Harry Weller | Venture capitalist, 46

Harry Weller, 46, a technology investor known for shepherding some of the East Coast's most successful technology companies to fruition, died Saturday his home in Washington.

A spokeswoman for the District of Columbia Medical Examiner's Office said determination of the cause of death is pending further tests.

As a partner at New Enterprise Associates, a multibillion-dollar technology investment firm with an office in Chevy Chase, Md., Mr. Weller scouted for promising technology companies in emerging hubs outside Silicon Valley and made strong investments in the Washington region, among other places.

Mr. Weller was an early investor in daily deals giant Groupon and online telephone provider Vonage as well as niche cybersecurity companies such as Columbia, Md.-based Sourcefire, which was acquired by Cisco in 2013 for $2.7 billion. He was an early backer in Northern Virginia's Cvent, which grew to hire thousands of employees and trade publicly on Wall Street, despite a rocky start that at one point necessitated mass layoffs.

"He played a pivotal role in putting D.C. tech on the map, and was active in supporting people and organizations throughout the community," said Steve Case, cofounder of the internet company AOL.

Harry Richard Weller was born in Manhattan on Dec. 23, 1969, and he grew up in Marietta, Ga. He was a 1992 physics graduate of Duke University, which he attended on an ROTC scholarship, and served in the Navy before receiving a master's degree in business administration from Harvard Business School in 1998.

- Washington Post