Each Thanksgiving, Upaya dedicates time to thank the donors, partners, and friends who make our work possible. Because of the generous support of the organizations and individuals below, we were able to invest in two new companies and support an additional nine companies through our accelerator program. So far this year, and despite the pandemic, our partner companies are providing dignified jobs to 24,153 people. And when the devastating second wave of Covid hit India, thanks to you, we were able to deploy $50,000 in emergency funds directly to our partner entrepreneurs to help keep their businesses afloat.

We would like to take this opportunity to send a very special thank you to those who have contributed to our work in 2021…

Our Dedicated Board Members

Robin Wolaner, Chair

Kim Rachmeler, Vice-Chair

Anurag Chandra, Treasurer

Asawari RaoRane Agrawal

Brian Boland

Caroline Bressan

Kusi Hornberger

Sharmila Rathinam, former Chair

Nainesh Shah

Sachi Shenoy

Caroline Vance

Those who have donated their time and expertise to Upaya

Catchafire

K&L Gates

Karan Kapoor

Kenny Rowe

Tableau Software

Industry Experts Who Make Up Our Selection and Investment Committees 

Sriram Gutta

Rekha Pai Kamath

Karishma Kiri

Alex Pan

Srinivas Ramanujam

Sharmila Rathinam

Nainesh Shah

Sachi Shenoy

Govind Shivkumar

Caroline Vance

Special COVID Emergency Campaign Funding Partners

3rd Creek Foundation

Montpelier Foundation

Skees Family Foundation

Vibrant Village Foundation

Donors Who Inspire Our Community to Give Through Matching Donations

Satya and Rao Remala Foundation 

Steve Schwartz

Interns Who Have Grown with Upaya

Devashree Somani

Vianne Tseng

Organizations and Individuals Who Helped Promote our Accelerator Program

Abbas Dadla, Acumen India Fellows

aic-aartech

ANDE India

Assam Startup

Atal Incubation Centre - Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini (RMP)

Dhritti

GAME - Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park

KIIT Technology Business Incubator

Labs Indigram

Maharashtra State Innovation Society

Priya Krishnamoorthy, 200 million artisans

Sangam Ventures

Social Alpha

Startup Oasis

Sukriti Somvanshi, GiZ Project Her & Now

Ronald van het Hof, Women on Wings

UnLtd India

Villgro 

Vruksh Ecosystem

Amitabh Vyas, UnLtd India

Wadhwani Foundation

Women on Wings

Those Who have Given Their Time and Expertise to Make Our Accelerator Program a Success

Chintan Bakshi, CIIE / Start-up Oasis

Akshay Chandrasekhar, Elevar Equity

Karthik Chandrasekar, Sangam Ventures

Maya Chandrashekar, Green Artha

Shalini Chhabra, 3i Partners

Chintan Bakshi, CIIE / Start-up Oasis

Siddharth Bharadwaj, Social Alpha

Aritra Bhowmik, Sangam Ventures

Laura Budzyna, formerly MIT D-Lab

Elizabeth Friend, S3iDF

Anirban Gupta, Dhriiti

Amrut Joshi, Gamechanger Law Advisors

Kanchana KV, GAME

Abhijeet Anil Khandagale, Vruksh Ecosystem

Chetan Krishna, formerly 3i Partners

Michael Lesser,  S3iDF

Maharashtra State Innovation Society

Jona Repishti, MIT D-Lab

Rahul Noble Singh, RangSutra

Priya Shah, Theia Ventures

Shweta Tipparaju, Sauce VC

Rema Subramaniam, Ankur Capital

Villgro

Yunus Social Business

YOU!

No matter how you have supported Upaya this past year, we are grateful for you! Whether you made a gift, attended an event, or spread the word about Upaya to your network, we can’t do this work without you.

Photo courtesy of Upaya partner, Nugu