Marc Philips is a software technology entrepreneur and venture capitalist. An Australian citizen, he lives and works between Sydney, Australia and Palo Alto, California in the heart of Silicon Valley.
Venture CapitalIn 2011, Marc co-founded Arafura Ventures, a Silicon Valley based venture capital firm. He specializes in deal sourcing, due diligence and investing in technology start ups. Portfolio companies include: Transifex Inc. (acquired by Parc Partners Inc), Gridium Inc., PacketZoom Inc. (acquired by Roblox Inc) and Series A in CloudStaff which today employs 5,000 staff.
Previous Start Ups & ExitsIn 1993, Marc started his first online website data analytics research company, APT Strategies which sold to Jupiter Research Inc. (NASDAQ: JUPM) in 1999 with 800 of Australia's largest websites as customers.
In 2002, Marc was a co-founder of Austalia's largest affiliate network, Commission Monster, which was acquired by IPMG in 2007.
With the video YouTube phenomena in 2005, Marc became a founding shareholder of Silicon Valley-based GlanceGuide, an online video metric solutions provider acquired by The Nielsen Company (NYSE: NLSN) in 2010.
In 2011, Paddy Power Ltd. acquired Sportbets Technologies which Marc founded and developed into a leading Australian real time sports betting & odds pricing aggregation website using dynamic keyword XML publishing software.
In 2014, NetNames Ltd. acquired WebIP. Marc was the sole investor and executive advisor, leading the team who designed and architected the online brand management solution which managed over 25,000 domain names for 150 corporate clients.
In 2018, Marc launched Cellars.com.au, a 2 sided marketplace which today has 1,000+ Australian wineries selling 9,000 wines direct to consumers online via a dropship e-commerce distribution platform.
Technology & SoftwareMarc designs software applications, develops publishing software and is an expert advisor on Google optimization for SearchForecast's enterprise global clients.
Education & LicencesMarc has a Bachelor of Economics / Commerce from the University of Melbourne (B.Comm) and is a Graduate of the Australia Institute of Company Directors (GAICD). He spent 2010-2011 studying Greek Classical Literature in the continuing studies program at Stanford University. He is the author of several books including ‘Inside Silicon Valley’.
Since 2017, Marc has held a current Australian Financial Services Licence (Licence No: 493852) and is authorized to provide general and financial advice in securities to wholesale investors. Read more at Frequency Ventures.