Sonny Vo

Managing Partner | Nanostar Ventures

Sonny Vo earned his B.S. in Physics and Astronomy from UCLA and his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Stanford University, specializing in semiconductor lasers and photonics under Professors James S. Harris and Robert Byer. As a Postdoctoral Fellow at Hewlett-Packard Quantum-Photonics Labs, he collaborated with Dr. David Fattal to pioneer a directional backlight for glasses-free 3D displays—featured on the cover of Nature in 2013. This breakthrough led to the founding of Leia Inc., where Sonny served as a founding engineer and later as Vice President, guiding global R&D, scaling technologies to mass production, and stewarding a portfolio of over 2,000 patents. During his tenure, the company raised over $400 million through Series E and partnered with leading global companies including Acer, ZTE, and Samsung. With more than a decade of experience building and scaling deep technology platforms, Sonny is now a venture capitalist at Nanostar Ventures, partnering with visionary founders at the earliest stages to achieve product-market fit and transform ambitious ideas into enduring, world-changing technologies