Kitty Agarwal is a partner at Info Edge Ventures, the early-stage corporate venture capital (CVC) vehicle launched earlier this year by India-based online classified listings operator Info Edge.
Info Edge, which runs India’s largest online job portal dubbed 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.
Furthermore, Times of India reported in June this year that Info Edge is now raising $100m for the CVC vehicle dubbed Info Edge Venture Fund for which the corporate and an undisclosed subsidiary will provide a combined Rs 350m ($46.2m) in capital and the remainder would come from external limited partners.
Money Control reported in January this year that the parent company will continue to make investments in the jobs, real estate, matrimony and education classified space, citing company sources familiar with the matter.
Sumit Jaiswal, corporate development and strategy lead at Info Edge, continues to focus on strategic investments from the company’s balance sheet, and sources told Money Control that a separate CVC unit would be beneficial for entrepreneurs from a compliance, regulatory and angel tax standpoint, adding that it could improve and refine the company’s venture capital talent retention, investment and exit strategies.
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 had overseen direct investment deals including funding for food delivery and listings service 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).
Agarwal told YourStory in December 2019 that in addition to financial backing, she also helped portfolio companies to build strategy, monitor progress, raise follow-on funding, carry out due diligence and filing legal paperwork.
Info Edge Ventures will pursue financial return, typically providing between $500,000 and $5m per deal for technology companies that are developing innovative offerings, a spokesperson told VCCircle at the time, adding that Info Edge will continue to conduct direct investments.
As one insider said: “This fund has been launched to provide the team with dedicated resources to make them more agile in making financial investments and better compete with other VCs.
“Incentive structures are yet to be drawn. The international expansion would be a strategic call and that would not be within the purview of this fund, but, yes, the fund will be open to investing in both Indian and international startups.”
Agarwal told YourStory in an interview: “We leave our internal departments open to our founders. They can meet the sales department of Naukri as well as the marketing head at Info Edge, and learn how we do our PR. Even when it comes to hiring, when they make some top-level hires, [Info Edge founder and executive vice chairman] Sanjeev [Bikhchandani] and I interview the candidates and share our opinions.”
Agarwal hails from a Marwari business family in Kolkata, according to YourStory, where it is still uncommon for women to seek professional careers outside their family-owned business.
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.
