Advisory Team

Kunal Phalak

Assistant Vice President

“Backing visionaries is the next best thing to being one. This journey, marked by a relentless pursuit of learning and the construction of mental models to understand the world, fuels my intellectual curiosity and keeps me constantly energized.“

About Kunal

Kunal Phalak recently joined WestBridge Capital as an Assistant Vice President on the US Investment Team. He holds a master’s degree in business administration. Fascinated by robotics and electronics since his childhood in Pune, it was no surprise that he chose to pursue electrical engineering at IIT Bombay. His IIT years helped him find his passion for entrepreneurship, leading him to co-found TheShopWiz, a Yelp-like review platform aimed at helping people make better sartorial choices.

After graduating, Kunal joined McKinsey, where he was part of the Advanced Analytics Practice case teams in Tokyo and London. Despite a successful corporate stint, his heart was still set on exploring the startup space. He then embarked on a journey with Vertex Ventures, focusing on Seed to Series B investments in India. Over the course of his three-year tenure there, he played an integral role in over ten key investments across domains such as SaaS, consumer goods, financial services, and healthcare.

Kunal is excited by the role software exports play in the development of the Indian economy and strongly believes that the IT services vertical has the potential to become what manufacturing is to China. He leverages his learnings and networking skills in walking the path with founders and helping them scale their businesses to reach the US market.

Kunal lets his hair down by working out at the local gym, shaking a leg at swing dance classes or gleaning life lessons from his favorite podcast ‘The Knowledge Project’. An avid traveller, he’s been to over 20 countries so far and while he he’s not sure about visiting 30 before he turns 30, conquering 40 before 40 is definitely on his must-do list!