Thomas Siebel

Thomas Siebel's software company C3IoT raised about $100 million from private equity investors in January 2018, at a $1.5 billion valuation.The company, which was initially started as a clean energy firm, is chasing the lucrative Internet of Things market, adding IoT to its name in 2016.Siebel was a salesman at Oracle. He left in 1990, built software firm Siebel Systems and sold it to Oracle for $5.8 billion in cash and stock in 2006.In 2016 he donated $25 million to his alma mater, U. of I. Urbana-Champaign, to build an innovation-focused design center that will bear his name.