Sumeet Shah
Sumeet Shah has a career spanning 15 years within the private equity, venture capital, and startup worlds, managing business development and strategic partnerships for various sizes of consumer-facing organizations as well as investing in the next generation of brands.
Currently, Sumeet is the Founder and Managing Partner of VHS Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in the next generation of Consumer Brand and Infrastructure Founders. The firm was launched in 2023 and currently has 10 companies in its portfolio.
He previously was a Venture Principal at Swiftarc Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm led by a team of seasoned veterans launching, scaling, investing in, and merging some of the most successful consumer and healthcare startups, privately-backed companies, and Fortune 500 conglomerates. He advised the firm on dealflow strategy across its multiple funds and helped launch it in 2019, building its investment, fundraising, platform, and operations divisions.
Sumeet also recently was part of the Venture Partnerships team at Clearco, which provides non-dilutive working capital for ecommerce businesses. Since its founding in 2015, Clearco has invested over $3.5 Billion in over 7,000 brands and now has around 46,000 founders and over 150 venture capital firms and accelerators in its network.
Sumeet managed the launch, growth, and scaling of Clearco's NYC division, building and managing key partnerships with venture firms, accelerators, incubators, and key intermediaries such as banking and law firms. He also built the firm's presence across the entire country through a new city strategy, managing and running events and dinners with investors in 9 cities.
Prior to Swiftarc, Sumeet provided short-term strategy and business development assistance as well as fundraising advice and guidance to various companies, including:
Baron Fig, makers of notebooks, writing tools, and desk essentials ("Tools for Thinkers"),
Galvanize, a nationwide community of campuses focused on making education as their VC in Residence,
The US division of NewsPicks (now a division of Quartz), a refined news experience where content is picked by experts and thought-leaders
Worn, a mission-based creative agency focused on women in business.
Sumeet then previously helped launch (in 2014) and handled sourcing and new investments as a Principal at Brand Foundry Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital firm focused on low-tech and high-tech consumer products and devices. While at Brand Foundry, Sumeet individually sourced (and helped source) over 20 deals across 2 funds.
He also assisted in the creation of XRC Labs, a consumer and retail accelerator run by Kurt Salmon and Parsons, as the Program Manager for their inaugural class and Head of Strategic Partnerships for their second class.
Finally, Sumeet ran new business strategies at Gist Digital, a mobile and app development studio, and handled business development and project work at Gotham Consulting Partners, a private equity focused consulting firm.
Sumeet graduated from Columbia University with a Bachelors of Science in Biomedical Engineering and a concentration in Biomechanics. He also sits on the board of The Opportunity Music Project, a New York-based nonprofit dedicated to providing music education and access to learn an instrument for every child in the city.