Bharati Jacob: Of ventures and gains

An alumni of Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania,  and XLRI—Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur, Bharati Jacob, 54, has over the last two decades quietly built a formidable reputation for herself for having the ability to cherry-pick and invest in entrepreneurial ideas that solve domestic issues.

Consider her early bet on online bus ticketing aggregator redBus, which was sold to Naspers for a record $135 million in 2013. “I had asked for an investment of Rs 30 lakh for one-third of the company. Bharati gave us approximately Rs 2.5 crore (almost 10 times the amount we had asked for) for the same dilution,” recalls Phanindra Sama, co-founder of redBus.

Jacob co-founded Seedfund, an early stage venture fund based in Bengaluru, in 2006, and has since led investments in promising and successful companies such as EduSports, Vaatsalya, Jeeves Consumer Services, Sportskeeda and AxisRooms.



Venture investing, says Jacob, is as challenging for women as any other sector. “What defines you is how you face the challenges and ensure that every challenge does not overpower you.”

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