Powerlist2014: Rahul Sood, Microsoft Ventures

Rank last year: General list

Rahul Sood became general manager and partner of Microsoft Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of the US-based software company, last year.

Sood joined Microsoft in 2010 as a general manager in its entertainment business. He moved to venturing, launching Microsoft’s Bing fund, which Microsoft said would “evolve” into a wider seed programme to support start-ups, when Microsoft Ventures was launched this year.

He wrote in a Global Corporate Venturing editorial: “Entrepreneurship has become a global phenomenon that isn’t going to change anytime soon. That is why Microsoft Ventures uses its global footprint to help entrepreneurs in every corner of the world succeed at every level in the startup ecosystem.”

Sood spent more than four years at US-based computer company Hewlett-Packard, after they acquired Voodoo PC, a high-end personal computer business Sood founded in 1991.

He is an adviser to the board of Razer, a gaming hardware and software company, which he views “as the spiritual successor to our previous work at Voodoo PC”.

What is the future of your sector?

Sood said: “Innovation is everywhere and can come from anywhere. Almost every month we see a new billion-dollar company emerge from a different corner of the world. At the same time, access to early-stage funding is becoming easier and technologies like the cloud are helping young companies scale quickly. That is why we focus on business propositions for start-ups instead of investing only for a financial return.

“We are in a period of change. We reached a massive build-up where new technologies can be applied to advance industries, create new markets and make the world a better place. Start-ups are on the front lines of leading this revolution. We are seeing huge opportunities for start-ups that are creating a foundation for the future growth of cloud-based enterprise services, sensor technologies, and machine learning to advance almost every industry. We are thrilled to work with the next generation of billion-dollar companies, starting with innovative seed-stage start-ups.