Asha Jadeja is a Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist who has invested in over 200 technology startups in the Bay Area. As an entrepreneur herself, her philanthropic work has championed “exponential growth” designed to ignite young entrepreneurs to become disruptive change makers. “Making a dent in poverty requires money. Without a strong focus on economic growth, developing countries like India will continue to be stuck in a cycle of poverty. The need of the hour is to let technology-driven growth enable India to break out of the cycle of poverty”.
All of Asha’s venture and philanthropic initiatives in India have been designed to help the nation break free of this cycle of poverty. “Exponential growth is possible through technology-enabled entrepreneurship, lean government, world-class education, and women’s leadership”
Asha founded Motwani Jadeja Family Foundation to develop a network of entrepreneurs in South Asia trained to think and drive exponential change. The foundation supports the US – India partnership for disruptive entrepreneurship, gender equality, and inclusive development.
A firm believer in self-sustaining social movements supported by local communities, Asha created and enabled Maker Fest – a grassroots social movement that is now prolific in Africa, India, and more recently in Brazil. She created India’s first network of dozens of Fablabs designed to spark a just in time manufacturing environment in India. With help from Prof Sugata Mitra, Asha set up India’s first self-supported School in the Cloud in Ahmedabad. This has now grown to over 60 locally managed and sustained “schools in the cloud” within South Asia.
