a culture of performance, innovation, and diversity.
Krishna serves as a Board Member of TiE Silicon Valley and is an active member of the TiE Angels Screening Committee. He is deeply committed to mentoring early-stage startups, leveraging his experience to guide founders from inception through successful funding and growth.
Srivatsan is an AI entrepreneur and researcher with over two decades at the frontier of machine learning—from foundational research to building and exiting a venture-backed AI company. He earned his MS and PhD from IISc Bengaluru and spent seven years at Microsoft Research's Machine Learning & Optimization group, where his work spanned statistical learning, NLP, data privacy, and ML for security.
His most significant venture, TrueLark, was an AI communication platform for appointment-based local businesses, automating customer and patient interactions across SMS, chat, and voice. He built it from inception to exit—winning enterprise contracts with some of the largest dental and wellness multi-location brands in the US—and steered the company through its acquisition by Weave (NYSE: WEAV) in 2025.
Srivatsan works closely with founders building AI-native products, particularly where deep technical conviction and GTM execution must move in lockstep.
Supriya is an AI/ML technologist and founder with a career spent at the frontier of applied AI in startups. She began at Strand Life Sciences, one of India's leading deep-tech companies, working on biomedical NLP before moving into her own ventures.
Most recently, she co-founded TrueLark, a category-leading agentic AI platform for healthcare and local services, where she served as CTO from inception through its acquisition by Weave Communications. She scaled the team to 60 people and the platform to thousands of businesses and millions of real-world interactions across voice, SMS, and web chat—with integrations spanning 50+ EHR and practice management systems in HIPAA- and PCI-compliant environments.
Supriya believes the latest wave of AI advances has opened up a new class of problems worth pursuing. She is drawn to founders who are ambitious enough to tackle problems at a scale that wasn’t possible before and grounded enough to let the problem lead.
Tariq is a mentor and an early-stage investor in start-ups. His first start-up was in 2006, Games 24x7 Inc, with two co-founders who were Ph.D. students at NYU. He ran the company as CEO for the first 2.5 years, at which point the co-founders took over. Rummy Circle, the brand Games 24x7 established, is the largest and most successful online platform in India for skill games. Tariq is an angel investor in six other companies, and he is currently channeling his investment activity through the Elevate Capital Fund II.
As a mentor, Tariq relies primarily on his experiential learning and tries his best to focus on helping founders prioritize thinking, energy, and resources to the most vital parts of the entrepreneurship action set. Take off well, avoid a crash landing, and generate fuel mid-flight to go the distance. His background includes several decades of working with major Fortune 500 companies, mostly in the US, Holland, England, and Italy.
Donn is an innovative thought leader with a passion to help others reach their potential. He was a Co-Founder of The KOR Physical Therapy, where he helped grow the business from start-up to being acquired. Donn has over 20 years of experience within the healthcare sector and has always strived to bring more technology into that sector.
Donn is currently a mentor and consultant for other healthcare companies and President of TiE Oregon. Currently, he is looking at ways to bring together behavioral sciences and data analytics to help healthcare companies and their clients better reach their potential. He has a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a Master of Physical Therapy from Carroll University.
Doug has a deep background and expertise in business formation, capital markets, payments, risk, and telephony. He was a founding investor in Vesta in 1995 and was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer in May 1997, retiring in 2019. Before Vesta, Doug spent 15 years engaged in building and leading businesses in the US, Europe, and Asia.
His experiences include building and operating law firms, international non-profits, and high-tech enterprises. Doug has been recognized as an entrepreneur, leader, and innovator. He was the 2008 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year for the Pacific Northwest and has been recognized by Computerworld, Fast Company, and Inc. magazines.
He is a featured author in Smart Business Growth, a book by CEOs of fast-growing companies. Currently, Doug spends his time working with early-stage companies and has been an active angel investor for 20 years. He holds two US patents and earned a BA degree in International Relations from Antioch College.
Lateef is an entrepreneur, advisor, and investor focusing on healthcare technology. He is passionate about investing in non-traditionally funded founders.
Lateef is an investor and CTO of Troy Medicare, a tech-enabled Medicare Advantage company focused on underserved communities. He has over 20 years of experience leading engineering teams at startups and large companies. He has led teams in building technology for cloud computing, real estate, healthcare, and finance.
