Kalaari Capital

Kalaari Capital is one of India's pioneering early-stage technology venture firms, founded in 2006 by Vani Kola and Vinod Dham as Indo-US Venture Partners — a partnership with NEA — and rebranded as Kalaari in 2012. Headquartered in Bengaluru, it manages approximately $650 million across its funds and is led by Managing Director Vani Kola, who spent 22 years building and exiting technology companies in Silicon Valley before returning to India. That operator-turned-investor perspective shapes Kalaari's founder-first, mentorship-led approach. The firm invests primarily at seed and Series A, writing cheques of roughly $500K to $5 million, and prefers to lead rounds while reserving capital for follow-on participation; average seed rounds run about $2.2 million and Series A near $4.85 million. Across 19 years it has backed around 157 companies, producing 8 unicorns, 3 IPOs and 31 acquisitions, with notable names including Myntra, Cult.fit, BlueStone and, more recently, space-data startup Digantara. Its team of 29, including 11 partners, spans technology, consumer, fintech and operations expertise. Beyond capital, Kalaari operates as a thought-leadership and community engine, offering portfolio companies structured playbooks and domain knowledge. The firm is also a champion of first-time and diverse founders, reflecting Kola's philosophy of recognising and scaling ambitious early entrepreneurs.