SAP Ventures taps former Grok CEO for top market development post

SAP Ventures, the German software giant's independent venture capital arm, has named former Grok Solutions CEO Rami Branitzky as its new managing director of market development.

Company officials said he will oversee the firm's efforts to "enable its direct and indirect portfolio companies to leverage the unmatched capabilities and expertise of one of the world's largest enterprise IT ecosystems" through the company's more than 13,000 partners and 250,000 customers worldwide.

"With the addition of Rami, a proven leader with an exceptional track record and an extensive network, SAP Ventures will be in a unique position to deliver tremendous value to our portfolio companies, as well as the broader SAP ecosystem," said Nino Marakovic, CEO and managing director, SAP Ventures, in a statement.

Prior to his stint at Grok Solutions – formerly Numenta – Branitzky served as managing director at SAP Labs North America and as senior vice president in charge of SAP's global software solution partnerships group. He joined SAP following the acquisition of TopTier Software, where he held multiple field and product leadership positions.

In September, SAP Ventures launched a new funding pool and Convercent, a Denver-based cloud compliance and analytics software vendor, was the first to benefit. The firm has more than $1.4 billion under management.