Maha Ibrahim

Maha Ibrahim invests in innovative cloud, mobile, and digital media companies with the potential to become global market leaders. Maha is known in the venture industry for her ability to spot technology trends early, foster growth at her portfolio companies through hands-on operational guidance, and achieve profitable exits for entrepreneurs and investors.

Maha joined Canaan’s Menlo Park office in March 2000. Early on, she led the firm’s investment in Tacit Networks, helping the company negotiate a partnership with Brocade and a later acquisition by Packeteer Networks. Maha also established Canaan as a lead investor in Mobilitec (acquired by Alcatel-Lucent) and MiNO Wireless.  Maha led Canaan’s investments in social media application providers PicksPal (acquired by Liberty Media) and Kabam, as well as Virsto, which has pioneered an entirely new approach to improving storage in virtualized environments; SenSage , leading provider of log management and security information management systems; and eBillme, the leading cash-based alternative payment option online available today.

Maha has won numerous industry awards, including The Silicon Valley Business Journal 40 Under 40 award, and is frequently invited to speak at industry conferences. She has spoken at, among others, GigaOm Structure, Ernst & Young Strategic Growth Forum, Web 2.0 Expo, Under the Radar Cloud Computing, Digital Hollywood, CTIA Wireless, AlwaysOn Stanford Summit, and Global Tech Forum.

Prior to joining Canaan, Maha held numerous executive-level roles at Qwest Communications, including Vice President of Business Development and Vice President of eBusiness and Internet Operations. While at Qwest, her keen networking skills helped the company forge relationships with Netscape and Microsoft. Earlier in her career, Maha was a management consultant with both the Boston Consulting Group and Price Waterhouse.

Maha holds a B.A. in Economics and an M.A. in Organizational Behavior from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT. She currently sits on the boards of 3Crowd, eBillme, MiNO Wireless, SenSage , Virsto and Kabam. Previous board seats include PicksPal, Tacit Networks and Mobilitec. Maha is an active member of the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab (VLAB), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the growth and success of high-tech entrepreneurial ventures by connecting ideas, technology and people. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two young sons.

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