PALO ALTO, Calif., July 30, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Accel Partners, a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm, today announced Hilary Mason has joined as data scientist in residence. She will serve as an advisor to the firm's portfolio companies and assist with evaluating new technologies and investment opportunities.

"Hilary's data science expertise coupled with her interest in mentoring entrepreneurs makes her the perfect addition to our team," said Ping Li, Accel Partner. "As one of the prominent thought leaders from NYs vibrant tech scene, we're excited to work with her as we add more data driven software start ups to our portfolio."

Hilary, a New York native, will be working from Accel's New York office. She served as Bitly's chief scientist since 2009 and has been an advisor for Accel Partner's Big Data Fund since it launched in 2011. Hilary specializes in building systems that help analyze data and extract insights from the social web in real time.

"I'm really excited to work with the team at Accel because they have a deep understanding of and appreciation for data products, and the many ways that these new technologies will shape our future," said Hilary Mason Data Scientist in Residence, Accel Partners. "I was impressed with Accel's early investments in companies like Cloudera and Nimble Storage, that have defined the data technologies that we rely on today. I look forward to working on a team that seeks to identify and support interesting startups that will redefine how we think about data."

Hilary is deeply rooted in the New York technology scene and has been an active member of Mayor Bloomberg's Technology and Innovation Advisory Council since 2011. The advisory council is tasked with findings ways that government can help tech companies and start-ups grow and scale in NY. Additionally, she serves as an advisor to several NY startups including knod.es, collective[i], MortarData as well as DataKind, a non-profit that brings together leading data scientists with high impact social organizations. She has served as a mentor to Betaspring, the Providence Rhode Island-based start up accelerator, and TechStars New York.

In 2010, Hilary co-founded HackNY, a non-profit dedicated to creating a path for talented students to join New York's creative technical community through events, education, and prestigious fellowships. Prior to that she designed statistical models of careers from a resume dataset, for Path101, Inc.

Hilary's work and commitment to advancing research and development in data science has been recognized by a number of organizations including the TechFellows Engineering Leadership award, FastCompany's "Most Creative People", the Forbes "40 under 40 Ones to Watch" list and Crain's New York Business "40 under Forty list". She is also well known for distilling highly complex technical ideas into simple examples that anyone can understand.

Big data has been a major investment theme for the firm. In June 2013, Accel Partner's Big Data investment team announced Big Data Fund 2 (a $100M allocation) and published "The Last Mile in Big Data: How Data-Driven Software Will Empower the Intelligent Enterprise ". The whitepaper explores the evolution of software and provides a detailed analysis on why data driven software will be a driving force for the next wave of innovation. Visit Accel.com to download the whitepaper.

Accel Partners has funded a number of companies building data infrastructure platforms and DDS. Examples include: Cloudera, Couchbase, Lookout, Nimble Storage, Opower, Prismatic, QlikView, RelateIQ, Sumo Logic, and Trifacta.

Accel Background
Founded in 1983, and managing over $9.6 billion in capital, Accel Partners has a long history of partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs and management teams to build world-class businesses. Accel today invests globally using dedicated teams and market-specific strategies for local geographies, with offices in Palo Alto, California, New York City, London, and Bangalore, as well as in China via its partnership with IDG-Accel.

Accel has helped entrepreneurs build over 300 successful technology companies, many of which have defined their categories, including 99designs, Actuate, AdMob, Agile Software, AirWatch, Alfresco, Angry Birds (Rovio), Atlassian, BBN, Bonobos, Braintree, Brightcove, Cloudera, ComScore, Diapers.com (Quidsi), Dropbox, Etsy, Exclusively.in, Facebook, Flipkart, Fusion-IO, Gameforge, GlamMedia, Groupon, HasOffers, Imperva, Infinera, Interwoven, IronPlanet, JBoss, Kayak, Lookout, Macromedia, metroPCS, MoPub, Myntra, OPOWER, Polycom/PictureTel, Playfish, Portal Software, QlikTech, Rapt, Real Networks, Redback, Responsys, Riverbed, Spotify, Squarespace, SunRun, Trulia, UUNet, Veritas, Walmart.com, Webroot, Wonga, XenSource and Zimbra.

For more information, please visit the Accel Partners web site at www.accel.com or find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/accel.

SOURCE Accel Partners