Flourish Promotes Investment Leads in India and LatAm; Strengthens Bench in U.S. and Africa With New Hires

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Feb. 26, 2024 – Flourish Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm with purpose, today announced new hires and promotions, adding capabilities to its global investment team. Five team members joined the fintech-focused venture firm in 2023, and investment leaders —Diana Narváez in Brazil, and Harsh Gupta in India—were promoted to Principals.

“Diana has a hands-on sense of building successful startups in Latin America. Having lived in Colombia, Brazil and Mexico, she is deeply connected to Flourish’s mission and can operate independently to build our presence across the region,” said Flourish Co-Founder and Managing Partner Arjuna Costa. “In India, Harsh takes on leadership of our portfolio, where he is a trusted counselor for a broad network of innovators, sharing his keen sense of valuations and new markets. We are very fortunate to have them both on our team.”

The expanded roles for investment principals Narváez and Gupta, along with the firm’s recent hires, provide additional support to early-stage mission-driven founders in the five continents where Flourish invests. The firm’s global portfolio includes more than 70 companies working toward building a fair financial system.

Flourish also expanded its global presence onboarding investment analyst Jana Ahmed Aboughaly in Africa senior investment analysts Matt Kelly and Crystal Sun in the U.S., and two global operations team members, Charlee Brady, people operations associate and Garrett Chiem, senior associate. Their talents add to the firm’s breadth of expertise in key areas:

Investment team

• Jana Ahmed Aboughaly, Investment Analyst: Bringing broad geographic knowledge and on-the-ground experience to the Africa team, Jana is focused on growing businesses to spur impact in emerging markets. Joining Flourish from seed and VC firm Flat6Labs, she has a background in venture investing and as a startup founder herself. A leader with Young African Catalysts, she has built a strong network of investors and entrepreneurs.
• Matt Kelly, Senior Investment Analyst: Matt comes to the Flourish U.S. team from FT Partners, a sell-side investment banking firm focused on fintech. Energized by the tenacity of fintech entrepreneurs revitalizing the American dream, he sources opportunities and explores new investment themes. He is also dedicated to connecting founders and building the ecosystem.
• Crystal Sun, Senior Investment Analyst: Based in New York, Crystal support’s Flourish’s entire U.S. portfolio and the deal process from start to finish by sourcing, research, diligence, assessments, and execution. Before joining Flourish, she worked in the strategy and investor relations group at Goldman Sachs, helping to perform competitive landscaping and execute M&A deals. She is inspired by the conviction shared by all of Flourish’s entrepreneur partners – that what they are building can change the world. 

Operations team

• Charlee Brady, People Operations Associate: Charlee’s personal mission is to make people across the Flourish network feel supported and taken care of. She helps portfolio companies build strong organizational cultures, planning events, developing major human resource functions, and running compliance systems. Prior to her full-time role, Charlee was a contract assistant for the Flourish team and a social media coordinator for a bridal design group.
• Garret Chiem, Senior Associate: Garret joins the Flourish Finance & Operations team from RSM, where he performed due diligence for the firm’s M&A transactions. At Flourish, he supports financial planning and analysis, investment management, and accounting, while leading initiatives to enrich the valuation process and performance metrics across the portfolio.

About Flourish

Flourish invests in mission-driven entrepreneurs and industry influencers working toward a fair financial system. With $850M in patient capital under management, the early stage venture capital firm’s global portfolio includes leading fintechs such as Chime, Fair Money, Flutterwave, GrabFinancial, Heru, Hummingbird, Kin Insurance, M2P, Neon, and ShopUp, among other high-growth companies. Flourish brings together networks of policy innovators, trailblazers and industry experts to influence and create systemic change. https://flourishventures.com/.