Lateef holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Jill founded Ruby Receptionists (Ruby.com), and grew it to 630 employees and 10,000 customers before handing over the reigns. Under Jill’s leadership, Ruby holds the record-breaking position as one of Oregon’s fastest growing companies for 12 consecutive years and was repeatedly named a top 5 places to work in the U.S. by Fortune Magazine.
Jill was a Pacific NW 2017 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, and was named the 2017 Oregon Technology Executive of the Year—the first woman to receive this recognition. Jill sits on the board of Ruby.com and is an Operating Advisor for Updata Partners. She is also a board member of TiE Oregon.
Mike guides the overall direction for Axiom EPM, including company strategy, business development and international expansion efforts. With over 20 years of experience in the enterprise performance management software industry, he has been instrumental to the company’s rapid growth. He was President & CEO at CPM Systems, Inc before joining Axiom.
Chris has dedicated his career to working with emerging growth companies and high-tech startups for more than 20 years. Prior to helping start Zapproved as co-founder and VP of Marketing (2008-2019), he managed worldwide corporate communications for Pixelworks, a publicly-traded semiconductor company. He was part of Pixelworks’ IPO team in 2000.
In December 2019, Chris stepped down as Vice President of Marketing at Zapproved to focus on his passion: addressing the homeless crisis through homeless advocacy. He is currently Interim Board Chair for Business for a Better Portland.
Chris previously worked at two high-tech public relations firms, one of which he founded grew from six to 26 employees in the first year. He has additional experience working for a major law firm and with the World Bank. In the mid-90s, he helped found the Oregon Venture Investment Conference, the first to connect the Silicon Valley VC community with the state’s entrepreneurs.
Randy is a retired KPMG audit partner with experience in assisting a business from inception to initial public offering or sale. He has a diverse background in manufacturing, transportation, technology, SAAS software and consumer markets.
Randy has broad experience in accounting, information system controls and processes, international operations, and mergers and acquisitions. He possesses significant board and corporate governance experience and expertise.
Ana started her career as a financial and business manager in the San Francisco Bay Area where she built a thriving consulting practice with a client base of over 80 companies, for over 10 years.
In 2014, Ana co-founded Garden Bar, the first fast casual, salad concept restaurant in the NW. Garden Bar was quickly recognized as the "place to go" for fast, healthy casual meals. The chain grew to nine stores across the Portland metro and grew 600% in revenue in five years. Ana handled all aspects of company finance and operations, including the funding strategy which featured a blend of equity funding, convertible notes and traditional financing.
Garden Bar was recognized as 22nd Fastest Growing Company in Oregon in 2017, and 4th largest minority owned business in Oregon. In 2018, it received the Hot Concepts Award, from the Nation's Restaurant News.
In 2019, Garden Bar was acquired by Evergreens, a fast casual salad chain based in Seattle, WA. The acquisition provided Ana with the full circle experience of the life cycle of her company—from concept to exit. Ana was a finalist for the OEN Tom Hulce Entrepreneurship Award, which recognizes the most influential entrepreneurs in Oregon.
Ketan is Co-Founder and Chief Technology & Product Officer of The Provenance Chain™ Network, a company bringing transparency to commerce. Ketan is an adjunct Professor at the School of Business Administration, Portland State University.
Ketan was the founding President of TiE-Oregon and continues to be active in the entrepreneurial eco-system in Portland as a mentor and angel investor. He co-founded CafeGive Social in 2008, a leading provider of a cause marketing SaaS platform for businesses and non-profits.
Ketan held several technology development and executive roles at Intel including the responsibility for market expansion in S. Asia as President, Intel India. He has been granted six US patents related to streaming media and e-commerce.
Robin is a strategic operations executive with 25+ years of experience scaling organizations, driving revenue growth, and leading cross-functional teams across technology, e-commerce, and nonprofit sectors. She has built new business units from zero to multi-million-dollar revenue, executed successful mergers and acquisitions, and implemented operational transformations that turned around struggling organizations, delivering measurable, profitable results.
Robin holds an M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business (UC Berkeley) and a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from Stanford University. She also serves on the board of directors for TiE Oregon.
Raghu is the Founder and Board Member of Act-On Software. He scaled the company from the proverbial garage to one of the fastest growing private companies in America, with offices in Portland, California, London and India. He was named the 2015 Tech CEO of the Year by the Portland Business Journal.
Previously, Raghu was the co-founder of Responsys, a pioneering marketing technology company which went public (NASDAQ: MKTG) in 2011 and was acquired by Oracle in 2013 for $1.5 billion. Raghu also serves on the boards of Act-On Software, RFPIO and TiE Oregon.
