Maz Zawacki

Co-Founder & Managing Director
Techne Infiniti Ventures

Maz is an early-stage investor, startup coach, strategist, advisor, keynote speaker, contrarian, provocateur and easily distracte… He is a Co-Founder and Managing Director of Techne Infiniti Ventures (‘Techne’), an early-stage Silicon Valley venture fund focused exclusively on pre-seed/seed/A investments in hospitality technology (accommodation, travel/mobility, F&B, entertainment & recreation + adjacencies) Techne operates ‘three pillars’: a venture studio, an accelerator and a direct investment fund. Techne invests globally, and Maz’s primary geographical focus is Europe & MENA. Maz resides in the Netherlands (and in airline cabins). Over his investing career, Maz’s multiple on invested capital (MOIC) is 15x. Notable early-stage investments include Vignette (IPO), Kana (IPO), Persistent Systems (IPO), AvantGo (IPO), Postini (acq by Google), BigFix (acq by IBM), PlaceWare (acq by Microsoft), Responsys (acq by Oracle), MX Logic (acq by McAfee), NetGravity (acq by DoubleClick), OpenSite (acq by Siebel), Sandpiper Networks (acq by C&W) and many others. At Techne, Maz is the networker extraordinaire across hospitality globally; new startups, follow-on VCs, industry executives, startup talent, experienced advisors and board members, corporate & technology partnerships, thought leaders, family offices, asset managers, limited partners, REITs, industry associations and leading hospitality schools throughout the world. Prior to co-founding Techne, Maz has been providing strategic counsel to a variety of corporate clients as well as startups and scale-ups. He has had over 500+ clients spanning 25+ years and 80+ countries; tech, media, telcoms, retail, financial services, hospitality & travel, healthcare, manufacturing, CPG, oil & gas, chemicals and public utilities. Maz has been an advisor & keynote speaker to many government entities, including the EU, France, the Netherlands, Turkey, Sweden, Nigeria, New Zealand, Mexico, Australia, etc. He is also an Entrepreneur-In-Residence at INSEAD and a regular guest lecturer at leading business schools globally. Maz holds an MBA (Finance) from the Simon Business School, University of Rochester, and a BSc (Finance) from the University of Colorado. Outside Techne, Maz is a relentless traveler, foodie and cork dork, downhill skier, trail runner, sailor, adventurist & paraglider pilot.