Tej Kohli

Mr Tej Kohli is an investor and philanthropist who is best known for the Tej Kohli Foundation and it's mission to eliminate corneal blindness from poor communities worldwide; and also for investing in growth-stage ventures in artificial intelligence, robotics, genomics and esports through the  Kohli Ventures investment vehicle.  Tej Kohli has dedicated himself to helping others to rebuild themselves through his efforts to give back.  The Tej Kohli Cornea Institute has sought to reduce poverty blindness in India by providing tens of thousands of surgical procedures for free between 2016 and 2019; whilst the Tej Kohli Foundation is funding research to support launching an affordable, scalable and accessible 'universal solution' to corneal blindness that would be applicable in the poor communities where 'poverty blindness' most prevalent and pervasive.  Tej Kolhi has also made gifts to support the research of Mass. Eye and Ear, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, to support scientific innovations to end corneal blindness.  Tej Kohli's philanthropic Foundation has also sought to make interventions to improve the lives of young people, including an initiative to fund 3D printed bionic limbs for young people in the United Kingdom who are living with limb difference. 

"I rebuilt myself into a big success, and I’m determined to use that success to help rebuild others too” Tej Kohli

Tej Kohli graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur in 1980.  He enjoyed very early success throughout the 1980's as a real estate investor based in Los Angeles, but toward the end of the decade his prodigious success was brought to an abrupt end when Tej Kohli became unwittingly embroiled in a novel scheme to transact property that fell afoul of the law.  Tej had to completely rebuild himself from scratch, and in 1999 he launched a payment gateways provider in Costa Rica, which rapidly grew to become a market leader within high risk industries.  Later the company also engaged in the acquisition, turnaround and sale of distressed online gaming properties.

Tej Kohli sold his company in 2006 and moved to the United Kingdom, from where he continued to build a global real estate portfolio that today includes residential towers throughout South East Asia, mixed use towers in the USA and premium residential real estate units throughout Europe.   Tej Kohli is a vocal champion of the potential of artificial intelligence, and in 2006 Tej Kohli began to back growth-stage technology ventures with a particular focus on artificial intelligence and what he believes is $150 trillion of potential AI growth.  Tej Kohli also made 'impact investments' into biotech ventures that have a potential humanitarian benefit, including providing substantial backing to Detraxi.  Tej Kohli is one of Europe's biggest investors in esports, and between 2018 and 2019 he backed the Rewired.GG Esports Venture Fund as it made Europe's largest ever esports team investment amidst the hyper-growth of global esports.

“No matter what you do there will always be people who want to bring you down. But they only want to see you down because it makes them feel better about themselves. Don’t give them that satisfaction. Keep building yourself. Keep giving back. And keep helping others.” Tej Kohli

Today Tej Kohli continues to fund the worldwide activities of the Tej Kohli Foundation as it seeks to incubate new projects to supports its mission to eliminate corneal blindness.  Tej Kohli also continues to back growth-stage technology ventures through the Kohli Ventures investment vehicle, and also provides regular thought leadership guidance for others who are seeking to rebuild them self.  Tej Kohli writes regular blogs about stock market investment for the Motley Fool and extols the benefits of an enjoyable lifestyle through his contributions to the FT.  He also provides insights about technology through his blogs for Medium.com and Project Syndicate, and shares daily wisdom on Twitter using #TejTalks.