The SAP Ventures team knows how to build technology businesses. Combined we have more than 70 years software industry experience. And we bring over 40 years of high-performance investing expertise to every opportunity we explore. Our approach is collaborative. We view the entrepreneurs we back and the venture firms with whom we co-invest as partners. SAP Ventures' Investment Partners are responsible for sourcing new investment opportunities, evaluating, proposing and negotiating investments and serving on the board of portfolio companies as a board observer.

Meet the investment professionals on the SAP Ventures team:

Nino Marakovic
Senior Vice President (Palo Alto)

Nino Marakovic is the senior vice president of SAP Ventures, the corporate venture investing entity of SAP AG. He is responsible for the worldwide strategy and overall performance of the venture funds. Marakovic has a strong track record of technology venture investing since 1999. Prior to joining SAP Ventures, he was a partner with meVC Draper Fisher Jurvetson and IVF Ventures in Palo Alto. Marakovic has led or helped execute more than 30 investments in information technology companies, and held numerous board and board observer seats. Prior to his venture capital investing career, Marakovic 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, and the United States, and holds a BA from Williams College and an MBA from the Stanford Business School.

Marakovic manages investments in Apriso, Right Hemisphere, Vendavo, and Zend.

Angelina Fernandez
Executive Assistant (Palo Alto)

Angelina Fernandez is the executive assistant to Nino Marakovic, Senior Vice President of SAP Ventures, and provides additional support to SAP Ventures team. Prior to joining SAP, Angelina spent the first part of her career working in nonprofit agencies in client services and community outreach roles.

Jai Das
Partner (Palo Alto)

Jai Das spent seven years designing and building software applications as a lead architect, as a product manager and as an entrepreneur before focusing on investing in technology start-ups. He was most recently a director at Agilent Ventures (formerly part of Hewlett-Packard), where he led investments in semiconductor, semiconductor testing and networking systems companies like Infinera Systems and Touchdown Technologies. Prior to working at Agilent Ventures, he was employed at Intel Capital where he was responsible for strategic equity investments in software and data-center system vendors. Das was also a principal with MVC Capital, a Draper Fisher Jurvetson affiliated venture fund where he led investments in software, business services, storage, and data-center systems. Das 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.

Das manages SAP Ventures' investments in GroundWork Open Source, Ignite, MySQL, Selero, Sonoa, and Tealeaf. He is responsible for SAP's investment strategy in India and for evaluating new investment opportunities in Open Source and in platform and infrastructure software that enable next generation SOA and SaaS based applications.

David Hartwig
Partner (Palo Alto)

David Hartwig has over seven years of venture capital investing experience. Most recently, he was a vice president within American Capital's Technology Group, responsible for identifying, evaluating, and leading investments in early to late stage private companies across a variety of technology market segments. Before joining American Capital, Hartwig was a senior associate with Battery Ventures, working as a member of the company's communications group. While at Battery, he worked on data-center, software, and components investments, including investments in Advanced Analogic Technologies [AATI] and Sigmatel [SGTL]. Hartwig also worked at Deloitte Consulting, where he primarily managed enterprise software and call-center technology integration projects. He received an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley and a BSE with honors from Princeton University.

Hartwig manages investments in Conformia, Datria, Greenplum, Payscale, Ping Identity and Ops Technology. He evaluates investment opportunities in SaaS/On Demand applications, data-center technologies, and technology enabled services. He also leads SAP Ventures activities in China.

Doug Higgins
Partner (Palo Alto)

Doug Higgins brings both investing and operating experience to his role with SAP Ventures. Prior to joining SAP Ventures, Higgins 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. Higgins 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. Higgins 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.

Jennifer Scholze
Partner (Boston)

Jennifer Scholze opened SAP Ventures' Boston office in 2001 and manages investments on the East coast of North America. With over 18 years in the industry she brings a unique knowledge of SAP and the software industry to the team. Prior to joining SAP Ventures, she worked for seven years in international marketing and communications, strategic planning and development, and partner development roles at SAP both in the United States and Germany. Prior to joining SAP, Scholze was a senior industry analyst for International Data Corporation, focusing on researching, analyzing and guiding software application companies. Jennifer received her B.S. in marketing from the Boston College Carroll School of Management in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

Scholze manages investments in Abaco Mobile, Inc, Avokia, Inc, Black Duck Software, Interwise, Inc, Reva Systems, and Virtual Iron Software. She evaluates technology opportunities broadly defined, with particular emphasis on opportunities related to applications, virtualization, open source and RFID technology.

Dr.-Ing. Jörg Sievert
Partner (Walldorf)

Jörg Sievert covers Europe and Isreal for SAP Ventures and provides a tight linkage to SAP's headquarter in Walldorf, Germany. Prior to joining SAP Ventures, Sievert led Business Consulting for BEA Systems for Central and Eastern Europe and provides significant experience in developing and executing solution selling strategies for SW products and is well connected in several industries. Before joining BEA, he spent several years as investment executive with 3i's global SW group, focused on investments in German speaking Europe and serving on numerous boards as observer. Sievert also spent several years in strategy consulting with Booz-Allen & Hamilton, working with clients in several industries across Europe. Sievert has lived in Germany, Austria, and the United States. He holds a Master in Computer Science and received a Ph.D. in distributed systems, both from the University of Karlsruhe.

Sievert currently serves as board observer for itac, Dacos, and Onventis and as member of the investors' committee of MVP.

Andreas Weiskam
Partner (Palo Alto)

Andreas Weiskam brings significant internal SAP and start-up experience to his role and plays an important part in leveraging the synergies between SAP and portfolio companies. Prior to joining SAP Ventures, Weiskam held several business development positions at SAP. Most recently, he co-developed the concept and framework for the Enterprise Services Community which enables customers and partners to define enterprise services with SAP. Prior to the Enterprise Services Community, he worked in new business development and led reseller deals with Virsa Systems and Mercury Interactive, among others. Weiskam has worked in several start-up companies and co-founded a venture-backed start-up firm in the area of instant messaging technology. Weiskam has lived in Sweden, Germany, Scotland, and the United States, and holds a graduate business degree of Diplom-Kaufmann from the University of Hamburg, Germany and an M.Litt. with distinction in Management, Economics and Politics from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.

Weiskam manages investments in AmberPoint, iovation, LogLogic, Metallect, SocialText, Retail Solutions, VoiceObjects. He has an interest in Compliance, Enterprise 2.0 companies, and companies that enable the transition to SOA.

Tanja Pendic
Financial Specialist (Walldorf)

Tanja Pendic joined SAP Ventures Europe in 2002 to assist the European investment team. In 2003 she was promoted to financial specialist and has since been responsible for all controlling, legal, and deal monitoring, as well as deal screening activities. In addition to supporting the European group, she works closely with colleagues based in the United States, providing a bridge between European and American activities.