PALO ALTO, Calif. -- JC2 Ventures, a purpose-driven venture capital firm focused on helping global startups to scale, grow, and deliver solutions for a digital future, announced today that it has appointed Pankaj Patel as Partner and Chief Strategy Officer.

Patel previously served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer for Cisco Systems. In this role, he was responsible for running and growing multi-billion-dollar products and businesses across service provider and enterprise market segments. He reported to the CEO as the engineering head of the company’s $36.8 billion product and solution portfolio and drove the business and technology strategy across Cisco’s Routing, Switching, Wireless, Security, Mobility, Video, Collaboration, Data Center and Cloud offerings, delivered by a global team of more than 28,000 engineers. Pankaj was also responsible for defining the priorities and investment allocation of $6 billion in R&D spend annually. He played a key role in acquiring and helping integrate many start-up companies during his tenure of more than 20 years at Cisco.

At JC2 Ventures, Patel will focus on determining strategic investment areas, as well as working with various startups within the portfolio to help ensure their success in the market and in development. He will also represent JC2 Ventures and its portfolio startups in front of the media, industry stakeholders, partners, and customers.

JC2 Ventures