Advertisement

SK Sharma joins PE big Warburg Pincus as Senior Advisor, targeted on funding alternatives in Generative AI


Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!

Personal fairness big Warburg Pincus simply made a really attention-grabbing new appointment. SK Sharma, an AI professional, has joined Warburg Pincus as a Senior Advisor, working with the agency’s Expertise group.

Sharma was beforehand Chief Analytics & AI Officer at Common Music Group, the place he led a worldwide staff of AI researchers, knowledge scientists and strategists to develop services specializing in listener engagement, viewers development and advertising analytics expertise.

He has authored 4 synthetic intelligence patents as lead inventor, and was behind patented expertise for UMG.

In his new function at Warburg Pincus, Sharma will help the agency in “figuring out, evaluating and supporting new funding alternatives and advise portfolio firms on worth creation initiatives with a deal with generative synthetic intelligence (GenAI)”.

Warburg Pincus LLC has greater than $87 billion in belongings beneath administration, and greater than 220 firms in its lively portfolio.

The agency is headquartered in New York with places of work in Amsterdam, Beijing, Berlin, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Mauritius, San Francisco, São Paulo, Shanghai, and Singapore.

Warburg Pincus famous as we speak (Could 28) that Sharma has “deep experience in creating and bringing firms by the expansion stage and to exit”.

Sharma has served as a co-founder or working companion for 4 completely different firms, three of which had been acquired by strategic patrons.

As he defined to MBW on the MBW Podcast in 2022, Sharma grew up in Watts, Los Angeles and graduated with a Ph.D in Chemical Physics and Biophysical Chemistry from Caltech.

He went on to create medical prescribed drugs, earlier than turning his hand to analyzing markets for the likes of Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers.

In 2016, he joined the music enterprise – becoming a member of UMG through Ingrooves Music Group.

Dr. Sharma presently serves as Entrepreneur in Residence on the College of California San Diego Jacobs College of Engineering.

“SK will likely be a useful useful resource to our funding thesis technology and portfolio firm worth creation.”

Michael Ding, Warburg Pincus

“We’re thrilled to welcome SK, who has been on the forefront of synthetic intelligence innovation and real-world utility, to Warburg Pincus,” mentioned Michael Ding, Managing Director, Warburg Pincus.

“SK will likely be a useful useful resource to our funding thesis technology and portfolio firm worth creation.”

“GenAI is creating unbelievable alternatives, and I stay up for working with the staff to determine and consider new investments and assist worth creation for the agency’s spectacular portfolio firms.”

SK Sharma

“I’m excited to be becoming a member of Warburg Pincus, which has been synonymous with development investing since its begin and has a formidable monitor document within the expertise house,” mentioned SK Sharma.

“GenAI is creating unbelievable alternatives, and I stay up for working with the staff to determine and consider new investments and assist worth creation for the agency’s spectacular portfolio firms.”


In 2022, on the MBW Podcast, Sharma was requested about what “bemused” him when he first joined the music business, and “what took [him] aback in the way in which that the music business labored, notably because it pertains to its relationship with expertise?”

Sharma defined: “I’ve been extremely humbled by listening to of us and studying from folks. However, as you say, there’s actually issues the place you scratch your head and go, ‘Did that actually occur? Did somebody simply say that?’

“I feel initially, that was [because of a] lack of contextualization. Now everybody’s speaking about machine studying and AI – like everybody’s an professional – however I can let you know again in 2016, it wasn’t a factor. Only a few folks had been speaking about these things within the music business outdoors of Spotify. Individuals had been like: ‘The place’s this gonna go? Why would we do any of these items? What is that this actually gonna imply?’

“That was a bit uncommon for me, as a result of I used to be used to being in roles the place innovation and R&D drove success and development. Being a scientist, you’re used to failure; it’s okay to check a concept. It’s the precise factor to interrogate a speculation and go: ‘Hey, mea culpa, it didn’t work out. Let’s transfer on to one thing else.’ Early on within the music business, I used to be form of stunned typically by folks going: ‘I don’t fail; I simply don’t fail. You don’t ever need to fail!’

“Embracing failure as a pure a part of development, and accepting how one can be taught from that and do higher, is one thing I’ve at all times embraced. I used to be stunned that was not essentially an perspective that was embraced by a number of the of us I met within the music business early on.”Music Enterprise Worldwide