Kirthiga Reddy
Kirthiga Reddy (born 1971 in Chennai, India) is an Indian‑American businesswoman. She is the founder and CEO of Virtualness and the president of Athena SPACs. She was a venture partner for SoftBank’s Vision Fund, the company’s first female investing partner, and later served as the managing director of Facebook India, starting its operations in the country from scratch and helping its growth.
In 2011, Fortune India named her among the Top 50 Most Powerful Women, and she has also been listed as one of India's 25 most influential women.
Reddy grew up in India. She earned a B.E. in Computer Science and Engineering from MGM’s College of Engineering in Nanded, where she finished near the top of her class. She then moved to the United States for graduate study, earning an MBA from Stanford University and an MS in computer engineering from Syracuse University.
Her early career included Silicon Graphics, where she was the youngest director of engineering and the only woman at that level, along with roles at Motorola and Phoenix Technologies. She moved back to India in 2008 and later joined Facebook in July 2010 as its first employee in the country; she built Facebook India from scratch and helped grow its user base and ad sales, forming partnerships with companies like Coca‑Cola India and Yepme.
After Facebook’s Free Basics decision, she announced she would step down and relocate to the United States within 6–12 months to be with her family. In February 2016, she stated that the return to the U.S. was underway as her daughters started school.
She is married to Dev (Devanand) Reddy and has two daughters, Ashna and Ariya.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 07:08 (CET).