Thorsten Claus

As a Director at Northgate Capital, Thorsten focuses on inflection-point direct investments in IT Infrastructure, Enterprise Software, and Mobile.

Thorsten has experience in both venture capital investing and executive operational roles. Prior to Northgate, Thorsten was Principal at Next World Capital (NWC), an expansion-stage venture capital firm in San Francisco, focusing on investments in the areas of Big Data, Cybersecurity, and Enterprise Software. He enjoyed growing NWC’s European advisory network, helping NWC’s portfolio companies to shape their international strategies and grow global business.

Before NWC, Thorsten was a Senior Investment Manager with T-Venture, the venture capital arm of Deutsche Telekom with over 1BN USD AUM, in the Silicon Valley. He worked closely with management teams, boards, and investors of T-Venture’s large US portfolio to enter and grow European and international business. His deep technology understanding and operational experience drove his own investments in the areas of Mobile, IT and Network Infrastructure, and Enterprise Software. Investments include: Demandware (NYSE: DWRE), Ubiquisys (acquired by Cisco), Skorpios Technologies, Affirmed Networks, Assia, Jawbone, Blue Jeans Networks, Lookout, Ciphercloud, Numecent, Newaer, and Streetlight Data.

Thorsten has also published on technology and innovations. In 2005 he was awarded the Deutsche Telekom International Award for Excellence in Innovation. Thorsten was born in Germany, has a Master of Science in Information Technologies from Technische Universitat Darmstadt. He almost dropped out of college while helping to build a new medical center and research facility as well as planning and designing a LAN and WAN for a cross-functional medical information system for local medical clinics.

Thorsten lives in Berkeley with his wife, two kids, and eight chickens, and is involved in the fields of urban gardening and urban development. Thorsten enjoys downhill skateboarding and model trains. He has not forgotten his entrepreneurial roots and loves to help young tech startups find and grow their business.