Ajay Kamat
Partner
Pear VC
Ajay Kamat is a Partner at Pear VC and former founder of Wedding Party, which was acquired by Instacart.
Bio
Professional summary
Arash Afrakhteh is a Partner at Pear VC. His official profile describes more than two decades of experience across startups and big tech. He co-founded Cariden Technologies, a pioneer in infrastructure SDN, bootstrapped it for 11 years, and sold it to Cisco. At Pear, he focuses on enterprise and B2B startups, with sub-focus areas including AI/ML, cloud, data center, data infrastructures, and software-defined infrastructure. He works with founders from day one across engineering, hiring, culture, go-to-market, and fundraising. He is based in Menlo Park and holds a Computer Engineering degree from Sharif University of Technology.
Investment focus
Stage, sector, and overall fit
Stage
seedearly-stage startupsday-one company building
Sector
enterpriseB2BAI/MLclouddata infrastructuredata centersoftware-defined infrastructure
Thesis
Enterprise and B2B startupsAI/MLCloud and data center infrastructureData infrastructure and software-defined infrastructure
Notable companies
Selected portfolio companies the partner has backed
Cariden TechnologiesCiscoMicrosoftAppleAklivityDevAIEdgeDBExpedockGravis RoboticsIdeogramListen LabsOsmosOrby AITopsortUpdocVals AIWoodwide AI
How to approach
Framing and angles for outreach
Pitch framing
Lead with technical depth in enterprise infrastructure, why the architecture matters, and how the founding team will build and sell from day one.
Personalization hooks
- 1Founder and CTO experience at Cariden through Cisco acquisition
- 2Deep enterprise infrastructure, AI/ML, cloud, and data systems focus
- 3Skateboarding, biking, skiing, triathlon training, and theater
- 4Sharif University of Technology background
Recent signals
What the partner has said or done recently
Official profile links to AI-related posts including OpenAI hackathon and AI agents content.
Background
Career, education, and skills
Career history
- Pear VCPartner
- Cariden TechnologiesCo-Founder / CTO / Head of Engineering
- CiscoSoftware Engineer / Senior roles
- AppleSoftware Engineer
- MicrosoftSoftware Engineer
Education
- Sharif University of TechnologyB.S., Computer Engineering
Skills
Seed investingEnterprise softwareAI/MLCloud infrastructureDistributed systemsRoboticsEngineering leadership
Languages
EnglishPersian/Farsi
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