KOHLI VENTURES

Tej Kohli is a growth and impact investor focused on ventures that are pioneering the new technologies of the artificial intelligence economy including machine learning, robotics and smart sensor technologies. Through the Kohli Ventures investment vehicle Tej Kohli seeks to make impact investments that can have a humanitarian as well as a commercial impact. Tej Kohli is also Europe’s largest individual investor into the global esports mega trend. The Kohli Ventures investment vehicle is f... unded entirely by the private capital of the Kohli family without any third-party investors or debt. Kohli Ventures engages exclusively in private business activities and transactions. Our mission is to discreetly back ambitious entrepreneurs and deep tech ventures that have a clear path toward exponential growth as well as having a meaningful human or social impact by solving major global challenges. Kohli Ventures is privately held so the majority of investments within the portfolio are not disclosed within the public domain. A limited number of investments which have attracted publicity include a $100m commitment to the ‘Rewired’ fund in 2019, which encompasses a robotics-focused venture studio and an esports venture fund. In 2010 Kohli Ventures also publicly backed an M&A roll up in the private healthcare sector in the USA; and in 2014 Kohli Ventures publicly acquired DynaCart, a leading global e-commerce company. Kohli Ventures has also led the buyout and turnaround of a B2B SaaS platform technology provider which currently employs over 300 software developers across eight countries. And in 2015 Kohli Ventures publicly backed a renewable energy company in South East Asia that provided off-grid solar products to bring clean and renewable devolved power generation to thousands of poor homes. Tej Kohli is a vocal advocate of the potential for artificial intelligence to become omnipresent and has already committed over $100m of his own money into unlocking and mastering the technologies of the AI revolution. Tej Kohli has previously predicted that the global AI economy could be worth $150 trillion and his investment thesis is that after a process of democratisation, AI will permeate and improve every aspect of human life. Therefore today Kohli Ventures seeks to invest in new and novel frontier technologies from the world of deep tech that can leverage from the anticipated exponential growth in artificial intelligence whilst also offering new opportunities to solve global health and humanitarian challenges. This thesis extends to novel new applications and combinations of existing technologies that can drive a ‘double bottom line’ of financial and human benefit. Kohli Ventures also invests in biotechnology and medical devices and is currently invested in a portfolio of biotech ventures and associated intellectual property in the fields of regenerative medicine, bio synthetics, fluid replacement and diagnostics. Kohli Ventures is also the lead backer of Detraxi, a US-based biotechnology company that has developed a proprietary solution which could solve some major global health challenges. The Detraxi technology has completed trials at Johns Hopkins University and has already secured a pre-market licencing deal in Asia that has an estimated value of more than $50 million. The status of Kohli Ventures as an investor of liquid capital on behalf of a single family is reflected in a risk appetite to back biotechnology ventures to whom traditional capital sources are inaccessible. Biotechnology requires a lot of patience and an appetite for risk that excludes most institutional sources of investment funds from participating. Kohli Ventures seeks to back biotech ventures with a clear pathway to transformational impact. As the investment vehicle of Tej Kohli, Kohli Ventures is also Europe’s largest individual investor into Esports. As the global esports competitive gaming phenomenon becomes the world’s largest spectator sport and with new esports super stars emerging on the global stage, Kohli Ventures continues to invest in exponential growth ventures in what is already a billion dollar global industry. As one of the world’s most prominent esports investors, Kohli Ventures is committed to creating one of the world’s first billion-dollar esports teams. With annual revenue growth in excess of 25%, the global esports market has surpassed $1 billion in revenue and is on track to reach $1.8 billion by 2020. Esports is a spectator sport with estimated global audiences of between 300 and 700 million. Notable investors into esports include David Beckham, Michael Jordan, Drake and Robert Kraft. As a Distinguished Alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology, Tej Kohli has always been fascinated by emerging new technologies. Tej Kohli enjoyed his contemporary success between 1999 and 2006 when he built a global business that grew exponentially by serving high risk industries thanks to its proprietary fraud protection software. Drawing from this experience and the major liquidity event of 2006, Tej Kohli has since mentored up-and-coming young entrepreneurs, many of whom have gone on to build their own successful businesses. Tej is extremely proud of this legacy of the Kohli Ventures mentorship programme, and today Tej Kohli continues to back innovative founders. A proportion of the investment income of Kohli Ventures is donated to the not-for-profit Tej Kohli Foundation. Through its commitment to rebuild people and communities around the world the Tej Kohli Foundation is developing solutions to major global challenges whilst also making direct interventions that change lives. The Tej Kohli Cornea Institute also provides free treatment and cures to thousands of the world’s poorest people each year; whilst the Cornea Program and Applied Research program are leading international efforts to develop an adorable, scalable and accessible solution to ending poverty-driven corneal blindness. Tej Kohli regularly shares wisdom, insight and thoughts about key issues from the world of philanthropy and social impact investment on his Medium blog. He also shares his thoughts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram using the tag #TejTalks. In 2020 Tej Kohli released ‘Rebuilding You: The Philanthropy Handbook’ as guide for wealth creators who are seeking to help other people by rebuilding people and communities around the world.More