Manu Kumar studied at Carnegie Mellon University, with an undergraduate degree in 1995 and a graduate degree in 1999. He then earned a PhD in computer science at Stanford University in 2007.
His first company was SneakerLabs, founded in 2000. He later founded iMeet. In 2009 he started K9 Ventures, a Palo Alto fund that invests in pre-seed companies.
In 2012 he co-founded eShares with Henry Ward. The company was renamed Carta in November 2017. Kumar has served as chairman.
In 2018 he co-founded HiHello with Hari Ravi and serves as its CEO.