MENLO PARK, Calif., June 15, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, leading venture capital firm Menlo Ventures announced a new partner: Amy Wu. Amy joins Menlo to grow the firm’s consumer and gaming practice and build on Menlo’s impressive track record, which includes early investments in well-known consumer companies like Chime, Pillpack, Poshmark, Roku, Rover, Siri, Uber, and Warby Parker. She will be based in New York.
At Menlo, Amy will make early-stage investments in categories including gaming and blockchain, and fund new consumer experiences made possible by tech shifts like generative AI. Her deep experience as both an investor and operator across a variety of consumer businesses will help her hit the ground running. Before joining Menlo, Amy led investments in consumer, gaming, and blockchain at Lightspeed Venture Partners, where her investments included Epic Games, Faraway Games, Weee!, Webull, Arbitrum, and Alchemy. She focused on web3 and gaming at FTX Ventures, where she invested in Sui, Soba Studios, TripleDot Studios, Yuga Labs, and Doodles. As an operator, Amy served as SVP and CFO of Discovery Inc.’s $2 billion Global and Digital Sports unit and worked in Singapore as the CFO of Discovery Asia-Pacific. She began her career at Insight Venture Partners, working with companies like JD.com, Zumba, and Tumblr.
“This is a horizon commitment: Menlo made a strategic decision to double-down on consumer investing. We were lucky to find Amy Wu to help make that happen,” said Shawn Carolan, Partner at Menlo Ventures. “The opportunity in Consumer VC is huge; consumer exits typically drive one-third to one-half of the total exit value in VC for any given year. With Amy on board, we increase Menlo’s capacity to pursue outlier opportunities and expand our investments into new categories.”
“The decision to join Menlo Ventures came down to reputation and team. I wanted to work for a VC with a strong history of great returns. But I also wanted to feel like part of a team. I was really impressed by the talent, expertise, and collaborative culture at Menlo Ventures,” said Menlo Ventures’ Partner Amy Wu.
Amy is the latest addition to Menlo Venture’s team of early-stage partners who leverage extensive operating experience to double down on, or create an entire practice around, early-stage opportunities in high-growth sectors. Former Spunk CTO Tim Tully joined Menlo Ventures in 2021 to focus on next-generation cloud, AI, ML, and data stack opportunities. The firm hired 20-year life sciences veteran Greg Yap in 2017 to lead life sciences and digital health investments and product-led growth and monetization expert Naomi Ionita in 2018 to help SaaS entrepreneurs realize their full potential.
Menlo has a long history of identifying category winners at the early-stage, including Benchling, Carta, Chime, Gilead, Roku, Siri (acquired by Apple), and Uber.
About Menlo Ventures
Menlo Ventures is a venture capital firm that strives to have a positive impact on everything we do. That’s why we support businesses including Carta, Chime, Harness, Poshmark, Pillpack, Pinecone, Roku, Rover, Uber, and Warby Parker that are reimagining life and work for the better. Over 46 years, we’ve grown a portfolio that includes more than 80 public companies, over 165 mergers and acquisitions, and currently have $5.5 billion under management. We invest at every stage and in every sector, with expertise in Consumer, Enterprise, and Healthcare. From developing market strategies to creating communities, we provide real impact where entrepreneurs need it most. When we’re in, we’re ALL IN.
www.menlovc.com
@MenloVentures
Media Contact:
Riley Burns
Nectar Communications
riley@nectarpr.com
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/37257911-ede2-495f-9520-66617caa081e
