VantagePoint Venture Partners, a cleantech, healthcare and IT-focused venture firm, has added Brad Mattson and Mark Platshon as partners in its cleantech practice.
Mattson is an entrepreneur and executive in the semiconductor industry. He was the founder, CEO and chairman of both Novellus Systems and Mattson Technology. Mattson was once named Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year and also holds 12 patents in various aspects of semiconductor technologies.
Mark Platshon joins VantagePoint from Trident Capital, where he focused on cleantech investments. Previously, he served as a venture partner at XSeed Capital. Prior to joining the venture capital world, Mark spent 20 years as CEO of several Silicon Valley companies including Idetek, an environmental and food diagnostics company (acquired by Idexx Laboratories), ELO, a touchscreens maker (now a Tyco company), Zing, an online photography company (acquired by Sony), and most recently, Capnia, a specialty pharmaceutical company.
“I am extremely pleased to welcome Brad and Mark to our team. Each has a proven track record of successful entrepreneurship and the demonstrated ability to commercialise transformative technologies,” says Alan Salzman, CEO and managing partner of VantagePoint. “They share our vision of investing in 21st century technologies to develop the leading companies of the new energy economy that can tackle our most pressing global issues.”
VantagePoint has more than $4.5 billion in committed capital. The firm has investments in more than 70 companies, including notable cleantech companies Better Place, BridgeLux, BrightSource Energy, Miasol, Premium Power, Tesla Motors and others.
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