In a country mad after every tom, dick and harry non-resident, it is surprising that rarely anybody knows Raj Singh. Not even the press that never lets go any opportunity to sing paeans for even an NRI whose only claim to fame was his desire to build a memorial for his dog in India. That’s in India. Even in the US, his karmabhumi and where people do know him, Singh loves staying out of the limelight. This despite the fact that his career as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur has not been less successful than the more famous Vinod Khosla. Just consider these: Cerent, a networking company he helped found, was bought by Cisco for $7.3 billion. Siara Systems, another networking company he played a part in founding, was bought by Redback Networks for $4.3 billion, respectively. Cisco also bought StratumOne Communications, a company Singh had started, for $435 million. That is a cool $12 billion. It was Singh again who developed the idea that became Berkeley Networks. The company was later sold to Fore Systems for $250 million in 1998.

But despite all this Singh is still not a billionaire. How can he be? Money making comes secondary to a person who despite being the moving forces behind all the successful ventures mentioned here has only once taken more than six per cent stake in his companies. More important for him has been his endeavour to fill technology gaps with the companies that he forms.

Singh’s first job was that of a sub-lieutenant in the Indian Navy. But destiny had something else in store for this son of a farmer born in Idrishpur village in Meerut district, Uttar Pradesh. Currently, the main force behind Redwood Venture Partners, the venture capital fund, that invests in next generation networking and telecommunication companies, Singh began his career as an entrepreneur in 1992 by forming InterHDL, a company involved in developing chip design software. Over the next few years, he started three more companies: Advancel Logic, Fiberlane Communications (later split into Cerent, Siara Systems, and Cyras Systems), and StratumOne. He currently serves on the boards of directors for a number of Redwood companies, including EveryPath.com, Catamaran Communications, SwitchOn Networks, RealChip Communications, Optovation, Corona Networks, Cratos Networks, and Co-Design Automation. He is the co-author of Digital Design and Synthesis with Verilog HDL. He holds a BS in electrical engineering from Roorkee Engineering College, India, and a masters in computer science from the University of Minneapolis.n