Charlie Songhurst
Charlie Songhurst is a renowned technology investor, entrepreneur, and strategist with one of the most extensive private investment portfolios in the global tech industry, having personally invested in nearly 500 companies. He is the Founding Partner of Katana Capital, a long-short equity hedge fund, and leads the Songhurst Group, a private investment firm with holdings across enterprise software, artificial intelligence, and deep technology sectors. Earlier in his career, Songhurst served as General Manager and Head of Global Corporate Strategy at Microsoft, where he played a pivotal role in the company’s mergers and acquisitions strategy. He was instrumental in landmark deals, including Microsoft’s acquisitions of Yahoo and Skype, and was a key figure in shaping the firm’s response to the rise of Google and the evolving search industry.
Charlie Songhurst Professional Experience / Academic History
Professional Experience
-
Founding Partner
-
General Manager and Head of Corporate Strategy
-
General Manager
Academic History
-
B.A., Philosophy, Politics and Economics
NOTABLE INVESTMENTS
Charlie Songhurst’s investment portfolio spans artificial intelligence, deep technology, financial technology, biotechnology, and quantum computing.
Alongside his private investments, he is a partner and co-investor at Acequia Capital and an investment partner at Nyca Capital, where he continues to back high-impact startups shaping the future of technology and finance.
Songhurst serves on the boards of Proteus Digital Health, Transit Capital, SafeGraph, CodeSign, and Beauhurst, and has advised innovative companies such as SheeldMarket, Veratrak, OpenGov, and Mighty AI.
His portfolio includes several unicorn companies—notably Rigetti Computing, Formlabs, Convoy, Tractable, Karat, and Side—while ClassPass and Grove Collaborative have successfully exited.
During his tenure at Microsoft, Songhurst led Global Corporate Strategy, focusing on strategic partnerships and mergers and acquisitions.
He played a central role in Microsoft’s $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype and collaborated with Bill Gates to negotiate the company’s investment in Facebook.
His strategic work also addressed the emergence of Google and the broader evolution of the search industry, helping position Microsoft for long-term competitiveness in the digital ecosystem.