Dante Zakhidov is an Investment Analyst at TDK Ventures focused on advanced materials for semiconductor, photonic, quantum, and energy technologies.
Prior to joining TDK Ventures, he was an application engineer at Sila Nanotechnologies working on developing and scaling new battery materials. Before Sila, Dante worked in the Office of the CTO at Applied Materials where he helped develop their technical strategy around entering new markets in photonic and quantum technologies.
Dante holds a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Rice University and a Doctorate in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University. His academic work has included many material classes from two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides, organic semiconductors, to carbon nanostructures. He is a published author with 14 papers, a patent, and was a guest editor for MRS Communications.
Born in Uzbekistan and having conducted research in USA, Russia, Qatar, and Japan, Dante's international experience has given him a broad perspective on culture and technology. Dante enjoys reading, photography, sports, strategic board games, building community, and going on spontaneous adventures.
The urgent need for faster data communication, driven by AI and cloud computing, is creating a significant opportunity in photonic light source technologies. This exploration focuses on the multi-billion dollar laser market for high-speed optical transmission. The goal is to find startups innovating to overcome challenges in performance, cost, and scalability for next-gen data networks.
