Meet Shruti Gandhi, who launched Array Ventures in 2016; 8 years later, her first fund had returned all its capital to investors

Not many people start their career the way they want to. But, some write their own destiny. Shruti Gandhi launched Array Ventures in 2016 and the focus for launching it was on investing in early-stage technology companies. After eight years, Array Ventures had returned all the capital from its first fund to investors.

In February 2025, Gandhi announced the achievement in a year-end update. During that, it was claimed that Array Ventures fully returned its 2016 Fund I in the first quarter in 2024. It also stated that it had distributed capital to its investors every year for the previous five years.

This came at a time when venture capital investors were facing challenges in turning their startup investments into cash.

All about her journey and career

Gandhi began her career in technology, and worked as a software engineer at IBM.

She later moved into venture capital and worked with Samsung's early-stage investment arm before joining True Ventures.

Gandhi established Array Ventures in 2016 to invest in early-stage businesses. Most of them were in companies working in enterprise technology, data and software.

It focused on newly formed data and artificial intelligence (AI) companies. It works with founders at an early stage. At that time, businesses develop their products, find customers and build a path towards growth.

Story behind investments and portfolio growth

Array Ventures continued to invest in startups. In 2024, it invested in seven companies. It led five of those investments, and also made six additional investments in existing portfolio companies.

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The firm talked about several portfolio companies. These firms raised further funding during the year. The list included Rad AI. It secured funding from Khosla Ventures and Transformation Capital.

Next on the list was HappyRobot, which raised a Series A round from Andreessen Horowitz.

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Another was Openprise, which raised a Series B round from Morgan Stanley.

On the list was also Placer.ai, which raised a Series C round.

This announcement had put the first fund's return alongside the firm's continuing investment activity. According to reports, it revealed how Array Ventures pursued new opportunities. Simultaneously, it also returned capital to investors who had backed its earlier fund.