Investment Team

Core Investment Team

Nino Marakovic, CEO & Managing Director
Nino is responsible for the worldwide investment strategy and performance of SAP Ventures.  Nino has been active in investment banking, general management and venture capital investing internationally for more than 15 years.  Prior to joining SAP Ventures, Nino was a partner with meVC Draper Fisher Jurvetson and IVF Ventures in Palo Alto.  He has led or helped execute more than 50 investments in information technology companies worldwide, and has held numerous board and board observer seats.  Prior to his venture capital investing career, Nino worked in investment banking at Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Robertson Stephen in London, New York, and San Francisco.  He has lived in Croatia, Austria, Italy, Germany and the United States, and holds a BA from Williams College and an MBA from the Stanford Business School. Nino currently oversees investments in Apriso, Marin Software, OpenX, and Vendavo. 

Jai Das, Managing Director
Jai is looking for the next-generation of iconic start-ups which are focused on Cloud computing, Analytics, Digital Media and Mobility and which are leveraging trends like “Big-data”, “Consumerization of IT” and “Social-local-mobile Internet”.  He also leads SAP Ventures’ investment activities in India where he is looking for growth stage private companies that are building on the proliferation of mobile-internet savvy Indian consumers and that are building world-class enterprise applications to be delivered globally from India via the cloud.  He spent seven years designing and building software applications as a lead architect and as a product manager at Oracle and at several start-ups.  He was also an entrepreneur before deciding to focus on investing in high-growth technology start-ups.  Prior to SAP Ventures, Jai worked at two corporate ventures including Intel Capital and Agilent Ventures (formerly part of Hewlett-Packard).  He was also a Principal at MVC Capital, a Draper Fisher Jurvetson affiliated late-stage venture fund.  Some of his pior investments include Coghead (SAP), Infinera (INFN), MySQL (ORCL), Photobit (MU), Primavera (ORCL) and Sygate (SYMC).  He received his MBA from the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business where he was awarded the George Hay Brown Prize for academic excellence.  He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Brown University.  Jai's current investments include Alteryx, Apigee, Box, Control4, Exact Target, JasperSoft, JustDial, MuleSoft, Newgen, One97, and Splashtop.

David Hartwig, Managing Director
Dave joined SAP Ventures in 2006 and currently focuses on investments in On Demand Applications, Big Data Infrastructure, Financial Services (technology and tech-enabled financial services), as well as Digital Media.  He has led or helped manage investments in Datria, Greenplum (EMC), Lithium, On Deck Capital, Ops Technology (RP), Payscale, Ping Identity, Qumu (RIMG), and Tremor Video.  Dave started his venture investing career at Battery Ventures in 1997, where he worked on data-center, software, and components investments.  More recently he was a VP and co-founding member of the technology team at American Capital.  Prior to working in venture capital, Dave was with Deloitte Consulting where he managed enterprise software and contact-center technology implementation projects.  He received an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley and a BSE with honors from Princeton University.

Doug Higgins, Managing Director
Doug brings both investing and operating experience to his role with SAP Ventures.  Prior to joining SAP Ventures, Doug ran worldwide business development and strategic partnerships for CollabNet, the industry's most widely-used platform for collaborative software development.  Before joining CollabNet, he worked for Intel Capital, where he evaluated and completed investments in enterprise software companies.  Doug also managed the Intel 64 Fund, a $250MM venture fund for Intel and its investors (including Dell, HP, Boeing, Ford, GE, and Morgan Stanley).  Prior to Intel Capital, he helped launch the business development group for Lucasfilm, creating strategic partnerships for the Lucas companies in conjunction with the Star Wars prequels. Doug started his career in investment banking, working for Robertson Stephens' technology group. He has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and a BA from Duke University, both with high honors.  Doug led and manages investments in iYogi, LinkedIn (LNKD), Return Path, SAVO and Spring Wireless and manages/managed investments in Black Duck, Endeca (ORCL) and Imprivata. He also evaluates sustainability investments for SAP Ventures.

Andreas Weiskam, Managing Director
Andreas brings significant enterprise and start-up experience to SAP Ventures.  Prior to joining in 2006, he held several business development positions at SAP. Andreas co-developed and implemented the SAP Enterprise Services Community which enables customers and partners to define enterprise services with SAP. Andreas also worked in new business development for SAP and led the reseller deals with Virsa Systems and Mercury Interactive, among others.  Prior to SAP, he was part of several start-up companies in both Germany and the US.  Andreas co-founded Zadu, a venture-backed start-up firm providing instant messaging technology with presence awareness in the web.  Andreas holds a graduate business degree of Diplom-Kaufmann from the University of Hamburg, Germany and a M.Litt. with distinction in Management, Economics and Politics from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.  Andreas manages investments in iovation, Lavante, LogLogic, and Retail Solutions and he led the investment in Amberpoint (ORCL).

Gaurav Tewari (GT), Director
Gaurav focuses on growth and later-stage investments within Software/SaaS, Internet, Digital Media, Mobile, and Technology-Enabled Services.  Prior to joining SAP Ventures, Gaurav was in the Boston-area with Highland Capital Partners leading growth and early-stage investments, and has held numerous board and board observer seats.  Gaurav has led or helped manage investments in Marin Software, Coremetrics (IBM), Navic Networks (MSFT), StyleFeeder (TWX), Beyond the Rack, Affine Systems, Rent the Runway, Cafemom, and Yipit.  Previously, Gaurav was a Corporate Strategy executive at Microsoft Corporation, where he worked with the company’s top leadership to define and implement corporate-wide growth opportunities and acquisitions.  Gaurav was also a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, where he led strategic initiatives for Fortune 500 companies across the high tech, financial services, telecommunications, and energy sectors.  He started his career in engineering and product management roles at Microsoft and IBM Research.  Gaurav received his MBA from the Wharton School, where he graduated as Valedictorian (Ford Fellow).  He earned his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Computer Science and Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).  Gaurav is a co-inventor on 9 issued US technology patents.

Raza Jafri, Associate
Raza brings over four years of investing experience to his role with SAP Ventures.  Prior to joining SAP Ventures in 2011, Raza worked at Paul Capital Partners, a secondary private equity firm, where he evaluated and completed investments in a variety of private companies in the late-stage, growth equity and leveraged buyout space.  While at Paul Capital, Raza spent time working in both San Francisco and Hong Kong.  Raza graduated Magna Cum Laude from Santa Clara University with a B.Sc. in Finance and a minor in Political Science.

Andrea Scholz, Executive Assistant
Andrea is the executive assistant to Nino Marakovic, CEO of SAP Ventures, and provides additional support to the rest of the SAP Ventures team.  Prior to joining SAP Ventures, Andrea spent over eight years at three venture and secondary market investment firms: Cipio Partners, 3i Group, and Earlybird LLC.  Andrea started her career in Germany with McDonnell Douglas Ltd. (Boeing) before moving to the US, working for TUV ESSEN Inc. (TUV USA) and frogdesign.

Special Advisor