Meet Our New Partner: Akriti Dokania

A software-savvy ex-founder rising through the VC ranks

VC. Founder. Software engineer. Product manager. Akriti Dokania has played more roles than Meryl Streep and now she’s bringing her multipronged expertise to Ridge Ventures as our new Partner.

Akriti started her career on the technical side. After nabbing her B.S. degree (EECS) from the University of Michigan, she worked as a Software Development Engineer at AWS before moving the needle as a Product Manager on the Microsoft Windows Security and User Experience teams. Befitting her alma mater’s Wolverine mascot, Akriti later forged her own path and co-founded CoderBhai.

CoderBhai, a product development platform, solved a real issue for retail businesses in India and laid the groundwork for Akriti’s foray into venture capital. She rubbed elbows with plenty of VCs as the CEO of CoderBhai and ultimately landed an investment position at Forward Partners while earning her M.B.A. at London Business School.

Octopus Ventures, Akriti’s most recent stop, is where she solidified her status as a burgeoning enterprise VC superstar. She joined together all the requisite parts of the Venture Voltron super robot — networking, diligence, foresight, domain expertise — to lead investments in LifeScore (backed by Warner Music Group), vHive (Series B led by PSG Equity), and ThoughtRiver, to name a few, and helped exit companies such as UltraSoC (acquired by Siemens) and BehavioSec (acquired by LexisNexis). She’s also sat on the board of 11 companies, 8 of them as a Director.

In crossing the English Channel and joining Ridge, Akriti brings with her an affinity for the Oxford comma, a more literal interpretation of football, and, most importantly, the rare insight of a founder-turned-VC.

We’re teaming up with an exemplary human being who happens to deeply empathize with founders. Akriti boasts top-notch investment instincts, and knows firsthand the slog of customer acquisition and building a pitch deck.

She is truly the founder’s VC.

Welcome to the Ridge Familia, Akriti!