Sanat Rao is an investment professional and venture capitalist whose career has included roles in semiconductor engineering, corporate development, and digital asset investment. He has held positions at technology and investment firms such as Intel, IDG Ventures India (now Chiratae Ventures), and BlockTower Capital, and as of 2025, serves as the Chief Investment Officer of the BTC Fund at Monarq Asset Management. ^[1]

Education

Rao obtained a Bachelor of Engineering (BE) in Electronics Engineering from the University of Mumbai. He subsequently pursued graduate studies in the United States, earning a Master of Science (MS) in Computer Engineering from Virginia Tech. ^[2]

Career

Rao began his professional career in 1998 as a chip design engineer at Intel. In 2000, he transitioned to the company's venture capital division, Intel Capital, where he focused on investment and corporate development for five years. He remained at Intel, serving as the Business Development Director for the Embedded and Retail Group with a focus on emerging markets from 2005 to 2010. Following this, he became the Director of Corporate Development for the Mobile Group from 2011 to 2013, where his responsibilities included mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and other business development initiatives. During 2014 and 2015, Rao was also active in the startup ecosystem, serving as a mentor at Microsoft Ventures and as a partner at iSPIRT, where he focused on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for technology startups.

In 2016, Rao joined IDG Ventures India, which later rebranded to Chiratae Ventures, as a partner. In this role, he was involved in early-stage investments in technology companies until his departure in 2019. He then shifted his focus to the digital asset industry, co-founding the investment firm Gamma Point Capital and serving as its managing partner. In 2021, Gamma Point Capital was acquired by BlockTower Capital, and Rao joined BlockTower as a general partner, a position he held until 2023. In 2024, he assumed the roles of managing partner at Shaizen Ventures and senior advisor at Jar. The following year, he was appointed Chief Investment Officer of the BTC Fund at Monarq Asset Management, a quantitative digital asset investment firm. ^[8]

Panel

VCS vs ROI

In December 2024, Rao participated in a panel discussion titled "Where do VCS see better ROI” at the India Blockchain Week (IBW) conference. The panel featured other venture capitalists, including Vishal Kankani of Multicoin Capital and Ryan Kim of Hashed, who discussed investment strategies and trends in the cryptocurrency market. During the discussion, Rao commented on the importance of the user experience (UX) in decentralized applications (dApps). He also identified AI agents and memecoins as potential mechanisms for increasing user engagement and onboarding within the crypto ecosystem.

The panel reached a general consensus that while foundational infrastructure investments, such as those in Bitcoin and Layer 1 protocols, have been successful, the development of applications has not kept pace. The participants noted that innovative projects in areas like decentralized finance (DeFi) and stablecoins were beginning to change the landscape. The group also emphasized the importance of community engagement and advised developers to focus on long-term innovations aimed at creating a parallel financial system on-chain, rather than replicating traditional finance. ^[3]