California Governor Gavin Newsom has appointed Shrina Kurani, from Riverside, as the Deputy Director of Venture Capital at the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (IBank).
Kurani has been with IBank since 2023 as a Venture Specialist and has served as a Managing Partner at SNØCAP since 2022. Previously, she was Vice President of Business at Republic from 2018 to 2022 and worked as an Associate at Better Ventures from 2017 to 2018.
With extensive experience in venture capital, Kurani has played a key role in facilitating over $175 million in investments through Better Ventures, Republic, and SNØCAP. Before joining IBank, she built multiple companies and ran for the U.S. Congress in 2022, advocating for climate innovation.
Kurani co-founded SNØCAP, an early-stage venture fund dedicated to deeptech climate solutions. She also serves on the board of Grid110, a non-profit organization supporting underrepresented entrepreneurs across Southern California. At Republic, she worked on expanding capital access through regulatory advancements and launched the Cities program to assist founders in underserved regions, starting in Riverside, CA.
Her academic background includes a Master of Science in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science from Lund University in Sweden and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Riverside.
Kurani’s early engineering career involved projects with NASA and Southern California Gas Company. She later conducted her master’s thesis on biomass carbon sequestration in the Mediterranean and became actively involved in global climate discussions. She has participated in multiple United Nations Climate Change Conferences since the Paris Agreement at COP21, including events in Marrakech, Bonn, Katowice, and Glasgow.
This role does not require Senate confirmation and comes with an annual salary of $165,000. Kurani is affiliated with the Democratic Party.
