Immanuel Thangaraj serves as Managing Director of the firm’s legacy venture capital funds Essex Woodlands Funds IV, V, VI, VII and VIII. He joined EW as a Partner in 1996 and was promoted to Managing Director in 1998.
Mr. Thangaraj has 20 years of experience as a seasoned investor in operations, venture capital and growth equity opportunities. He began his career at ARCH Venture Partners (“AVP”), a leading venture capital firm with over $2 billion under management which makes early stage technology and healthcare investments. During his tenure at AVP, he managed one of its portfolio companies, HealthQual, a medical information company, until its sale to Nellcor, a large hospital supplies company. He left AVP in 1995 to run a start-up telecommunications services company called Integrated Telemanagement, which was later sold to Cam-Net Communications.
Mr. Thangaraj serves on the Board of Directors for Acura Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACUR), Serene, Kona Medical, Inc., and Proteus Digital Health. In addition to the portfolio company boards on which he serves, Immanuel was also responsible for EW’s investment in Microport Scientific Corporation (HK:853); China Cord Blood Services Corporation (NYSE: CO); VenturePharm; CBR Systems (acquired by GTCR); iKnowMed Systems (acquired by NYSE: MCK); and Novacept (acquired by NASDAQ: HOLX).
He serves as the Co-Chair of the Council of the Booth School of Business and the Visiting Committee of the College, both at the University of Chicago. He is also a Trustee of Trinity School in Menlo Park, California; on the Board of the India Community Center in Milpitas, California; and the former Chairman of MAP International
Mr. Thangaraj holds both a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Chicago.
