Hollywood Super Connector Anjula Acharia-Bath Joins Trinity Ventures

Founder of DesiHits! Anjula Acharia-Bath is the newest partner at venture capital firm Trinity Ventures. Bath has been named one of Billboard’s ‘International Power Players’ and ‘Top 40 Women in Music’ as well as a member of Vanity Fair’s ‘Next Establishment’ list. But she spent the last year as an entrepreneur-in-residence with Trinity and decided to join the firm.

The Brittish born and raised founder and philanthropist has a knack for connecting Tinseltown to the tech crowd. She’s worked with a long list of mega-celebs like Lady Gaga and Britney Spears, partnered with Jimmy Iovine for the U.S. launch of Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra, and has been an active investor and advisor to startups like ClassPass, Mayvenn and the Tyra Banks-backed shopping platform The Hunt.

Bath hasn’t made her first investment just yet -and is not an investment partner – but plans to  focus on diversity, female founders, and Hollywood. This happens to be a focus that comes with its own special set of skills.

Funding tech startups is more popular than ever in the movie industry, but not many celebrities get the startup world. On the flip of that are founders that believe adding a celebrity to their investor list will hold some sort of cachet. It doesn’t.

“There’s definitely this huge thing in Hollywood right now where everyone’s like ‘whoa, I want to make a million dollars and I have to go to Silicon Valley to do that.’ They don’t realize most startups fail, it’s really hard to be Instagram and Facebook and Twitter. It’s not as easy as it looks,” Bath told TechCrunch.

Bath is fortunately armed with a tech background and a wealth of star contacts to give her the leg up in helping the Hollywood scene navigate Silicon Valley.

Bath told TechCrunch she would also like a big part of her focus to be on bridging the gender and diversity gap. “I’m definitely driven by diversity and I’m going to be bringing in a lot of that to Trinity Ventures,” Bath, both female and of Indian descent said. She mentioned the large African American population in the arts and pop culture that she has access to.

According to Trinity Ventures, at least seven out of 10 of its partners are in a minority class, and 3 of the partners are women – though the partner label may mean staff beyond investment partners. Trinity’s website lists eight general partners, 5 of which are a woman or minority. Bath is not a general partner with the firm but will be helping with deal flow.

Trinity plans to bring in more diversity in the future. “We joke that the minority is the majority there,” Bath said. “Let me tell you there’s going to be more. Because why not? We’re going to take over the business.”

VC firms are notoriously mostly all male and all white. Bringing in diversity – including women, minorities, and those outside Silicon Valley is something several Bay Area firms have pledged to focused on. Some of that is just lip service, but its at the heart of why Bath decided to join Trinity.

She recently hosted an event that brought together a notable group of entrepreneurs and executives from Silicon Valley and Hollywood, including Kimberley Bryant, the CEO of Black Girls Code, and Boz Saint John from Beats Music to discuss breaking down stereotypes in entertainment and other hot-button issues.

“[Anjula’s] deep network crosses industries and spans geographies in ways that very few people can match,” Trinity partner Ajay Chopra said. “The doors Anjula has already opened will make a significant impact on our portfolio companies and on Trinity. We are extremely lucky to have her, and I look forward to seeing how she will help transform our consumer portfolio companies.”