Vanessa Kahkesh

Vanessa Kahkesh is an investor at the California Innovation Fund based in Berkeley, California. In this professional capacity, she participates in venture capital financings ranging from $250,000 to $1 million for late seed and Series A corporate funding rounds. The venture firm has completed 12 transactions to date and uniquely reinvests 50 percent of its generated profits back into the public University of California educational system. Prior to her current investment position, Kahkesh studied undergraduate entrepreneurship at UC Berkeley under Kurt Beyer, who is also closely associated with the fund's executive leadership. Her professional work frequently intersects with prominent university-affiliated startup incubators and research facilities, specifically including SkyDeck and Bakar Labs. Kahkesh currently focuses her efforts on identifying and supporting early-stage technology startups that emerge from the broader university ecosystem to address significant societal challenges.