Alex Balkanski
General Partner @ Benchmark
Redwood City, United States
Alex Balkanski is a Series A investor at Benchmark in Redwood City focused on Security and Software. Alex Balkanski has 2 current jobs as Board Member & CEO at Picarro and General Partner at Benchmark. Prior to joining Benchmark, Alex led C-Cube and DiviCom, two pioneering companies that drove the MPEG standard to dominance in consumer electronics and broadcasting. Alex founded C-Cube in 1988. In 1994, he took the company public, and in 1998he orchestrated C-Cube’s acquisition of DiviCom. By 2000, C-Cube was generating a half-billion dollars in annual revenue with 1,200 employees worldwide.Widely recognized as industry leaders, C-Cube and DiviCom were the recipients of several prestigious awards, including an Emmy - the first ever awarded to a semiconductor company. C-Cube was also voted the Most Respected Public Company as well as the Best Financially Managed Company by the Fabless Semiconductor Association.Alex serves on the Boards of Ambarella, D2S, Infinera (INFN), Mu Security, Newport Media, Picarro and Xoomsys. Previously he was a board member of Decru (acquired by Network Appliance), and Entrisphere (acquired by Ericsson).Alex holds a Ph.D. and a master's degree from Harvard University as well as a B.S. from Harvard College." (Source:
- Total investments:
- 5
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 40%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Alex Balkanski invests in
Stages Alex Balkanski invests in
Countries Alex Balkanski invests in
Contacts
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Investment Focus
Industry
- Security 1 (20%)
- Software 1 (20%)
- E-Learning 1 (20%)
- Cyber Security 1 (20%)
- Higher Education 1 (20%)
Stage
- Series A 2 (40%)
- Seed 1 (20%)
- Series B 1 (20%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engageli operates as an inclusive digital learning platform optimized for student success and that delivers engaging teaching and learning experiences across a broad spectrum of needs for higher education. | $33M / Series A / May 11, 2021 | ||
| Engageli operates as an inclusive digital learning platform optimized for student success and that delivers engaging teaching and learning experiences across a broad spectrum of needs for higher education. | $14.5M / Seed / Oct 14, 2020 | ||
| Robust Intelligence safeguards enterprises from AI security vulnerabilities with an automated platform that detects and mitigates model threats. The company is trusted by innovators and it provides an end-to-end solution that features proprietary red teaming, threat intelligence, and guardrails for secure AI deployment in production. | $11M / Series A / Feb 01, 2020 | ||
Decru
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Decru, Inc. provides storage security solutions to enterprises and government organizations. It offers storage security solutions to address business requirements, including privacy, regulatory compliance, intellectual property protection, and internal controls. The company's DataFort storage security appliances enable organizations totransform their networked storage environments into a core protecting data from internal and external threats. It also provides a software recovery tool which allows an administrator to use UNIX or Windows workstation. The company's products are used in various applications, including storage consolidation, backup and DR, secure access controls, secure data hosting, secure email restores, and database security. Decru, Inc. offers its solutions to customers in financial services, health care, telecommunications, media, semiconductors, aerospace, manufacturing, and government sectors. The company was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Redwood City, California. As of August 26, 2005, Decru, Inc. operates as a subsidiary of NetApp, Inc. | Series B / Feb 26, 2003 | |
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Decru
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Decru, Inc. provides storage security solutions to enterprises and government organizations. It offers storage security solutions to address business requirements, including privacy, regulatory compliance, intellectual property protection, and internal controls. The company's DataFort storage security appliances enable organizations totransform their networked storage environments into a core protecting data from internal and external threats. It also provides a software recovery tool which allows an administrator to use UNIX or Windows workstation. The company's products are used in various applications, including storage consolidation, backup and DR, secure access controls, secure data hosting, secure email restores, and database security. Decru, Inc. offers its solutions to customers in financial services, health care, telecommunications, media, semiconductors, aerospace, manufacturing, and government sectors. The company was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Redwood City, California. As of August 26, 2005, Decru, Inc. operates as a subsidiary of NetApp, Inc. | $27M / Series B / Jul 31, 2002 |
Co-Investors
About Benchmark
Benchmark invests in and works alongside entrepreneurs building startups into transformational companies. They focus on early-stage venture investing in mobile, marketplaces, social, and infrastructure and enterprise software. Founded in 1995, the firm has offices in Woodside and San Francisco, California.The firm has been recognized for itscommitment to open source and is noted for creating the first equal ownership and compensation structure for its partners. The five equal general partners who take board seats and a hands-on approach to every entrepreneur and company they back, with no junior investment staff. Current general partners are Chetan Puttagunta, Sarah Tavel, Victor Lazarte, Peter Fenton, and Eric Vishria. Benchmark has had 37 exits since beginning of 2011; 14 IPOs and 23 M&As representing a total market value of more than $60 billion.Benchmark’s current portfolio of early-stage venture investments includes private market leaders such as Uber, Snapchat, Tinder, Stitch Fix, Elastic and Cyanogen; recent IPOs and acquisitions such as Twitter, Instagram, Yelp, League of Legends, Jasper, OpenTable, New Relic, Hortonworks, Amplitude, Confluent, GrubHub, Zendesk and Zillow; and franchise companies from Juniper to eBay to Red Hat.
Benchmark Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Bruce Dunlevie
General Partner
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Chetan Puttagunta
General Partner
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Peter Fenton
General Partner
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Alex Balkanski
General Partner
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Ben Rubin
Entrepreneur In Residence
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FAQ
What does Alex Balkanski invest in?
Alex Balkanski invests primarily in Security, Software and E-Learning startups, most often at Series A and Seed stage. Most of the 5 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
How do I contact Alex Balkanski?
Public channels for Alex Balkanski include LinkedIn. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.
When did Alex Balkanski last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for Alex Balkanski closed in May 2021. Shizune tracks 5 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.
Is Shizune's investor data accurate?
Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Sep 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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