Kalaari Capital expands its advisory, investment team to attract and nurture entrepreneurs Kalaari hopes to capitalize on the massive digital revolution.

Kalaari Capital, India's one of the leading early-stage fund, has announced the expansion of its advisory and investment team. The expansion of the senior advisory and the investment team will enable Kalaari to extend further support to its portfolio companies to rapidly scale and become leaders in their respective industries.

Industry experts with many decades of leadership experience and expertise in building fast-paced global companies Ravi Venkatesan and Ram Gupta have joined Kalaari's advisory team.

Before associating with Kalaari, Venkatesan holds many reputed positions like Chairman of Bank of Baroda, Board Member at Rockefeller Foundation, Infosys and Former Chairman at Microsoft India and Cummins India. Commenting on the appointment, he said, "I find it extraordinarily energizing to work with outstanding young entrepreneurs and help accelerate their transformation into tomorrow's global leaders; Kalaari Capital is an amazing platform for this.

Prior to Kalaari, Gupta was associated with firms like Castiron Systems as Chairman and CEO, PeopleSoft as Executive Vice President and Senior Vice President at WebMD. "Kalaari is committed to fostering an entrepreneur-centric culture by providing a number of value added resources. I look forward to helping the Kalaari portfolio companies build thought leadership on technology, strategy and marketing," said Gupta.

Ratan Tata has been a part of the Kalaari team since early 2015. Venkatesan and Gupta's association will further consolidate Kalaari's commitment to identify and nurture Indian entrepreneurs to become global business leaders. The Kalaari portfolio companies stand to benefit significantly through their experience, mentorship and business acumen.

Further, Bala Srinivasa, Former Senior Managing Director at Copal Amba, has also joined as Partner to enhance the investment team. He brings two decades of experience in technology markets and leadership roles at successful start-ups in the US and India. He has also worked as a senior equity analyst covering the software sector in Silicon Valley.

Kalaari has also announced the elevation of Sumit Jain as a Partner. Jain joined Kalaari in 2009 and has been associated with Kalaari's investments in Robosoft, Superprofs, Simplilearn, Triphobo, Vakilsearch, and Industrybuying among others.

Welcoming the senior team members, Vani Kola, Managing Director, Kalaari Capital said, "I am happy to welcome these industry veterans to Kalaari. Since our inception in 2006, we have been associated with some very passionate entrepreneurs from over 60 companies. We are confident that bringing together high quality and multi-faceted expertise to our advisory and investment teams will give us an edge in our endeavor to grow the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India."

With $650 million assets under management, Kalaari hopes to capitalise on the massive digital revolution, which has opened a vast array of entrepreneurship opportunities in India. Kalaari aims to identify and nurture entrepreneurs driving the Digital India wave. In keeping with this vision, Kalaari has recently invested in Holachef, YourStory, Doormint and Industrybuying.