Lubna Ahmed, head of ventures, tech M&A and investor relations, Flipkart Ventures, is one of our top 50 Emerging Leaders in corporate venturing in 2024.
Lubna Ahmed has been a senior director at Flipkart Ventures since March 2021, leading tech investments, mergers and acquisitions, and investor relations for the Bangalore headquartered ecommerce company.
Flipkart, which was bought by Walmart in 2018, has continued to make investments in early-stage startups through its accelerator programme, Flipkart Leap Ahead, in areas such as healthcare and generative artificial intelligence. The accelerator has run three cohorts to date. Flipkart Ventures has a $100m fund, which is focused on backing companies in the Indian startup ecosystem.
Flipkart continues to innovate as a company and recently launched a new investment and payments platform to add to its fintech activities.
Ahmed brings to the role 14 years of experience in corporate development and investment banking across the world. Before joining the Flipkart team, Ahmed was head of corporate finance, investor relations and strategic partnerships for Ola, the Indian ride-hailing and mobility platform. In this role, she successfully raised more than $1bn in equity financing for the company, most notably a $500m series J investment, the largest capital raise for Ola to date.
Before her tenure at Ola, Ahmed was involved in investment banking, working for nine years with institutions such as Avendus Capital, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank. In these roles, she worked closely with founders and corporate managers to develop growth strategies and build new business plans.
Ahmed is a chartered financial analyst and also has a degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. In 2011, she received the Walter H Steel Scholarship from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where she completed her master’s degree in business administration with honours in analytic finance and general management.
See the full list of GCV Emerging Leaders for 2024 here.