Lak Ananth

Lak earned an MBA, with Distinction, in 2005 from INSEAD, where he completed an exchange program with the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Lak holds an MS in electrical engineering from Kansas State University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi. He also holds a BE in electrical and electronics engineering from Guindy Engineering College, India, where he was a Gold Medalist. 

​

Lak is a published author and has several research papers in IEEE to his credit. He and his wife, Preethi, have traveled abroad extensively and share a passion for south Indian classical music. Lak also loves spending time with his son, Jayanth.

Lak is the founding CEO and Global Managing Partner of Next47. He has spent his career in service to the entrepreneurial pursuit, identifying industry changing disruptions and acting on them as an investor or acquirer. Lak’s investment focus is on applications of AI/ML, vertical SaaS, robotics, mobility, and other emerging areas of deep tech. Prior to Next47, Lak founded and built Hewlett Packard Pathfinder, bringing together venture investing and revenue-generating business development for portfolio companies from HP customers. He was an investor in Adallom (acquired by Microsoft), HortonWorks (acquired by Cloudera), and Mesosphere. Lak also previously worked in strategy and corporate development at Cisco Systems, where he led the acquisitions of Meraki and Starent Networks, and invested in Control4. After cutting his teeth as an engineer working with startups during the dot-com era, Lak has enormous respect for the passion, vision, and tenacity of entrepreneurs. As an investor, he believes in establishing mutual trust with founders, so when critical business decisions need to be made, he can support them in making the best choices for building world-class new businesses. Lak is also the author of Anticipate Failure, a brutally honest roadmap for any business founder, executive, or manager to conquer their toughest challenges, change how they innovate, and launch a product or business that actually succeeds.

Lak Ananth is a member of Kauffman Fellows Class 12 and served his fellowship at Bridgescale Partners under mentor Matthew Cowan.