Alka Gupta

Alka Gupta is tech entrepreneur and fortune 500 former exec with more than 20 years of experience in consumer internet, fintech, identity, commerce, and globalization. She has been at the early stages of some of the most significant digital transformations and platforms including
the mobile, ecommerce, payments, and blockchain at both early stage and public companies. She has worked globally across US, Asia, Latin American, and Europe.
Alka is a Co-Founder and Board Director at globaliD, a portable and interoperable identity platform leveraging the blockchain. She led its growth as President raising seed, a venture backed Series A, building a high-quality team, launching a cutting-edge product, and signing on first customers. Prior to globaliD, Alka was with eBay/PayPal as head of strategy for eBay Marketplaces assessing new markets, competitive intelligence, and technologies. Before eBay, Alka was VP of Business Development at Retrevo (acq. by Barnes and Noble) where she built strategic partnerships to grow the ecommerce business and generate early revenue. Earlier, she spent eight years at Lycos (LCOS; acq. by Telefonica), the first and fastest search engine to IPO.
As GM, she co-founded the community products and grew it into a suite of social networking offerings. As VP Corporate Development and Strategy, she developed strategy, executed acquisitions, and guided Lycos through its divestments and acquisition. Ms. Gupta holds an MBA from The Wharton School and B.S. (cum laude) from Case Western Reserve University. She is a Board Director at globaliD and Digital Frontiers Institute and
advisor partner at HardYaka Venture Fund, a fund focused on fintech, marketplaces, identity and platforms. She has held past Board of Advisor seats at companies including Affinity Circles, Retrevo, Vacapedia, and Tumri. She serves on the Finance and Audit Board Committee, MPCSD; World Economic Forum Digital Advisory Council; a Distinguished Wharton Women in Business Alumna Award Nominee; past member of the Wharton Alumni Admissions Committee; past Board of Director and President of Menlo Park-Atherton Education Foundation; Former
Charter Member and Chair of Mentoring Program at TiE; early Advisory Board Member Women 2.0.
Alka is passionate about the democratization of access and empowering populations via technology. She is focused on leveraging her expertise and experience to help companies grow via digital transformation, platform leverage, new market entry, and diverse organizations.