Sandeep Farias

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• http://elevarequity.com/

Overview

Sandeep co founded Elevar Equity in 2008 with the view that Lack of access to basic services for underserved communities is an issue of discrimination that must be challenged. If a service can be provided by a business on an affordable cost high scale basis it is imperative that we leverage the power of markets to scale and provide access to life changing services to millions of individuals and their communities. Sandeep has close to 20 years of experience in diverse areas such as emerging markets investing microfinance and other financial services governance organizational design and corporate law. He has consistently been passionate about working with early stage companies that foster economic development. Sandeep has led Series A investments in what are now some of India s best low income community focused companies. These companies include Ujjivan (a highly respected urban microfinance institution) Vistaar (the leading micro and small enterprise lender) Shubham (a community focused housing finance company) Madura (one of the most efficient microfinance institutions) Glocal (a fast growing primary and secondary hospital chain) Indifi (an innovative technology integrated lending marketplace for SMEs) and SecureNow (distributor of customized general insurance for SMEs). He currently sits on the board of Madura Vistaar Shubham Glocal Indifi and SecureNow. Prior to Elevar between 2004 and 2008 he founded and ran the Indian operations of Unitus a microfinance accelerator where he partnered with and supported some of India s leading microfinance institutions (who were in the early stages of their journey). The companies he has invested in or partnered with have together reached close to 20 million customers in the last few years.Sandeep started his career in 1996 after completing an integrated law and arts degree from the National Law School of India University. Over eight years he worked at two leading corporate law firms (Amarchand and Nishith Desai Associates) worked with clients such as Google Amazon Singapore Telecom and Temasek and founded NDA s corporate and development sector practice. He also established NDA s offices in Palo Alto and Bangalore and helped the firm win the Asian Law Firm of the Year (Pro Bono) Award from the International Financial Law Review for his work with the American India Foundation after the Gujarat earthquake in 2000. Sandeep is also passionate about politics design cycling and good conversations.