VANI KOLA

Business person

From Hyderabad, Telangana.
Holds bachelor degree in electrical engineering from Osmania university and masters from state University.

Indian entrepreneur,
Founder and managing director of Kalaari capital.
Forbes(2014) listed her as a most powerful women in Indian Business.

Vani was born and educated in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh (now Telangana), India. She holds degrees in electrical engineering, having obtained a Bachelor of Engineering from Osmania University and a Master of Engineering from Arizona State University.

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. She is a technology-focused early-stage investor, known for her aptitude for picking founders and mentoring them to build high growth enterprises.

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, Cure.fit, Snapdeal, Myntra among others.
Vani returned to India in 2006, after her successful career as a Entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, to start a venture capital firm in India, drawn to the growing Indian opportunity. 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.

Recognised as one of the Most Powerful Women in Indian Business (Forbes, 2014), 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 2018and 2019.