MENLO PARK, CA--(Marketwired - Feb 12, 2015) - Wing Venture Capital, an investment firm dedicated to building the next generation of industry-leading companies in the business-technology arena, has hired Martin Giles, the San Francisco-based technology writer of The Economist Newspaper, as Partner, Intellectual Capital. He will join the firm in March.
In this new role, Giles will develop deep and actionable insights in core areas of interest to Wing and its portfolio companies. Some of this proprietary research will be released publicly to highlight the trends and developments that are reshaping business-technology markets. He will work closely with Wing's founding partners, Gaurav Garg and Peter Wagner, who have decades of experience building billion-dollar-plus enterprises in rapidly growing industries.
Giles brings a wealth of experience to Wing, too. During a distinguished career at The Economist, he has written on issues that range from cybersecurity to the consumerization of business technology and the rise of the Internet of Things. He was also an operating executive for a number of years, running various global businesses for The Economist Group and acquiring and managing startups. Giles is a senior industry fellow at the University of California, Irvine's Center for Digital Transformation and a member of the World Economic Forum's Council on the Future of Electronics.
"I am thrilled to join Wing and to help the firm pursue its mission of building category-defining companies," said Giles. "I have reported extensively on many industries being transformed by innovative newcomers. Venture capital will add a whole new dimension to my affinity with startups and the incredible entrepreneurs behind them."
"From the very beginning, thought leadership has been at the heart of the Wing model," commented Peter Wagner. "Martin will help us put even greater focus on this critical asset, the intellectual capital of the firm. The proprietary insight derived from this effort will help drive Wing's unique investment strategy as well as advance the industry conversation as a whole in our domain."
"Our goal is to make a meaningful contribution on the intellectual front in areas of business technology that we are incredibly passionate about," added Gaurav Garg. "There is a huge and very exciting opportunity here, and we are delighted that Martin is joining Wing to ensure that we seize it."
About Wing
Wing is a purpose-built venture capital firm founded by two industry veterans with a different perspective on what it takes to create enduring companies. It commits to its portfolio firms in their early stages and engages for the long term, with a singular focus on the transformation of business technology by the data-mobile-cloud paradigm. The body of work of Wing's award-winning team spans two decades and dozens of companies, 16 of which have executed successful IPOs and achieved market caps in excess of $1 billion. Recent examples include FireEye, MobileIron, Nimble Storage, Opower and Ruckus Wireless.
