Maha Ibrahim, Canaan Partners1

General Partner
Menlo Park - CA United States

The big idea: In 25 words or less, please tell us how this Fast 50 Nominee is helping to address the planet's problems.

Canaan Partners invests in visionary entrepreneurs building the world’s most innovative businesses, helping to make forward-thinking ideas part of the fabric of our global society.

Please describe how this nominee is using business as a force of positive change. What technology, idea, or strategy is the nominee using -- and what problem, such as global warming, poverty, or pollution, does it address? (suggested length: 100 words)

In the venture capital industry, less than 10% of senior-level investment executives are women. With so few women leading investment decisions at top-tier firms, it’s perhaps hardly surprising that women entrepreneurs receive only about 8% of total venture financing. Maha Ibrahim has proven you don’t have to be part of the “old boy’s network” to make an impact in the venture capital industry. As a partner since March 2000 at Canaan Partners, a global venture capital firm with $3 billion under management, she has led some of the firm’s most successful investments, including Tacit Networks, which was later acquired by Packeteer, and Mobilitec, acquired by Lucent. Despite joining the venture capital industry just weeks before the dot-com crash, Maha has stayed the course by tapping her keen understanding of the technology and communications industries to make sound, profitable investments during the last seven years. She sits on the board of some of the world’s most innovative startups, including Cellcast, Habeas, Mino Wireless, PicksPal, Sensage and Watercooler.

An only child, Maha grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts, the daughter of two Egyptian scholars who met while studying in the U.K. (Dad has a PhD in applied math from The University of Nottingham and mom holds a PhD in economics from Cambridge.) Though her parents had high hopes for her, Maha never felt pressured to succeed in school. She holds a BA in economics and an MA in organizational behavior from Stanford University and a PhD in economics from MIT. A thought leader with deep insight into which business models will disrupt the status quo and propel companies to market dominance, Maha has won numerous industry awards, including The Silicon Valley Business Journal 40 Under 40 award, and is frequently invited to speak at digital media conferences. She has served as a judge for startup competitions at Web 2.0 Expo, Digital Living Room and Under the Radar.

Maha, and the entire Canaan Partners team, are driven by the commitment to fund the most promising companies to enable them to grow into world leaders. Building great companies has a positive effect far outside these companies' own financial success – driving technology innovation, creating job growth and spawning new businesses across the globe.

What are the results, both financial and social? How has the nominee's business performed, and what impact has it had on the problem it addresses? (suggested length: 100 words)

For 20 years, Canaan Partners has taken an active and committed role in the companies in which they invest, and has completed more than 69 mergers and acquisitions and 53 IPOs. With $3 billion under management and a worldwide footprint, the firm’s technology team is committed to catalyzing the growth of innovative companies in the digital media, communications & mobility, enterprise and clean tech industries. Among its successes are DoubleClick, the leading online advertising solution, Match.com, the most popular online dating site in the world, CommerceOne, the company that pioneered B2B ecommerce; Capstone Turbine, first to market and world’s leading producer of commercially viable microturbine energy products; and VOIP equipment supplier Acme Packet, which was one of the top ten performing tech IPOs of 2006. Other Canaan technology investments include Active Networks, BharatMatrimony, Blurb, Cortina, GroundWorks, ID Analytics, Tremor Media and SuccessFactors.

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