Michelangelo "Mike" Volpi (born 13 December 1966) is an Italian-American businessman and venture capitalist. He is known for leading acquisitions at Cisco Systems during its growth era and for later co-founding the San Francisco office of Index Ventures. As of 2026, he serves as a general partner at Hanabi Capital, an early-stage venture firm focused on Artificial intelligence and software infrastructure.
Volpi's career spans engineering, corporate strategy, and venture investing. He has held board seats at numerous public and private technology companies and has been recognized on lists of influential tech investors.
Early life and education
Volpi was born in Milan, Italy. When he was five, his family moved to Tokyo, Japan, where he lived until moving to the United States in 1984 to attend college at Stanford University. There, he earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering and an M.S. in manufacturing systems engineering. After working at Hewlett-Packard for several years, he returned to Stanford to earn an M.B.A. from the Graduate School of Business in 1994.
Career at Cisco and beyond
Volpi began his career at Hewlett-Packard's optoelectronics division in 1989, working in both engineering and marketing. He joined Cisco Systems in 1994 in the nascent business development group. Promoted to leading acquisitions starting in April 1996, he became chief strategy officer, overseeing corporate strategy, business development, and strategic alliances. His team's acquisition strategy at Cisco is used as a model for technology mergers and acquisitions. He worked for CEO John Chambers until 2000, and some press speculated he was heir apparent to Chambers.
Moving into an operational role as senior vice president and general manager, he led the routing and switching teams, then co-led the routing and service provider group with Prem Jain until 2007. During this time, Cisco announced its first Carrier Routing System product, the CRS-1, in 2004.
After leaving Cisco in 2007, Volpi became an entrepreneur in residence at Sequoia Capital. A few months later, he was appointed CEO of Joost, an Internet startup focused on online TV founded by Skype creators Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. In 2009, he joined Index Ventures as a partner while retaining his position as chairman of Joost.
Joost and legal dispute
In September 2009, Skype's founders filed a lawsuit against Volpi for alleged use of confidential information in conjunction with the proposed divestiture of Skype from eBay. Volpi was also removed by Joost shareholders from his role as company chair, with Joost releasing a statement at the time saying, "The company and its Board of Directors is conducting an investigation into Mr. Volpi's actions during his tenure as CEO and as Chairman." The lawsuit was dropped in November 2009 after a settlement in which Zennstrom and Friis received a 14% stake in Skype, worth $400 million at the time, as well as exclusion of Index Ventures and Volpi - who had been considered as a potential leader of Skype after the divestiture - from the sale of the company.
Venture capital and boards
At Index, Volpi invested in early-stage companies, primarily across autonomous driving, open source, and Artificial intelligence. He served on the boards of Index portfolio companies, including Aurora, Big Switch Networks, Blue Bottle Coffee, Confluent, Covariant, Elastic, Kong Inc., Hortonworks, Pure Storage, Scale AI, Sonos, Tekion Corp, Wealthfront, and Zuora. During his time at Index, the firm grew its San Francisco office to an equal presence on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
Volpi co-founded Hanabi Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm, in 2025. He serves as general partner. The firm invests in artificial intelligence, software infrastructure, and similar technology company startups. As of 2026, notable investments include Cognition AI and Mind Robotics.
Volpi sits on the boards of several public and private companies in which he has invested, including ClickHouse, Cohere, Hebbia, Kong, Scale, and Wealthfront. He previously served as a non-executive board member of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and a board member of Ericsson. He was an independent director for Exor and now serves on the European investment firm's partners council. He also serves on the boards of Stanford Health Care and Ferrari N.V.
Personal life and awards
Volpi is trilingual in English, Italian, and Japanese. He is married to Toni Cupal and has two children. His father is Vittorio Volpi, an executive at the United Bank of Switzerland.
Volpi has received several recognitions. He appeared on the Forbes Midas List of the World's Smartest Tech Investors in 2015. In 1999, MIT Technology Review named him an Innovator Under 35. Network World's 1999 Power Issue listed him among the 25 Most Powerful People in Networking. The New York Times and CB Insights' 2018 list of the top 100 venture capitalists worldwide featured Volpi at number 34.