Chairman & Director

Mahesh Kanumury

Mahesh Kanumury has more than two decades of experience in venture capital, consulting, and operations. HE was a General Partner at a $260M early-stage venture capital fund based out of the Silicon Valley where he invested and successfully nurtured the growth and exit of technology companies.

Previously, he has also worked at McKinsey in the US where he led a number of high-impact initiatives at the CXO level. Prior to McKinsey, Mahesh was associated with Schlumberger Technologies and Research where he led large scale software development efforts.

Mahesh completed his MBA from Harvard Business School. He has also completed his Bachelor’s in Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai. Today, Mahesh is the Founder and Managing Director of Arivali Partners where he offers various investment and advisory services to social enterprises.

Managing Director

Sasidhar N Thumuluri

Sasi has over two decades of financial inclusion and capital markets experience in 20+ countries. He started his career at BASIX, an Indian financial inclusion pioneer, and went on to pursue a career on global platform in impact investments, business strategy and technical advisory at MicroVest, Habitat for Humanity and International Financial Corporation, before joining Sub-K which facilitates access to financial services for the underbanked by leveraging the power of technology and hyperlocal distribution network. 

 He serves on the board of Business Correspondents Federation of India, Fintech Task Force of MFIN and advisory board for Center for Analytical Finance of Indian School of Business. 

 Sasi has earned masters’ degrees from Princeton University and Indian Institute of Forest Management and a bachelor’s from Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University. He has also completed Accelerated Development Program from Chicago Booth School of Business and SEED Transformation Program from Stanford Graduate School of Business. 

Director

Devarakonda Sattaiah

Sattaiah’s job as a Field Executive at BASIX was the second of his career. Gradually, he went on to play a crucial role in the long-standing collaborations with Insurance Companies. He worked closely with them and made substantial changes in policy, which were modified according to micro-insurance requirement of customers in rural regions.

Sattaiah, through his dedication and perseverance rose from the position of a Field Executive to Director – Operations at Bhartiya Samruddhi Finance Limited (BSFL). Among his many contributions to BASIX, the most remarkable was his initiation of Micro-Credit & Micro-Insurance Operations, and the establishment of the Corporate Human Resource Department.

Independent Director

Swati Desai

Swati has had an illustrious career of 35 years with State Bank Group with rich experience of serving in various verticals including Credit, Retail Banking and International Finance.

During her stint at State Bank, her last assignment was with SBI Securities Limited as the Managing Director. She has had a long experience in SBI’s treasury and has served as the Managing Director of the broking arm of SBI for four years. She oversaw reorganisation of the Company and played a vital role in revamping processes and policies to set stage for growth. It was under her supervision that state-of-the-art technology was developed and introduced to make the company’s online presence one of the finest in the industry.

Swati Desai holds a Master’s degree in Economics from University of Bombay and an LLB degree from University of Delhi.

Independent Director

Viswanathan Swaminathan

Mr. Vishwanathan has vast experience of about 40 years in Credit Risk, Corporate Banking, Stressed Asset Management, Private Banking, Internal Audit, and Compliance. He is, currently, a freelance consultant advising a SEBI registered Angel Fund and some start-ups in the financial sector.

 He is presently serving as an independent director on the Board of Principal Trustee Company Pvt Ltd and is also a member of its Audit Committee. He is also a nominee director on the Board of Saija Finance P Ltd. He served as an independent director on another NBFC board from July17-July 21.

Mr. Viswanathan holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce (Honors) from Loyola College, Chennai, and Company Secretary from Institute of Company Secretaries of India and Certified Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers.

Nominee Director

Lise Lindbäck

Lise Lindbäck is an Investment Director at Abler Nordic. Abler Nordic is an impact investor focusing on financial inclusion investments managing funds on behalf of Norwegian and Danish investors from both the private and public sectors. 

Lise has more than 25 years of experience in asset management and financial markets. She joined Abler Nordic in 2021. Prior to that, she had spent nearly 12 years in leading positions at the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund – one of the world’s leading institutional investors. Lise started her career with the Norwegian Ministry of Finance before joining the Swedish commercial bank SEB as an economist and thereafter DNB as an Investment Manager. DNB is the leading commercial bank in Norway.

Lise is an experienced board member and currently serves on the Board of Sitara in India and on the Board on one listed and one unlisted company in Norway.

Lise holds a Master of Science in Economics and Business Administration from NHH in Bergen Norway. 

Nominee Director

Arvind Kodikal

Arvind Kodikal has an impressive work experience of more than 10 years in investment strategy, private equity, and Fintech. He has expertise in investment strategy and lifecycle management.
In the past, he has worked with leading firms like Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) India, Triodos Investment Management (TIM) B.V. and FMO (Netherlands Development Finance Bank) N.V.

He has an array of achievements to his credit. During his work tenure, he was consistently rated in the top quartile of TIM. He built and executed South Asia strategy for TIM. He serves as a Relationship Manager for global networks like ACCION and has expertise in corporate governance and board management.
Arvind pursued his B.Com in Finance from Bangalore University, Bangalore, India and his MFM from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, The Netherlands.

Nominee Director

Karina Isabel Alva Alfaro

Karina Isabel Alva Alfaro is an investment manager on the Financial Inclusion Private Equity team at Maj Invest. Prior to joining the firm in 2016, Karina worked with a leading Latin-American credit rating firm.

She started her career working with USAID supporting small businesses to access finance and Technical Assistance. She has more than 10 years of global experience in credit analysis, project management, and private equity.