Cindy Padnos

Founder and Managing Partner at Illuminate Ventures

Cindy Padnos is the Founder and Managing Partner of Illuminate Ventures (illuminate.vc), a Series Seed firm investing exclusively in AI-enabled enterprise/B2B software. A veteran operator-turned-investor with 25+ years in enterprise tech, she has backed category leaders with outcomes including IPOs for Xactly Corp and Coupang and acquisitions by Autodesk, Cloudera, Hearst, and New Relic. Known as the “Queen B2B,” Cindy is also the author of widely cited research on gender diversity in tech and serves on the Tepper School of Business Business Board of Advisors. Learn more on her LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cindypadnos.