Cindy Padnos

Founder & Managing Partner at Illuminate Ventures

Cindy Padnos is the founder and Managing Partner of Illuminate Ventures, a firm leading early-stage investments in B2B/Enterprise software companies. She has a particular interest in how technology impacts the Future of Work. With three funds under management, Illuminate has backed more than 25 companies that have gained over $4.5B in follow-on financing. Exits have included acquisitions by Autodesk, Hearst, Cloudera, New Relic and Vista Equity Partners as well as a successful IPO for Xactly (NYSE: XYLY). Illuminate’s current portfolio includes market leaders like Allocadia, BrightEdge, Contentstack, Coupang, and Pex.

Prior to her investing career, Cindy was founder and CEO of Vivant (acquired by EVLV – now ORCL), president and CEO of Acumen and VP marketing at Scopus (IPO then acquired by Siebel).

Cindy has been honored as one of the Most Influential Women in Technology (Fast Company) and Most Influential Women in Silicon Valley (New York Times). She gained her BA at the University of Michigan and MSIA/MBA at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School where she serves on the Business Board of Advisors. Cindy has offered commencement addresses for the Engineering colleges at both schools and has authored several widely-cited research papers focused on increasing diversity in the Tech sector