Sheila Gulati

Sheila Gulati is the founder and managing director of Tola Capital, a venture capital firm investing globally in enterprise software companies across multiple stages. She has over two decades of experience in software and investing, leading to impactful software platform businesses and numerous successful investments and exits across a range of companies. At Tola, Sheila combines business acumen with her vision of emerging trends in enterprise software and a sense of partnership and candor to guide forward-thinking founders at every stage—from inception to scaling. Some of her notable portfolio investments include OSISoft (acquired by Schneider), hybris (acquired by SAP), and Clipchamp (acquired by Microsoft). Prior to founding Tola Capital in 2010, Sheila spent over a decade at Microsoft, where she led the company’s enterprise IT strategy and launched the company’s cloud platform, Microsoft Azure, now the company’s largest business at $100 billion in revenue (inclusive of cloud, database, and developer tools). Before that, Sheila had various leadership roles within the Microsoft Developer business unit and spent time on the Corporate Development team where she was responsible for acquisitions and investments. Prior to Microsoft, Sheila was an investment banker for Robertson Stephens, partnering with networking and software clients, including IPOs for Juniper Networks and F5. Sheila is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service with a Bachelor of Science in Science, Technology, and International Affairs. She is a second-generation software entrepreneur who grew up alongside her family’s software company in New York. She serves on the National Board of Pratham, an NGO focused on education in India, and is the founder of the Pratham Seattle chapter.

Enterprise software companies, Global market potential, Innovative solutions, Experienced management teams, Scalable business models