IFMR Finance for Freedom Fund

Bindu is the Chair, Co-Founder and Managing Trustee of Dvara Holdings. Bindu is the Founder of Dvara Health Finance. Prior to this, she was Board Chair of Northern Arc Capital from 2009 – 2018. She also worked in ICICI Bank's microfinance team between 2001 and 2005 and was head of the new product development team within their Rural Banking Group in 2007. She has an under-graduate degree in Economics from Madras University and Masters Degrees from the Institute of Rural Management (IRMA) and Harvard University's John. F. Kennedy School of Government. Bindu has co-edited "Financial Engineering for Low-Income Households", a book published by SAGE. She has also published in the Economic and Political Weekly, OECD Trade Paper Series and the Small Enterprise Development Journal. She was a member of three RBI Committees: financial inclusion, SME finance and housing securitisation. She was a member of the Taskforce of the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Board of India (2017). She was a member of the Government of India's High Level Committee on Women (2014-15) and the Tamil Nadu Government's Expert Committee on Revival of MSMEs (2022). She is an Independent Director of NeoGrowth Credit and Avanti Finance. Bindu was a recipient of the ET Prime Women's Leadership Award in 2020.

Samir is the Executive Vice-Chair and Co-Founder of Dvara Holdings. He oversees the strategic direction of Dvara Holdings' mission of financial inclusion and manages the portfolio of group companies, with over three decades of experience in building institutions and market infrastructure. Prior to joining Dvara Holdings, he was the Managing Director & CEO of NCDEX, India's largest agri focused commodities exchange. During his tenure, the exchange had transformational impact on India's agri economy through various technology and digital initiatives. He also worked closely with the warehouse regulator WDRA and the capital markets regulator SEBI to launch National E-Repository Limited (NeRL) to provide India's first repository services for electronic negotiable warehouse receipts, which farmers can use to avail formal sector agri credit. Before NCDEX, he was the Chief Business Officer of the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX). At DGCX he led the growth of the exchange to make it the one of fastest growing exchange in the world, winning several global awards, amongst them were Contract of the Year and the Best Commodity Exchange in 2012. Prior to this, he worked at global information company Thomson Reuters for 17 years, where he held various capacities including being the Global Head of Business Planning and Operations for a new inside-Sales unit at Thomson Reuters called Direct; also led Reuters' India operations as the Managing Director in South Asia. Samir began his career as an investment banker in Mumbai helping companies unlock value through public offerings and buy-out deals. He is an MBA in Finance, a Mechanical Engineer and has completed an Advanced Management Program from Wharton.

Avishek has been a member of the Investment Committee since April 2021. He is currently the Head of Asia, at GAWA Capital. Most recently, he was the Managing Director and CEO at Caspian Debt. Prior to Caspian, Avishek helped set up the wholesale structured finance business in small business lending and affordable housing finance sectors at IFMR Capital. Avishek joined IFMR Trust in 2008 and was initially involved with setting up a technology backed dairy supply chain company (Dairy Network Enterprise) that provided technology and manpower to rural financial institutions (KGFS) enabling them to offer cattle insurance, loan and healthcare to dairy farmers at their doorstep, across three KGFS locations. For a brief while, Avishek also managed a portfolio of companies being incubated by IFMR Ventures, operating in sectors like dairy, agriculture, rural tourism, drinking water and clean energy. Till date, Avishek has enabled financing to more than 150 early and growth stage companies working towards positive social and environmental impact. He has worked on a wide range of financial products ranging from pure debt to quasi-equity as well as securitisation and other structured products. Avishek is a B.Tech (Dairy Technology) and M.Sc. (Dairy Chemistry). He also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Management from Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA).

Vinay has been a member of the Investment Committee Since March 2021. He is currently a Research Fellow/ Doctoral Candidate at The Wharton School. Previously he was the Managing Director of Stakeboat Capital. Vinay has driven M&A and investments for 2 of the largest technology companies in emerging markets, including Flipkart. He set up the technology investment arm for Emaar Group, UAE called Boson ventures. He is also part of the founding leadership team of the 2nd largest e-commerce company in MEA, backed by Saudi sovereign wealth fund PIF and Emaar. Vinay has also sourced, led and executed 10+ transactions in the growth equity stage; Member of Board of Directors at several companies including Ecom Express and Motherhood. Vinay holds an MBA from MIT Sloan, M.S. from the University of Maryland and a Bachelors in Technology from IIT Madras.

Shreya Deb is a senior business leader with over 18 years of experience spanning venture investments, strategy consulting, and operational leadership. Previously, Shreya was part of the early team at Karkinos Healthcare, an oncology-focused startup, where she led fund-raising and strategy, and also helped establish a new business vertical in onco-diagnostics. As Director of Investments at Omidyar Network India, Shreya managed a diverse portfolio across India, Ghana, the Philippines, and Bangladesh. She was instrumental in positioning the firm as a thought leader in land and property rights, committing nearly ₹200 crore to innovative startups and non-profits. She works closely with healthcare non-profit, ARMMAN, where she provides strategic guidance for implementation of their maternal and child health programs across 27 states pan-India. Shreya began her career at The Boston Consulting Group, where she advised clients across manufacturing, insurance, healthcare, and rural development, implementing large-scale strategy and operations projects. She holds a PGDM from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay and was recognized in the Economic Times 40 under 40 achievers list in 2021. Shreya has also authored several articles on housing and land rights in leading publications.