Why I Joined Clear Ventures: Supercharging Venture Capital with AI
By Somnath Banerjee
I am thrilled to embark on this new chapter in my career as the Vice President of Data Science at Clear Ventures — a leading VC firm that supports startups building game-changing technologies in artificial intelligence (AI) and deep tech. Leaving the corporate ladder and joining a VC firm was a challenging career decision. It is indeed a significant change in my career journey. As I delved deeper into the role, I realized it was one of the most exciting career changes I could ever undertake. Clear has created the perfect environment to work with exceptional individuals, stay at the forefront of AI/ML technology, network with the next wave of entrepreneurs, and make a significant impact.
The best career choices come from choosing to work with amazing people. At Clear Ventures, I have the privilege of working with a talented and visionary team of entrepreneurs and leaders. Everyone on the team brings a unique energy, optimism, and drive to create a better future through innovation. The partners here have the fabled stories of creating multiple successful companies. The co-founders, Rajeev Madhavan and Chris Rust, have founded six companies and achieved two successful IPOs. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that a VC firm could also have such a strong sense of mission. Each partner has a shared vision for building the best AI fund and emphasizes that Clear is not about making money. Our purpose is to manage the resources of important institutions: children’s hospitals, universities, non-profits, and pension funds. I was blown away by the Clear team and became deeply inspired by the firm’s mission and purpose.
Another crucial factor in career decisions is aligning with one’s long-term goals. I find the stories of founders persevering through adversity to achieve their mission endlessly captivating. I’ve always wanted to be a part of the startup world. Clear Ventures provides me with a front-row seat to observe the creation and development of startups. It allows me to meet and build close relationships with many of the country’s most remarkable founders and innovators.
Clear, and its portfolio companies are at the forefront of AI/ML technology. I’ll be part of the team building a venture operating system revolutionizing how a VC firm discovers early-stage startups and helps their portfolio companies acquire customers, talent, and secure follow-on financing. The platform developed by the Clear engineering team is already quite impressive. The next phase involves incorporating cutting-edge large language models (LLMs) and AI technologies to streamline many complex processes necessary for running a VC firm and supporting its founders. As an AI/ML expert, there’s nothing more thrilling than the opportunity to work at the bleeding edge of nascent technology.
The more I learned about the daily operations of Clear, the more eager I became to join the team. They regularly organize events on deep tech, inviting leading academia and practitioners, and host discussions on overcoming different challenges of starting a successful company. Clear also runs programs like the “Clear Venture Fellows,” where top students from leading US-based universities like Stanford, The University of Washington, and the University of California, Berkeley participate.
It’s only been a couple of weeks since I joined Clear, and I am already overjoyed to be a part of this team. I am grateful for this opportunity and can’t wait to see where this journey takes me. I am eager to contribute to the growth and success of Clear Ventures and its portfolio companies and hope to found my own startup one day. Clear is changing the face of Venture Capital, and I am so excited to play a leading role in the success of the firm.
About Somnath Banerjee, Vice President of Data Science at Clear Ventures
Somnath has decades of experience building AI/ML-based products at various organizations. Prior to Clear, he helped build Pinterest shopping from the ground up. His team was responsible for Pinterest shopping discovery that includes product search, recommendation, and personalization across Pinterest. Under his leadership, weekly shoppers over WAU (weekly active users) in the US grew from 1% to 30% and generated hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising revenue. Before joining Pinterest, Somnath spent more than seven years at Walmart Labs. There he helped set up the Walmart Labs in Bangalore, led various data science organizations, and modernized the Walmart.com search tech stack by applying AI/ML. At Google, he was the founding member of the WebP team that has become a widely-used image format on the internet.
Somnath holds a Ph.D. in machine learning and information retrieval from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, and a Master’s degree in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He has published papers in top-tier conferences, such as SIGIR and WWW, and has given invited talks on e-commerce search and recommendation.
