Ashwini Anburajan

Ashwini Anburajan: Serial Entrepreneur and Writer

Ashwini Anburajan is a serial entrepreneur and writer based in New York City. She has successfully bootstrapped ad tech startups like Social Data Collective and OpenUp that have worked with major media companies and Fortune 500 brands.1

Founding Partner of 22X Fund

Anburajan helped lead the tokenization effort for 22X Fund and received an "Innovation in Venture Fundraising Award" from Microsoft for her work.1 She is currently focused on how blockchain can democratize access to capital and expand opportunity globally.1

Challenges as a Female Founder

As a female founder, Anburajan faced significant challenges raising venture capital. She found that less than 2% of all venture capital goes to women and only 0.2% goes to women of color.2 She was often told that it would be very difficult for her to raise venture capital.2

Tokenizing a Venture Fund

To overcome these challenges, Anburajan and other founders in her accelerator cohort decided to tokenize a venture fund, creating a cryptocurrency that could be liquid and tradeable.2 This allowed them to raise capital from a global group of retail investors rather than relying solely on venture capital.2

Current Role at GetUpside

Anburajan is currently the Business Development and Partnerships lead at GetUpside.35 She has been praised for her work in this role.4