# Keval Desai

> Keval Desai is a seed investor at The RealReal (San Francisco) backing Software and Mobile. See 55 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [The RealReal](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/the-realreal)
- Location: San Francisco, United States
- Total investments: 55
- Last investment: Mar 2026
- Lead investor: 20%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kevaldesai
- X (Twitter): http://twitter.com/kevaldesai
- Website: https://www.shaktivc.com/ 
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/keval.desai.7731

Keval Desai is a seed investor at The RealReal in San Francisco focused on Software and Mobile. Keval Desai is Founder & Managing Director at SHAKTI, an early stage tech venture firm. Earlier he was GP at InterWest Partners. Some of his early stage investments include Canva, The RealReal, Pipedrive, Vungle, Gatik.ai, Abacus.ai, Swiftly, Backblaze, Aidaptive, Queenly, Cuyana, Postmates, Zindi, and others. Previously, Desai held product& engineering leadership roles at Google, Digg, Global Village Communications & Tandem Computers. He also co-founded Achex, a venture backed online payment company sold to First Data Corp. He has a BE (Electrical Engineering), MS (Computer Science) & MBA.

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Software | 11 | 20% |
| Mobile | 10 | 18% |
| Internet | 7 | 13% |
| Enterprise Software | 6 | 11% |
| Apps | 5 | 9% |

82 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 19 | 35% |
| Series A | 9 | 16% |
| Series C | 5 | 9% |
| Funding Round | 5 | 9% |
| Series B | 4 | 7% |

12 stages tracked in total.

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 34 | 62% |
| Australia | 1 | 2% |
| New Zealand | 1 | 2% |
| The Netherlands | 1 | 2% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NextWork | NextWork is developing the world's greatest online learning experience for switching careers. | $4.5M | Seed | Mar 04, 2026 |  |
| Kinetic Automation | Kinetic is ushering in the next generation of mobility (EVs, AVs) with a network of highly automated service centers. | $10M | Series A | Oct 05, 2023 |  |
| Felt | Felt is a collaborative software company that wants to make it easier for people to build maps on the internet. | $4.5M | Seed | Aug 10, 2021 |  |
| Swiftly | Swiftly develops enterprise software that helps transit agencies and cities improve urban mobility. The platform harnesses billions of data points and sophisticated algorithms to improve transit system performance, service reliability, and real-time passenger information. | $22.8M | Series A | Jul 09, 2020 |  |
| Abacus.AI | Abacus.AI is an artificial intelligence research and cloud services company that helps organizations design, train, and operationalize machine and deep learning models. It allows organizations to plug and play deep learning systems into their existing customer experiences and business processes.The company was founded in 2019 and is based in SanFrancisco, California. | $5.3M | Seed | Jun 12, 2019 |  |
| The RealReal | The RealReal is the world’s largest online marketplace for authenticated, resale luxury goods, with more than 24 million members. With a rigorous authentication process overseen by experts, The RealReal provides a safe and reliable platform for consumers to buy and sell their luxury items. We have hundreds of in-house gemologists, horologists andbrand authenticators who inspect thousands of items each day. As a sustainable company, we give new life to pieces by thousands of brands across numerous categories—including women's and men's fashion, fine jewelry and watches, art and home—in support of the circular economy. We make selling effortless with free virtual appointments, in-home pickup, drop-off and direct shipping. We do all of the work for consignors, including authenticating, using AI and machine learning to determine optimal pricing, photographing and listing their items, as well as handling shipping and customer service. At our 18 retail locations, including our 15 shoppable stores, customers can sell, meet with our experts and receive free valuations. | $115M | Series G | Jul 25, 2018 |  |
| Gfycat | Gfycat is GIF hosting platform that allows users to create, discover, and share GIFs through their mobile phones and computers. The company is based in San Francisco, California, United States and was founded in 2013. | $10M | Seed | Sep 22, 2016 |  |
| Spredfast | Khoros is a computer software company that offers a customer engagement platform that turns siloed knowledge into enterprise value and customers into contributors. It enables companies the ability to run their business with their customers, anticipating their needs, accelerating sales, loyalty, and innovation. | $50M | Series F | Jun 01, 2016 |  |
| The RealReal | The RealReal is the world’s largest online marketplace for authenticated, resale luxury goods, with more than 24 million members. With a rigorous authentication process overseen by experts, The RealReal provides a safe and reliable platform for consumers to buy and sell their luxury items. We have hundreds of in-house gemologists, horologists andbrand authenticators who inspect thousands of items each day. As a sustainable company, we give new life to pieces by thousands of brands across numerous categories—including women's and men's fashion, fine jewelry and watches, art and home—in support of the circular economy. We make selling effortless with free virtual appointments, in-home pickup, drop-off and direct shipping. We do all of the work for consignors, including authenticating, using AI and machine learning to determine optimal pricing, photographing and listing their items, as well as handling shipping and customer service. At our 18 retail locations, including our 15 shoppable stores, customers can sell, meet with our experts and receive free valuations. | $40M | Series E | Apr 21, 2016 |  |
| CrowdBlue | Crowdpac is the first crowdfunding platform designed for politics helping candidates, organizations, and ordinary citizens fund the change they want to see. They use the best technology and objective data to boost political participation, helping citizens to vote, by understanding the candidates on their ballot; to fund political change throughcrowdfunding tools, and helping anyone run for office by raising money and mobilizing support independent of big donors and special interests. It was founded is 2013 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. | $6M | Series A | Jan 01, 2016 |  |

10 of 55 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [AngelPad](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/angelpad) — VC Fund, 7 deals together
- [Canaan Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/canaan-partners) — VC Fund, 6 deals together
- [Google Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/google-ventures) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [Headline](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/headlinevc) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [Menlo Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/menlo-ventures) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [14W](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/14-w) — VC Fund, 3 deals together

## About The RealReal

VC Fund · San Francisco, United States

The RealReal is the world’s largest online marketplace for authenticated, resale luxury goods, with more than 24 million members. With a rigorous authentication process overseen by experts, The RealReal provides a safe and reliable platform for consumers to buy and sell their luxury items. We have hundreds of in-house gemologists, horologists andbrand authenticators who inspect thousands of items each day. As a sustainable company, we give new life to pieces by thousands of brands across numerous categories—including women's and men's fashion, fine jewelry and watches, art and home—in support of the circular economy. We make selling effortless with free virtual appointments, in-home pickup, drop-off and direct shipping. We do all of the work for consignors, including authenticating, using AI and machine learning to determine optimal pricing, photographing and listing their items, as well as handling shipping and customer service. At our 18 retail locations, including our 15 shoppable stores, customers can sell, meet with our experts and receive free valuations.

5 contacts available at The RealReal.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Arnie Katz | Chief Product & Technology Officer | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/arnie-katz |
| Frank Zhu | Chief Analytics Officer | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/frank-zhu |
| Julie Wainwright | Founder & CEO | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/julie-wainwright |
| Keval Desai | Investor | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/keval-desai |
| Orr Shakked | Chief Marketing Officer | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/orr-shakked |

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## FAQ

### What does Keval Desai invest in?

Keval Desai invests primarily in Software, Mobile and Internet startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 55 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### When did Keval Desai last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Keval Desai closed in Mar 2026. Shizune tracks 55 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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