Arjun Sethi (entrepreneur)

Arjun Sethi
Arjun Sethi
Born	January 15, 1983 (age 43); Santa Clara, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Entrepreneur, investor, executive
Years active	1999–present
Known for	Co-CEO of Kraken; chairman of Tribe Capital; co-founder and former CEO of MessageMe; founder of Kapital, Nibiru, Termina

Adapted from the English Wikipedia article Arjun Sethi (entrepreneur), available under CC BY-SA 4.0Updated 9 August 2025

Arjun Sethi (born January 15, 1983) is a prominent American entrepreneur, investor, and executive in the internet sector. He currently serves as co-CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken and holds the position of chairman at Tribe Capital, a venture firm he helped establish in 2018. Earlier in his career, Sethi was a partner at Social Capital and held an executive role at Yahoo!, where he introduced Yahoo! Livetext. He is also the co-founder and former CEO of MessageMe, which was acquired by Yahoo!, and previously led Lolapps as CEO. More recently, he has launched several startups including Kapital, Nibiru (2022), and Termina (2024). By 2024, Sethi had made angel investments in over 100 technology ventures.

Early life and education

Raised in Santa Clara, California, Sethi grew up in a family deeply involved with Silicon Valley startups. He began coding at an early age and took on freelance web development projects. Academically, he pursued economics at Boston University before earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Initial roles and entrepreneurial ventures (1990s–2012)

At the start of his professional journey, Sethi was chief product officer at the app monetization firm Tapjoy and co-founded Advanced Tuning Products, a manufacturing business, in 1999. His inaugural tech startup was ROFLplay, a social gaming company launched in 2007 where he acted as CEO. ROFLplay was acquired by Lolapps in 2009, after which Sethi assumed leadership of Business and Corporate Development there. Lolapps specialized in Facebook social games such as Ravenwood Fair, which attracted up to 150 million monthly active users during its prime. Elevated to CEO of Lolapps in 2010, Sethi steered the company through its 2011 merger with publisher 6waves, creating 6waves Lolapps — then the second largest Facebook game publisher following Zynga. He maintained the role of chief product officer until 2012. The entity later became known simply as 6waves and was acquired by Stillfront Group in 2022 for $201 million.

MessageMe and tenure at Yahoo (2012–2015)

In 2012, Sethi departed from 6waves Lolapps to join venture capital firm Social Capital as an entrepreneur in residence. That same year, he co-founded and took on the CEO role at MessageMe, a mobile messaging platform that combined audio, video, and doodling features. MessageMe experienced rapid growth, reaching five million users within just 75 days and securing approximately $12 million in funding from Greylock Partners. Due to competitive concerns, Facebook revoked MessageMe’s access to its “Find Friends” feature on the Facebook Platform. Subsequent court documents disclosed that Facebook’s apprehensions were partly influenced by negative publicity connected to Sethi’s association with Social Capital and his previous leadership at Lolapps.

In 2014, Yahoo acquired MessageMe for between $30 million and $40 million, discontinuing the app while integrating Sethi and his team into efforts to develop a new messaging application aimed at rivals such as Snapchat and WhatsApp. This acquisition aligned with then-CEO Marissa Mayer’s approach of acquiring startups primarily for talent acquisition. At Yahoo, Sethi held the role of Senior Director of Product Management for Growth and Emerging Products, overseeing messaging product development. Under his direction, Yahoo’s mobile user base expanded dramatically from 100 million to one billion monthly active users.

July 2015 saw Sethi and former MessageMe colleagues launch Yahoo! Livetext, an innovative video messaging app that emphasized chat and emojis alongside silent video streams showcasing users’ surroundings. Despite its novel concept, the app failed to achieve widespread adoption and was ultimately discontinued in 2016.

Social Capital and Tribe Capital Leadership (2016–2023)

In early 2016, Sethi departed from Yahoo to become an investing partner at Social Capital, where his focus was on consumer-oriented startups. During his tenure, he supported investments and held board positions at Carta and Relativity Space. As the head of the venture team, he managed investments in firms like Cloud Kitchens and Front. Although he stepped down in 2018, he maintained multiple board memberships within Social Capital.

