SJ

Smriti Jayaraman Kekre

Principal at Corazon Capital

Chicago, Illinois

Overview

Work Experience

L

Lifeforce

  • Board Observer

    2024 - Current

CC

Corazon Capital

  • Principal

    2022

NO

Nara Organics

  • Board Observer

    2022

S

Songfinch

  • Board Observer

    2022

NR

National Retail Federation

  • Innovation Advisory Committee

    2023

Z

Zippin

  • Board Member

    2019 - 2021

Evolv Ventures

  • 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

GC

Guild Capital

  • 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)

Education

Investments

Zippin

Series A

Total Funding: $44M

Relevant Websites