Overview
- Madrona Venture Group and Microsoft confirmed late Tuesday that S. “Soma” Somasegar died unexpectedly on May 19, and his family has not disclosed a cause of death.
- Somasegar spent nearly 27 years at Microsoft where he led the Developer Division, oversaw products such as Visual Studio and .NET, and worked on eight Windows releases including early Windows NT engineering.
- He founded Microsoft’s India Development Center in Hyderabad in 1998, a move that expanded Microsoft’s global R&D footprint and shaped the company’s engineering presence in India.
- After leaving Microsoft in 2015 Somasegar joined Madrona, became a managing director in 2017, and led or helped lead early investments in companies including Snowflake, UiPath, Pulumi and Statsig, the latter acquired by OpenAI for $1.1 billion in 2025.
- Tributes from peers and protégés, including Satya Nadella and Sriram Krishnan, have emphasized his mentorship, community work in Seattle such as sports ownership, and the likely near-term impact on Madrona portfolio boards and founders who relied on his guidance.