Vani Kola Biography 
Vani Kola is an Indian venture capitalist and businesswoman from Hyderabad, present-day Telangana. She is the founder and Managing Director of Kalaari Capital, which funds for business start-ups in the early stage. Her education was done at Osmania University and Arizona State University. After studies she had 22-year career in Silicon Valley, and she has also started an IT company, Certus Software and remained its CEO. She also started RightWorks, an e-procurement company which was later acquired by a venture capital firm. In 2014 she found her name in Fortune’s list of most powerful women in Indian business. In 2018 she received Women Entrepreneurship Summit Award given by TiE Delhi-NCR.
Vani was born and brought up in Hyderabad. She completed electric engineering from Osmania University and a Master of Science from Arizona State University. After studies she moved to US and lived in Silicon Valley for long 22 years. She has been an entrepreneur who started many setups. Certus Software and RightWorks are among her business starts while she was at Silicon Valley. Vani returned to India in 2006, where she had a fresh beginning as a venture capitalist. Now she is one of the leading venture capitalists of the country.
She associated with New Enterprise Associates and re-branded IndoUS Advisors as Kalaari Capital in 2012 without the participation of NEA. It began operations as a USD 150 million fund in September 2012, and under her leadership the firm has grown to have USD 650 million assets under management as of 2017. She works with entrepreneurs to build global companies, focused on technology, and some of her successful ventures are Dream11, Cure.fit, Snapdeal, Myntra, VIA, Urban Ladder, Power2SME etc.
Published: February 27, 2019
Updated: February 27, 2019
