The Lemelson Foundation

The Lemelson Foundation was established by prolific US inventor Jerome Lemelson and his wife Dorothy, in the early 1990s. Led by the Lemelson family, the Foundation uses the power of invention to improve lives, by inspiring and enabling the next generation of inventors and invention-based enterprises to promote economic growth in the US, and social and economic progress for the poor in developing countries.

The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation

Founded in 1999, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation is dedicated to improving the lives of children living in urban poverty around the world. With offices in US, India, and South Africa, the Dell Family Foundation funds programs that foster high-quality public education and child health, and improve the economic stability of families living in poverty. The Foundation has committed more than $1 billion to global children’s issues and community initiatives to date.

Rohini Nilekani

Rohini Nilekani has been deeply involved in several development issues in areas ranging from water conservation to education, independent media, environmental sustainability, and governance. An ex-journalist, a writer, and a philanthropist, she has taken on many leadership positions and served on several boards. Rohini has chaired the Akshara Foundation, which focuses on elementary education. She also co-founded Pratham Books, a non-profit children’s publisher that seeks to put “a book in every child’s hands”. Rohini is also a founder and chairperson of Arghyam, a foundation that funds organizations focused on water and sanitation projects. She speaks out frequently about the responsibility of India’s newly wealthy to give back in a country where extreme riches and abject poverty co-exist.

Nandan Nilekani

Nandan Nilekani has pioneered several path-breaking initiatives to transform India. Nandan is the non-executive Chairman of India’s largest technology services company, Infosys, that he co-founded in 1981. During his five-year tenure (March 2002 – April 2007) as the company’s CEO, revenue grew six-fold to US$3 Billion. Nandan went on to work on what is today hailed as the biggest social project on the planet: Aadhaar. Nandan was the Founding Chairman of UIDAI, which was a Government of India initiative to give every Indian resident a unique ID named ‘Aadhaar’, and served in the Government till March 2014. Over 1 Billion people got an Aadhaar ID within 6 years of launch. As an investor now, Nandan continues to wear this think-big cap. He thoroughly enjoys looking at how Indian entrepreneurs identify original Indian problems and then solve these with application of technology.

Small Industrial Development Bank of India (SIDBI)

SIDBI is the principal development financial institution in India for the promotion, financing, and development of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector. SIDBI has invested in Menterra through ‘A Scheme for the Promotion of Innovation and Rural Entrepreneurship and agro industry’ (ASPIRE). Through the ASPIRE fund, SIDBI is supporting various venture capital funds investing in startups in the agro and rural space.

Chandu Nair

Chandu is a promoter of the Menterra Social Impact Fund, with over 30 years of experience in the consultancy, business information, and media sectors, both in Indian and ​global markets. He is also the co-founder of Scope e-Knowledge Center, a KPO company, which he ​grew to 1,000 people during his tenure.​ A member of Chennai Angels, Chandu is also an active contributor to The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE) and National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN).

Meenakshi Ramesh

Meenakshi Ramesh is a promoter of the Menterra Social Impact Fund. In addition to being a key contributor at Pratham Education Foundation, India’s largest non-profit organization in the primary education space, Meenakshi has also served as a board member of Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF), since 2013. She has earlier worked with Credit Rating Information Services of India Limited (CRISIL), Mumbai. Meenakshi is also an angel investor and has funded several startups in education, healthcare, agriculture, and logistics.

Amrit Banaspati Co Ltd

A leading manufacturer and marketer of vanaspati, bakery shortenings, refined and filtered edible oils, and other FMCG products in India, Amrit Banaspati Co Ltd has market penetration in multiple geographies across India.

Mukesh Sharma

Co-founder and Managing Director

Born in a small town in Gujarat, Mukesh learned first hand the power better education, healthcare, and farming has in improving the lives of the lesser privileged. As a young professional, Mukesh’s passion for investing led him to work in several emerging markets across Asia, Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe over a span of 10 years. His work as Chief Investment Officer at Villgro later introduced him to the world of impact investing, an experience that spurred him to establish Menterra.

Paul Basil

Co-Founder & Partner

Paul grew up in a family of doctors in Kerala, but was inspired to become a social entrepreneur by India’s milkman, Verghese Kurien. This journey fueled him to both earn a degree from the Indian Institute of Forest Management and set up Villgro — a social enterprise incubator that brings scalable innovations to the rural poor. Through these efforts, Paul has impacted over 15 million lives in India — a considerable feat for which he was awarded the Ashoka Fellowship in 2002.

George Thomas

Partner & Head of Asset Management

George Thomas is a Postgraduate in Humanities from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University. His early professional career was with Unilever’s food businesses in India. After working with India Value Fund Advisors for several years, in late 2011, he founded CapAleph Advisors India Private Limited, a PE fund. At Menterra, he leads the initiative to build a deep past-investment operating team and deepen the fund-incubator platform.

P R Ganapathy

Co-founder and Advisor

Ganapathy, or ‘Guns’, was brought up on numerous Air Force bases across India — a factor which greatly fueled his passion for flying and inspired him to obtain a pilot’s license. A keen strategist, Guns has also held important leadership positions in Indian and multinational companies, both in India and the United States. In 2012, he joined Villgro as a mentor to accelerate deep social change, by harnessing his decades of managerial experience.

Audrey Selian

Audrey backed her passion for building impact ecosystems in developing countries with a PhD in Technology Policy and Development Studies from Tufts University and degrees from the London School of Economics and Harvard University. Today, she is the Director of Artha Venture Challenge, a social impact platform of the Singh Family Foundation. With more than 12 years of experience in the impact space, Audrey leverages her multi-national and multi-sector experience, to build and support a diverse portfolio in agriculture, energy, livelihoods, and waste management.

Suresh Vazirani

Suresh always wanted to help make the world a better place. This burning ambition led him to establish Transasia — India’s largest diagnostics company today, bringing affordable healthcare solutions to people who need them the most. His investment in Menterra is his way of supporting the dreams of many young people, who much like himself, want to deliver impact at scale.