# Arpan Shah

> Arpan Shah is a General Partner at Spark Capital in San Francisco, where he leads early-stage investments in AI, fintech, and data infrastructure. A Stanford-trained engineer from Kolkata, he was on the founding team at Robinhood, later founded Flannel (acquired by Plaid in 2021), and was a partner at Pear VC and a Sequoia Scout before joining Spark in November 2024.

- **Role:** General Partner at Spark Capital
- **Organizations:** Spark Capital, Pear VC (former), Sequoia Capital Scout (former), Plaid (former), Flannel (founder), Robinhood (founding team)
- **From:** Kolkata, India
- **Education:** B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Stanford University
- **Known for:** Founding team at Robinhood; helped scale to $15B+ valuation, Founded Flannel, acquired by Plaid in 2021, Engineering leader at Plaid for infrastructure, developer efficiency, and data

## Career timeline

- **early 2010s** — Studies EECS at Stanford University
- **early Robinhood** — Joins Robinhood founding team; helps launch the first version of the app, leads data, grows team toward 2,000+ employees
- **later** — Founds Flannel, a fintech startup
- **2021** — Plaid acquires Flannel; Arpan stays on as engineering leader covering infrastructure, developer efficiency, and data
- **post-Plaid** — Joins Pear VC as a partner on the investing team; also serves as a Sequoia Scout
- **2024-11** — Joins Spark Capital as General Partner on the Venture Team, based in San Francisco

## Achievements

- Founding team at Robinhood; helped scale to $15B+ valuation
- Founded Flannel, acquired by Plaid in 2021
- Engineering leader at Plaid for infrastructure, developer efficiency, and data
- General Partner at Spark Capital, joining November 2024

## Latest updates

- **2024-11** — Announced as General Partner at Spark Capital
- **2026-03** — Spark Capital's latest fund cycle reported around the time of new commitments

## Links

- Website: https://www.sparkcapital.com/team-members/arpan-shah
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arpanshah29
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/Arpan_Shah_
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/pages/Spark-Capital/8810462652

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/arpan-shah
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-20