Venkat Atluri

Venkat Atluri

CEO and Managing Partner SanTuri Ventures; Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company

Venkat Atluri is an investor, founder, operator and board member with a sharp focus on artificial intelligence (AI). He has a strong value creation history with his deep experience in investing, strategic and operating roles especially with his turnaround and transformation expertise. He has a strong track record as a leader who articulates a clear vision and inspires, motivates and attracts unparalleled talent, and he brings well-rounded global experience across continents. As the CEO and Managing Partner of SanTuri Ventures, he leads early- and growth-stage investments across the AI technology stack. Before SanTuri, he spent more than two decades at McKinsey & Company, including fifteen as a Senior Partner and seven as Global Leader of the Technology and Telecom practice, delivering client impact across 48 countries on four continents. Over the last two decades he has advised numerous management and executive teams across industries and worked closely with 30+ boards on governance, strategy, operational excellence and AI/technology led transformation. Venkat brings to this work a model he pioneered over two decades in private capital, in which he is rewarded for value creation and performance rather than for advice alone. Earlier, he held global operating roles at General Electric and 3M. He is a dedicated mentor and coach to leaders in organizations of all sizes.

SanTuri Ventures is a growth-stage venture firm with track record and positions, including the past CVC experience in more than 150 companies. SanTuri focus on horizontal AI technology enablers: core AI innovations that drive vertical-market disruption and compound into enduring platforms and ecosystems. He pairs rigorous diligence on investment decisions with hands-on transformation work inside portfolio companies to drive outsized returns. He is committed to building a lasting institution that backs founders creating meaningful, positive impact.

At McKinsey, Venkat partnered with entrepreneurs, investors, executives and boards to create value through new business building from scale-up to IPO, programmatic M&A, and end-to-end performance transformation across high-tech, media and telecommunications, industrial and consumer sectors. He spearheaded digital, analytics (AI, Gen AI and Agentic AI) and tech-enabled transformations for clients, particularly in advanced industries. As a founding member of McKinsey’s New Ventures group, he helped incubate 30 new analytics, AI and digital assets, develop innovative client offerings, and forge 25 alliances and partnerships with technology innovators.

He also led the firm’s global Technology, Media and Telecommunications efforts to help clients fast-track and sustain transformational impact through leadership alignment, execution support and capability building, using distinctive assets and AI-driven digital-learning programs. That work yielded more than $25 billion in value realization. Over his tenure he drove more than 30 M&A deals ranging from millions to billions, from diligence through integration and value realization, and created tens of billions of dollars in enterprise value for clients through growth and productivity improvements. He worked extensively with private equity and venture capital investors to identify opportunities and drive returns.

In 2014 Venkat co-founded McKinsey’s Internet of Things practice and led it for five years, working on the connected devices, systems and data that many of today’s industrial AI applications run on. He is a leading expert on the opportunities created by the network connectivity of devices, systems, platforms and people, powered by AI software agent and hardware infrastructure, and he guides companies through the design and deployment of ecosystem-based businesses that use AI.

Venkat is a prolific author and sought-after speaker. With Miklos Dietz, he co-authored The Ecosystem Economy: How to Lead in the New Age of Sectors Without Borders (Wiley), and after its release he presented the book’s thesis to numerous corporate boards, leading to engagements that shaped their strategic direction. He also has published widely on AI tech-enabled transformation and technology-driven disruption. He is fluent in the boardroom conversation about AI, and his ecosystem perspective helps leaders see how AI creates value across traditional sector borders. Consulting Magazine named him one of the Top 25 Technology Consultants and Leaders of 2023.

He remains closely engaged with academia. An alumnus of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business (MBA ’01), he has taught there since 2023 as Adjunct Associate Professor, leading a course on Leadership in the Emerging Ecosystem Economy. He also serves as an Executive Fellow at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, contributing to executive education and leadership development programs.

Outside his primary roles, Venkat serves on the board of 1871, Chicago’s leading startup incubator, which UBI Global has recognized as the world’s top business incubator - $3.5B in venture capital raised, 17 unicorns, ~14,500 jobs created, 850+ founders. He is a Founding Member and Chairman the board for Current Water, a nonprofit that nurtures companies developing technologies for the world’s water challenges; under his leadership Current Water secured $165 million from the National Science Foundation as part of the Great Lakes ReNEW regional innovation engine.