Vani Kola is an Indian venture capitalist. She was listed as one of the most powerful women in Indian Business by Fortune India. She is the founder and Managing Director of Kalaari Capital, one of India's leading early stage venture capital firms.
During her 22-year career in Silicon Valley, Vani was the founder and CEO of Certus Software. Prior to establishing Certus, Vani was the founder and CEO of RightWorks.
Having been an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley for 22 years, Vani returned to India in 2006. Her initial undertaking into venture capital in India, in partnership with New Enterprise Associates, was IndoUS Advisors which in 2012 was re-branded as Kalaari Capital. Kalaari Capital began operations as a US$150 million fund in September 2012. Under Vani's leadership, the firm has grown to have US$650 million in assets under management, as of 2017. At Kalaari, she works with entrepreneurs to build global companies, focused on technology, leveraging India's domestic growth to create high growth enterprises. Vani has led investments in e-commerce, mobile services, education and healthcare. Some of Kola's notable venture capital successes include: Dream11, , Snapdeal, Myntra among others.
Awards and recognition
One of the Most Powerful Women in Indian Business, she has won TiE Delhi-NCR 5th Edition of Women Entrepreneurship Summit Award on 20 July 2018, in Delhi. As part of the first-ever startup awards launched by Economic Times, Vani was awarded the Midas touch award for the best investor in 2015. She also won the NDTV Women of Worth award for leadership excellence in business and entrepreneurship. She has been identified as one of the LinkedIn Top Voices in 2016. She has been profiled in numerous books and has been named as one of Fortune India's 'Most Powerful Women in Business' twice in 2018 and 2019.
Personal life
Vani is married and has two daughters. She believes in sustainable living and grows enough produce in her garden to meet her family's needs. She was an avid hiker and runner who has tackled marathons and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. She meditates daily and has been a Heartfulness meditation practitioner for over two decades.. Currently, she practices Ashtanga yoga devotedly.
Philanthropy
ACT Grants
In response to the Covid19 crisis, ACT Grants, a not for profit initiative coalition of entrepreneurs and VCs was setup in April 2020 to combat the crisis. Vani, along with other senior leaders have been spearheading this initiative. By June 2020, ACT Grants, which already has a corpus of ₹100 crores, had disbursed ₹60 crores to 50 different ventures.
Women Leadership
Vani is committed to helping more women along the path of entrepreneurship and enables them to be pathmakers in their own unique ways. Women leadership is a cause close to heart and Vani has been actively engaged in Women Entrepreneurship in India, Call for Women Pathmakers. She has such as "Together for Change" and collaborative discussions with SoftBank on role models for women and key success factors and lessons learned.
