About Rajesh Swaminathan
Rajesh Swaminathan is a partner at Khosla Ventures, a venture capital firm. He leads many of its investments in renewable energy, industrial decarbonization, advanced manufacturing, critical minerals and computing infrastructure. He is a director of Hertha Metals, which makes steel and high-purity iron in one step. Khosla led Hertha's seed round.
Before Khosla Ventures, he led Applied Ventures, the venture arm of Applied Materials, which managed a portfolio of 85 startups and two deep-tech funds in Korea and Taiwan. Earlier he worked with startups at Third Point Ventures and at Lucent's Bell Labs. His board seats include Nitricity, Verdagy, Tempo (formerly Redoxblox) and Li Industries. He earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Experience
This experience comes from official bios and from SEC filings. For roles taken from filings, the years are when the filings name Rajesh Swaminathan in the role, so the role may have started earlier or lasted longer.
Key Colleagues at Startups
The people Rajesh Swaminathan works with at each company, as listed on that company's latest Form D.
Rajesh Swaminathan in the News
Sources
- SECHertha Metals, Inc. Form D, filed Oct 27, 2026
- SECNitricity Inc. Form D/A, filed Oct 28, 2025
- SECLi Industries, Inc. Form D, filed May 29, 2024
- SECVerdagy, Inc. Form D, filed Aug 21, 2023
- Press releaseHertha Metals release hosted on herthametals.com (July 22, 2025)
- Press releaseBusiness Wire: Hertha Metals Secures $133.65M Series A (September 29, 2026)
- Company siteAbout page on nitricity.co (External Directors)
- Company siteDirectors on verdagy.com
- Company siteVerdagy closes funding round (February 8, 2022), on verdagy.com
- Company siteAbout Tempo (formerly Redoxblox), Board of Directors
- Press releasePR Newswire: Li Industries Raises Series B Funding (May 9, 2024)