SJ

Smriti Jayaraman Kekre

Early Stage Investor and Advisor

Chicago, Illinois

Invests in

Stages:

  • Min Investment:

    $100,000.00
  • Max Investment:

    $5,000,000.00
  • Target Investment:

    $1,500,000.00

Work Experience

2024

  • Board Observer

    2024

  • Principal

    2022

  • Board Member

    2023

  • Board Observer

    2022

2022

  • Board Observer

    2022

  • Innovation Advisory Committee

    2023

  • Member

    2021

2019 - 2021

  • Board Member

    2019 - 2021

2019 - 2021

  • Founding Principal

    2019 - 2021

    Evolv Ventures is a $100M venture fund backed by KraftHeinz Corporation to invest in early stage technology companies disrupting the food and retail industry. We focus on Seed through Series B investments across Food Tech, Health and Wellness, Supply Chain AI and Automation, the Future of Retail/Marketing, Climate and Sustainability, and Emerging Consumer Products and Services. Our hands on, founder-first approach coupled with unparalleled industry access and expertise help to catalyze businesses tackling some of the world's fastest changing trends. Select investments include Fabric (eComm microfulfillment), Zippin (autonomous checkout), New Culture (lab cultured cheese), Kingdom Supercultures (food culture biotech), Outrider AI (autonomous trucking), Joywell Foods (sweet protein fermentation platform), Parsable (connected worker platform) and more

2017 - 2019

  • Vice President

    2017 - 2019

    Guild Capital is an early-stage consumer internet focused venture capital firm. With operations in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, we typically back founders as their first institutional investor and aim to become trusted partners to our portfolio management teams during early planning and growth. We partner with our dedicated platform teams to actively support founders in developing high-growth strategies, implementing a robust metrics-focused infrastructure, architecting high-performance teams, and raising smart capital for future growth. Select investments and partnerships include Ruggable (D2C homegoods), , Voyage Mobile (SMS marketing), Dr. Squatch (D2C men's personal care), Petal Card (alternative credit), Spot & Tango (Health-focused pet food), The Catch Co (D2C outdoor goods), Home Chef (mealkits, sold to Kroger), MessageControl (email security, sold to Mimecast), Nio (Autonomous electric vehicle tech)