Kartik Talwar is the co-founder of ETHGlobal and a General Partner at A.Capital Ventures. He is recognized for his early-stage investments in the cryptocurrency and blockchain sectors and for his work in fostering the growth of the Ethereum developer community. ^{[1] [2]}

Education

Talwar attended the University of Waterloo, where he studied Astrophysics and Mathematics, earning a Bachelor of Arts/Science degree. During his time at the university between 2012 and 2016, he was actively involved in technical roles, serving as an API Developer for the institution and as a Teaching Assistant for a computational physics course in 2013. This period established his foundation in software development and complex systems. ^{[3] [4] [5] [10]}

Career

Talwar's career spans software development, venture capital, and ecosystem building within the technology and cryptocurrency industries. He began with technical roles before transitioning into venture capital, where he became an influential early-stage investor in the blockchain space.

Talwar's early professional experience includes a role as an Infrastructure Software Developer at Salesforce in 2013. He joined the venture capital firm SV Angel in 2014 as an Insight Engineer. In this technical capacity, he developed an internal Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to help the firm manage its portfolio of over 500 companies, tracking investments, deals, and relationships.

He was promoted to Partner at SV Angel in August 2016, a position he held until December 2018. In this role, he transitioned his focus to investing and was responsible for leading the firm's crypto and technical investment strategy. He originated or promoted investments in over 20 companies, including several foundational projects in the blockchain industry such as Coinbase, MakerDAO, and DFINITY. ^{[1] [5] [3] [4] [10]}

A.Capital Ventures

In December 2018, Talwar joined A.Capital Ventures as a General Partner. At A.Capital, he continues to focus on early-stage investments, particularly in crypto protocols and decentralized technologies. His work at the firm involves identifying and supporting emerging projects that aim to build new infrastructure for the digital economy. The firm's portfolio includes investments in notable companies like Uniswap, OpenSea, and Optimism. ^{[6] [1]}

ETHGlobal

Talwar is most widely known as a co-founder of ETHGlobal, a community-focused organization that plays a central role in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Founding and Mission

Kartik Talwar co-founded ETHGlobal with Liam Horne in October 2017. The organization was created to support and expand the Ethereum developer community by organizing hackathons, summits, and other educational events worldwide. The core mission of ETHGlobal is to onboard new developers into the Web3 space, provide a platform for builders to create and collaborate on new projects, and connect innovators with resources and opportunities within the ecosystem. Talwar has stated that a key goal for the organization in 2024 was to bring its developer community "onchain," indicating a focus on integrating its community's activities more deeply with blockchain technology. ^{[7] [1]}

Impact and Growth

Since its inception, ETHGlobal has had a significant impact on the growth of the Ethereum ecosystem. By October 2021, the organization had onboarded over 30,000 people, facilitated the creation of 3,500 projects at its events, and awarded over $3 million in prizes to participants. Companies that originated from ETHGlobal events had collectively raised over $200 million in funding by that time. The educational content produced by the organization, including talks and workshops, had been watched for over 100,000 hours.

By early 2024, the ETHGlobal developer community had grown to over 100,000 builders. The organization has coordinated large-scale community events, such as organizing 40 concurrent in-person gatherings across six continents for over 8,000 people to celebrate Ethereum's 10th anniversary. These efforts have established ETHGlobal as a primary entry point for developers looking to build on Ethereum and related technologies. ^{[6] [7]}

Achievements and Recognition

Talwar's contributions to venture capital and technology have been recognized by major publications and industry bodies.

• Forbes 30 Under 30: In 2019, he was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the Venture Capital category for his work at SV Angel and his influence in the blockchain investment space. ^[4]
• Ecosystem Development: As a co-founder of ETHGlobal, he has been instrumental in building one of the largest and most active developer communities in the blockchain industry. ^[6]
• Pioneering Investments: He is credited with sourcing and leading early-stage investments in several companies that have become pillars of the cryptocurrency industry, including Coinbase, MakerDAO, and DFINITY. ^[1]
• Open-Source Contributions: He is an active contributor to various open-source projects, supporting the collaborative and community-driven ethos of the blockchain space. ^[2]

Investment Portfolio

Throughout his career, Talwar has built a portfolio of investments in a wide range of cryptocurrency and technology companies, both as a partner at venture firms and as an angel investor.

Investments at SV Angel

During his tenure as a Partner at SV Angel, Talwar led or was involved in investments in numerous early-stage blockchain companies. His focus was on identifying foundational protocols and infrastructure. Notable investments from this period include:

• Anchorage
• Coinbase
• CryptoKitties (Dapper Labs)
• DFINITY
• Handshake
• Harbor
• MakerDAO
• Near Protocol
• Radar Relay
• Tagomi

These investments were made during a formative period for the digital asset industry, and many of these companies went on to achieve significant scale and influence. ^{[1] [8]}

Investments at A.Capital Ventures and Angel Investments

As a General Partner at A.Capital and an angel investor, Talwar has continued to invest in early-stage crypto protocols and Web3 platforms. His portfolio reflects a focus on decentralized finance (DeFi), Layer 2 scaling solutions, and developer tools. Some of his investments include:

• Astaria
• Blockscout
• Daimo
• MegaETH
• NEBRA
• OpenSea
• Optimism
• Phi
• Sablier Finance
• Superfluid
• t1 Protocol
• Uniswap

This portfolio demonstrates a continued focus on funding the technical infrastructure and user-facing applications of the decentralized web. ^{[1] [6]}

Interviews

Unite DeFi 2025 Kick Off #01

On August 20, 2025, Kartik Talwar, co-founder of ETHGlobal, appeared on ETHGlobal’s YouTube channel to introduce the Unite DeFi 2025 hackathon. In his remarks, Talwar stated that the initiative aimed to support new developments in decentralized finance through cross-chain integrations. The event gathered more than 175 participants from 80 countries and included a prize pool exceeding $550,000. Submissions were required to be original, open-source, and make use of 1inch’s APIs and infrastructure.

Talwar described the organizational structure of the hackathon, which relied on Discord for communication, workshops, and technical guidance. Finalists were expected to present live demonstrations of their projects. Judging considered technical implementation and originality, and finalists received additional benefits such as ETHGlobal Plus membership and travel credits.

He also referred to presentations delivered by 1inch co-founders Sergey and Anton. Sergey outlined a framework for addressing liquidity fragmentation across multiple blockchains through intent-based protocols. Anton provided details on the technical design supporting 1inch’s cross-chain system, which included limit order protocols, Dutch auction mechanisms, and hash time-locked contracts for atomic swaps.

According to Talwar, the hackathon placed emphasis on experimentation and collaborative development. He noted that the format allowed developers to explore solutions across multiple blockchain ecosystems, including Aptos, Near, Polkadot, and Starknet. ^[11]