Built from Experience.
Deployed in Action.
“Strategy only matters if it survives first contact with execution. That’s the world we operate in. That’s the difference that earns trust in the room — and results in the field.”
Gaurav Shah
Founder & Managing Partner, Arete Ventures
Operator-Led by Design
Our Ethos
We are not consultants who advise from the sidelines. We are former investors and operators who have sat on both sides of the table—allocating capital, building funds, managing teams, and navigating exits. Our advice is not theoretical; it is rooted in the realities of managing through cycles, volatility, and structural change.
Our belief is clear: strategy must work under real-world constraints. We measure outcomes, not optics.
A Story Forged Across Markets
From fund design to execution — shaped by global capital, refined in local complexity
Arete Ventures was founded by a former Silicon Valley investment partner with deep experience across private equity and innovation frontiers. Over the years, we’ve advised sovereign wealth funds, structured LP strategies, built teams in frontier markets, and guided capital across sectors like energy transition, deeptech, and digital infrastructure.
What began as a practice in building capital deployment models has evolved into a trusted partner to GPs, LPs, and allocators navigating inflection points in global markets.
The Arete Framework
Translating Insights into Execution
At the core of our work are three guiding lenses we apply across mandates—from fund structuring and LP strategy to turnarounds and strategic pivots:
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Capital Stack Diagnostics
We identify where fund structures, capital layers, or incentive models misalign with long-term value creation. -
Execution Delta
We map the gap between strategic intent and operational reality—and design action plans to bridge it. -
Signal Over Noise
We help decision-makers focus on material levers that actually move long-term returns, rather than quarterly theatrics.
This is not a framework for theory. It is a toolkit forged through operator experience—and stress-tested in the field.
Founder & Managing Partner, Arete Ventures
Gaurav Shah is a seasoned operator-investor with deep execution roots in Silicon Valley, Wall Street & global capital. He has scaled startups and businesses across the U.S., led turnarounds as an operating partner in private equity, and worked at the intersection of strategy, capital, and execution for over two decades.
Prior to founding Arete Ventures, he built and exited multiple companies across energy, industrials, and technology. At a San Francisco-based PE firm, he acquired and revived distressed and operational assets, crafting exit strategies grounded in long-term value creation and executional rigor.
His work has been cited in institutional capital circles for its clarity, discipline, and results under real-world constraints.
He holds six U.S. and PCT patents in renewable energy—many of which were commercialized and deployed at scale. His technical foundation informs a pragmatic approach to innovation—especially in sectors shaped by policy, regulation, and global capital.
Gaurav is a licensed Independent Director and certified global ESG expert, combining fiduciary responsibility with sustainability foresight. He serves on investment committees of global venture funds, speaks at GP/LP forums, advises and also is a jury member at accelerators and reputed university incubators of Asia & US
He earned his M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
Global Context. Local Nuance.
With presence in Mumbai and San Francisco, Arete Ventures operates at the intersection of global capital and regional complexity.
Our work spans U.S. private equity, Asian family offices, and sovereign allocators across the Middle East and Europe. We understand how capital decisions are shaped not only by risk and return—but by cultural nuance, regulatory asymmetry, and institutional history.
We speak the language of term sheets, but also of trust, adaptability, and long-term alignment.
Strategic Without Spectacle
We don’t broadcast client logos. We don’t chase headlines.
Our work is trusted because it is discreet, thoughtful, and enduring.
Arete Ventures engages with a select set of partners who value sharp thinking, operational depth, and quiet intensity over marketing theatre.
We hold deep respect for the consulting firms that shaped this industry—but our edge lies in operator-led execution, not theoretical playbooks.
In our world, value isn’t built in slides. It’s created in decision rooms, across cycles, and under pressure.
Beyond the Pitch
This distinction defines our ethos and sharpens our edge.
In a world where optics often outperform substance, we align with those who seek enduring results—earned not by promise, but by performance.