Shervin Pishevar

Shervin Pishevar is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and industry pioneer whose career has helped shape eleven groundbreaking sectors, including Hyperloop transportation, ride-sharing, the on-demand and sharing economies, cloud computing, cloud kitchens, social networking, social gaming, quantum computing and AI, and the emerging field of network-state “new cities.” In December of 2025, Shervin was named Chairman of DARPA’s Investment Group, where he will be guiding investments within the space, AI, quantum computing, drone, fusion and biotechnology sectors, among others. Widely recognized as one of the most visionary investors of his generation, Pishevar has founded, led, or championed companies that have redefined global markets and accelerated technological progress.

Since 2011, Pishevar’s early investments have generated over $7 billion in value, with more than $3 billion distributed in profits, producing an exceptional 88% IRR. He has been named to the Forbes Midas List four consecutive years and appeared on the magazine’s cover—recognition of a career that includes 93+ exits over nearly three decades in technology and venture capital.

As the early lead investor and board member of Uber, Pishevar played a transformative role in scaling the company globally. He helped catalyze Uber China through strategic introductions, personally invested $100 million across its formation and merger with Didi, and was instrumental in establishing ride-sharing as a worldwide industry.

As co-founder and first Executive Chairman of Virgin Hyperloop One, Pishevar helped introduce the world to a new era of high-speed transportation, shepherding both global brand development and foundational engineering progress toward the world’s first functional Hyperloop system.

During his tenure as Managing Director at Menlo Ventures, Pishevar built the firm’s consumer practice and led early investments in category-defining companies such as Uber, Warby Parker, Machine Zone, Tumblr, Poshmark, Betterment, and Dropcam (acquired by Google). He also launched and led the Menlo Talent Fund, completing more than 35 seed investments including Parse (acquired by Facebook) and Scan (acquired by Snap).

As an angel investor, Pishevar has backed over 200 companies, including early stakes in Facebook, Hims, Casper, and seed investments in Postmates, Dollar Shave Club, TaskRabbit, Cherry, Rapportive, Aardvark, Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty, Mercury Bank, and frontier deep-tech companies such as Varda Space, Gameto, and defense-tech innovator Gambit AI.

He has a well-documented reputation for identifying exceptional talent early—hiring and mentoring future founders of Squarespace, Instacart, Webs.com, Quizlet, and TrueBill, seeding their companies, and in many cases providing them their first workspace. This rare ability to cultivate generational entrepreneurs is a defining hallmark of his leadership.

Through Edison Fund, Edison Labs, and Sofreh Capital, Pishevar has helped create new models for venture capital, venture studios, and innovation ecosystems. At Sherpa Capital, which he co-founded, he deployed $650 million across three funds, raised $500 million in co-investments, and pioneered modern SPV structures that generated over $2 billion in additional profits for investors.

His investment portfolio spans many of the most iconic companies of the last two decades, including Airbnb, Robinhood, SpaceX, Slack, IonQ, DraftKings, Ipsy, Astra Space, Opendoor, Rent the Runway, Quip, OpenGov, and Curology.

Pishevar also founded Silicon Foundry, a corporate innovation advisory and incubator whose founding members included Salesforce, eBay, Comcast/DreamWorks, and Condé Nast. From Silicon Foundry, he ideated and incubated companies such as Do.com (acquired by Amazon) and Brandless, and he ultimately scaled the platform into a global innovation hub later acquired by Kearney.

In 2022, Pishevar took quantum-computing pioneer D-Wave (QBTS) public through his SPAC, DPCM Capital, raising $300 million alongside leaders such as Eric Schmidt, Peter Diamandis, and Emil Michael—establishing one of the first major public-market quantum computing companies.

Through the Pishevar Institute, his family foundation, he supports education, scientific innovation, and human rights initiatives around the world. He endowed a professorship at Howard University, backed organizations such as Build.org and the Malala Fund, and was appointed by President Barack Obama to the Fulbright Board, recognizing his commitment to expanding global opportunity.

Before entering entrepreneurship, Pishevar was a researcher at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where his scientific work contributed to patents for malaria treatments and publications in JAMA and Neuroscience Letters. 

With a career defined by creating new industries and accelerating technological frontiers, Shervin Pishevar continues to shape the future through Sofreh Capital—building, funding, and stewarding companies that will define the next generation of human progress. For Pishevar, innovation is not a slogan but a guiding philosophy: a belief that bold ideas, empowered founders, and principled technology can expand opportunity and improve lives around the world.