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Managing Committee
Member, PAFI
Chief Public Policy Officer,
Sequoia Capital India &
South East Asia

Shweta Rajpal Kohli

As the Head of Public Policy, Shweta works with government stakeholders to craft policies that help accelerate the growth momentum of the startup ecosystem in India & Southeast Asia. She advises portfolio companies on managing regulatory risks and unlocking new levers of growth. She also helps create public policy partnerships that align the vision of startup founders and governments.

Before joining Sequoia, Shweta led the public policy function for Salesforce and Uber across South Asia, with a key focus on data privacy, cloud computing regulations, digital payments and ridesharing regulations.

Shweta is a Board Member of WE-Hub, an accelerator for women entrepreneurs set up by the Telangana Government. She is the Co-Chair of the Edtech Taskforce set up by industry body FICCI. She is a Co-Chair of the Venture Capital Committee as well as the Governing Council Member of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

Shweta is also a Member of the US-India Taskforce of US-based think tank Atlantic Council. Shweta was ranked among IMPACT Magazine’s 50 Most Influential Women in 2018. She received the FICCI FLO Women in Leadership Award in 2020, Women in Excellence Award by the Women Economic Forum in 2019, and the Communicator of the Year by Association of Business Communicators of India (ABCI) in 2011.

A British Chevening scholar, she was also awarded the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) Fellowship - the US Department of State’s professional program for global leaders. She was chosen among 45 global leaders for the Asian Forum on Global Governance (AFGG) Fellowship.

Before joining the policy world, Shweta spent two decades as a business journalist and TV news anchor. During her journalism career, she received several honours, including the Ramnath Goenka Journalism Award for Broadcast Journalism by President of India Pratibha Patil and Business Standard-Seema Nazareth Award for Young Print Journalists by President of India KR Narayanan

Shweta has completed mid-career programs from Wharton Business School, INSEAD Business School, and the University of Westminster. She completed her Bachelors in Journalism from Lady Shri Ram College, holds a Masters in Political Science from Delhi University and a distance learning MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur.

Shweta is a regular speaker at leading conferences, including World Economic Forum India Summit, MindMine Summit, CyFy India, and the UN Gender Equality Summit.

She lives in New Delhi with her husband and two children.