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Kais Khimji

  • Growth
There's a scene in Lincoln where Daniel Day-Lewis says that ‘a compass might point you to true north, but it won't tell you anything about the terrain you'll encounter along the way’—that part is all execution.

Backstory

My name is pronounced like “ice” with a K at the beginning (you can imagine how many times I’ve used that line). My roots are Indian, but I belong to a small diaspora of Ismaili Muslims who moved to East Africa three generations ago. My parents fled political instability in Tanzania as teenagers in the 70s and immigrated to Canada with the help of our spiritual leader, the Aga Khan—he made one phone call to Pierre Trudeau and, in a few days, thousands of us were resettled. I grew up in a small Vancouver suburb. My dad drove my brother and me to a private school in the city, an hour away, for 12 years. I think about that commute every day.

I came to America for college and stumbled into venture capital with zero knowledge—seriously, I thought COGS were an empathic metaphor for the inner-workings of a company. On my way to work one morning, I heard Pat Grady on a podcast. I cold emailed him on a whim. Little did I know, that note—and that man—would change my life forever.

On the lookout for

I try to look for entrepreneurs who can’t fathom themselves as anything else. I focus on three main things: IQ, EQ, and HQ (hunger quotient). Some of the best founders have all three—and know how to call their shots.

I invest in all things SaaS, internet and digital health.

Get in touch with Kais

Personal Side

  • Modern philosophy
  • Unapologetically Canadian (sorry)
  • Economic development
  • Leg crosser

Companies

Current Companies

Company Name  Short Description Current Stage  Founders First Partnered  collapse
Clipboard HealthClipboard Health helps healthcare professionals by matching them with open shifts nearby. Growth
  • Wei Deng
Growth (2022)Collapse
CrestaCresta provides real-time coaching for call centers.Growth
  • Zayd Enam
  • Tim Shi
  • Sebastian Thrun
Growth (2021)Collapse
FintualFintual offers a simple way for consumers in Latin America to invest online.Growth
  • Agustin Feuerhake Larrain
  • Omar Larré
  • Andrés Marinkovic
  • Pedro Pineda
Growth (2021)Collapse
GrafanaGrafana is an observability platform that integrates metrics, traces and logs.Growth
  • Rajiv Dutt
  • Torkel Ödegaard
  • Anthony Woods
Growth (2021)Collapse
Salt SecuritySalt Security is a cybersecurity company focused on securing APIs.Growth
  • Roey Eliyahu
  • Michael Nicosia
Growth (2020)Collapse

Enduring Companies

Company Name  Short Description Current Stage  Founders First Partnered  collapse
ArmisArmis is the first agentless, enterprise-class security platform for unmanaged and IoT devices.Acquired
  • Yevgeny Dibrov
  • Nadir Izrael
Early (2015)Collapse