Richard Tapalaga

Richard is a Director at Qualcomm Ventures. His current investments interests are around the AR / VR, IoT / IIoT, Robotics and connected device ecosystems. Richard joined Qualcomm Ventures in 2008 and actively serves as a Board Member for Brain Corp. In addition, he also serves as a Board Observer for a number of investments including Magic Leap, Airspace Technologies, The Void, and Reach Robotics.

Richard is involved in the full-gamut of venture capital lifecycle from fund raising/investor relations, sourcing/diligence/closing investments, and portfolio management and plays a crucial role in driving strategic direction, scale-up, and sale of these businesses. He has led over a dozen of investments with successful exits in HeyZap (acquired by RNTS Media), Livescribe (acquired by Anoto), Owlchemy Labs (acquired by Google), and Earn.com (acquired by Coinbase).

Prior to joining Qualcomm, Richard had over seven years of investment banking experience at Merrill Lynch & Co and Société Générale. As a Vice President at Société Générale, Richard led the leveraged finance deal teams, with a focus in the Gaming, Lodging, Leisure and Media & Telecom sectors.

Richard holds an MBA from Cornell University’s Johnson School of Business and a B.S. from New York University’s Stern School of Business.