Kitty Agarwal is a partner for Info Edge Ventures, the early-stage corporate venture capital (CVC) unit launched in early 2020 by India-based online classified listings operator Info Edge.
Info Edge, which runs India’s largest online job portal, Naukri.com, committed an initial Rs 1bn ($14m) to the fund in January 2020, which targets developers of innovative consumer technology at seed and series A-stage.
Its dedicated CVC fund, Info Edge Venture Fund (IEVF), raised Rs 3.8bn ($51.5m) for its inaugural fund from Singaporean state-owned investment firm Temasek in December 2020.
IEVF invests in early-stage rounds for consumer technology startups. The fund strengthens Info Edge’s corporate venturing activity following a string of direct investments in companies such as food delivery service Zomato.
In the past 12 months, Info Edge Ventures has invested in Tartan HQ, an Indian payroll technology developer, metal industry procurement specialist NowPurchase, and Geniemode, a B2B sourcing service.
Agarwal had been with Info Edge for over seven years, having most recently been associate vice-president for two years from 2016 then head of corporate development for a year.
During that time, she oversaw direct investment deals including funding for Zomato, professional photography services marketplace Canvera Digital Technologies and ETechAces, the owner of insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar. Her other investments were personal care product provider Happily Unmarried (Ustraa) and study material provider Meritnation (Applect Learning Systems).
After earning an MBA from Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad in 2012, she expressed her interest in entrepreneurship to Bikhchandani and was hired by Info Edge as an analyst.