Pam is a past treasurer of TiE Oregon and has been the controller at First Insight Corporation since 2002. Pam has been the treasurer for various philanthropic organizations in her community and enjoys the challenges of the various accounting systems used by and issues faced by different organizations.
Barbara is the glue that holds everyone together. She is often recognized as the “sunshine queen, best mom ever, and all things events.” As Executive Assistant for Elevate Capital since 2016, she keeps our team on track and puts her heart and soul into every project she undertakes.
Since 1997, Barbara has held many roles at First Insight Corporation and is known as the “Jane of all Trades.” Barbara is a talented and seasoned exhibits and events coordinator for optometry and ophthalmology industry trade shows. She also manages First Insight’s human resources and plans employee events, and she has a unique ability to create a positive and fun work environment.
Stephen founded the hosted email archiving and compliance provider Smarsh, Inc. in 2001, and he now oversees a global operation with more than 20,000 clients worldwide and 225 employees. Under Stephen’s leadership, Smarsh has grown to become the financial services industry’s premier electronic communications archiving provider, helping enterprises around the world meet their recordkeeping, supervision and e-discovery obligations.
Marsh was named the 2014 FTF News Fintech Person of the Year, and also serves as a member of the board of directors for the National Association of Independent Brokers/Dealers (NAIBD).
Kanth Gopalpur is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor. After helping found Powell's online bookstore in 1995, he founded and was the CEO of software company Monsoon Works, whose 1,000+ customers used its software to process more than $1 billion in online sales annually. Monsoon Works appeared on the Inc. 500 list for three straight years and was sold to a private equity group in 2010, after which it grew to $100M+ in annual revenue with over 150 employees in 3 locations.
In addition to Monsoon, Kanth was also a co-founder of two other companies: Thrift Recycling Management and Public Market. He is now principal of Kestrel Advisors and serves as an advisor, mentor, and angel investor to startups.
Kanth currently serves as the Chair of the Business Oregon Commission and as the Co-Chair of the Oregon Futures Commission. In addition to being an ex-officio member of the Oregon Innovation Council, he also sits on the Boards of Poached Jobs and the James Beard Public Market. Previously Kanth served as Entrepreneur in Residence for Business Oregon and was on the board of the Oregon Growth Account, the Oregon Talent Council, TIE Oregon, and numerous private companies in and outside Oregon.
Since 1929, Newmark has provided clients with a single source for all their real estate needs. Today, the Newmark Portland team works with all types of clients including start-ups, creative users, tech users, and professional service providers for all of their leasing or buying needs.
The Newmark local team specializes in Tenant Representation, assisting with long-term objectives and goals to fulfill any space requirements. Their team’s services including consulting, space tours, deal negotiations, lease/sale analysis, and financial/cost savings analysis. They are experts at helping their clients with new leases/relocations, lease renewals and building purchases. They are happy to be a resource and help you maximize the value of your real estate.
Founded in 1992, TiE’s mission is to foster entrepreneurship globally through mentoring, networking, and education. Dedicated to the virtuous cycle of wealth creation and giving back to the community, TiE’s focus is on generating and nurturing the next generation of entrepreneurs. Today TiE Global has 11,000 members, including over 2,500 charter members in 60 chapters across 17 countries.
The TiE Oregon chapter launched in 2007 to further the success of innovation-driven enterprise in Oregon. TiE Oregon brings the benefits of its national and international connections to local entrepreneurs by inviting distinguished speakers, hosting delegations, and connecting members to other chapters in the TiE network.
TiE Oregon offers a range of programs. Formed by Charter Members of TiE Oregon, TiE Angels is an angel investment group which helps top-tier emerging companies with early-stage investment, mentorship, and support. The TiE XL Entrepreneur Bootcamp covers key-aspects of what an entrepreneur needs to know to be successful and provides opportunities for participants to connect with key influencers in the startup community.
Tonkon Torp is dedicated to thinking like a business, so you don’t have to think like a lawyer. No matter the size or complexity of your business, they will bring the right people, the right questions and the right counsel to every client relationship. Tonkon Torp supports clients with uncommonly responsive service, pragmatic thinking, straight talk, humor, and expert support — and has since 1974.
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We are a team of investors who help overlooked entrepreneurs reach their highest potential with the venture capital, hands-on mentorship and partnerships they need to build market-defining companies.
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