Later in 2018, Sethi collaborated with ex-Social Capital colleagues Ted Maidenberg and Jonathan Hsu to establish Tribe Capital, a firm targeting early-stage ventures with an emphasis on data-driven investment strategies. Serving as Tribe’s CEO, Sethi spearheaded the firm’s inaugural investment in cryptocurrency trading platform Sfox. Tribe aimed to raise $200 million for its debut fund and also invested in Carta, Relativity Space, and Cover. The portfolio expanded to include significant companies such as FTX, Kraken, Applied Intuition, EquipmentShare, Docker, Republic, Instabase, and Momentus.

Tribe successfully secured $335 million for its second fund followed by $394 million for its third fund, while also initiating an investment program tailored for accredited investors.

Angel Investing, Kapital, and Tribe Offshoots (2020–2024)

Sethi’s personal investment portfolio includes stakes in companies such as Opendoor, Gusto, Long-Term Stock Exchange, and Rubrik, earning him a spot on the Forbes 2020 Midas Brink List.

In 2021, he joined the board of Kraken. That March, Tribe partnered with Arrow Capital to launch a SPAC that raised $240 million, with Sethi appointed CEO. Later that month, Tribe announced plans for a second SPAC offering. By July 2022, Sethi revealed the introduction of Tribe Crypto Labs, an incubator initiative under Tribe. Its first endeavor was Nibiru, a crypto derivatives trading platform co-founded by Sethi and launched in September 2022. Nibiru secured $7.5 million in funding at a valuation of $100 million from investors including Tribe Capital, Republic Capital, and Kraken.

Sethi is also a co-founder of Kapital, a fintech startup based in Mexico City specializing in AI and blockchain technologies. In December 2023, he joined Kapital’s board alongside co-founders Rene Saul, Fernando Sandoval, and Eder Echeverria. During 2023, Kapital raised $165 million, acquired Banco Autofin Mexico, and established a physical banking location in Bogota, Colombia. It earned recognition on the 2024 CNBC Disruptor 50 list.

By September 2023, Sethi had invested in over 100 technology firms, including independent holdings in Opendoor, Gusto, and Truecaller. In December 2023, he stepped down as CEO of Tribe Capital to assume the roles of chairman and chief investment officer (CIO). At that point, Tribe managed roughly $1.6 billion in assets under management, with approximately one-fifth allocated to India. In April 2024, Tribe Capital established Tribe Capital Management India Pvt Ltd., co-owned by Sethi and headquartered in Gurugram, initially focusing investments on Shiprocket.

Termina and Kraken co-CEO (2023–2025)

Following his departure from the role of CEO at Tribe, Sethi concentrated his efforts on Termina, a venture spun off from Tribe that he had been developing for nearly ten years. Established in late 2023 and introduced in a limited capacity by February 2024, Termina functions as an AI-driven platform that empowers investors to conduct quantitative due diligence on prospective investments. Its clientele encompasses sovereign governments, sovereign wealth and pension funds, family offices, as well as private fund managers. For Termina’s expansion, Sethi secured an initial $10 million in funding and contributed his own capital.

In October 2024, Sethi took on the role of co-CEO at Kraken, a prominent cryptocurrency exchange undergoing organizational restructuring and staff reductions. Partnering with David Ripley, who has served as CEO since 2023, Sethi aimed to propel Kraken’s strategic objectives and growth initiatives. Reports from December 2024 indicated that Kraken donated $1 million to the 2024 Trump campaign; during and after this period, Sethi and chairman Jesse Powell engaged with Trump to discuss cryptocurrency-related policies.

Additionally, in April 2024, Sethi co-established Foundation Robotics Labs alongside Sankaet Pathak and Mike Leblanc.

Boards

Sethi holds board positions at Kraken, Docker, Front, Relativity Space, Cover, Carta, SFOX, Social Capital, and Tribe Capital. As of October 2024, he continued to serve as chairman of Tribe Capital.

External links