Archana Srivatsan, Head of South & SE Asia VC, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Presenting another episode of the Champions with Chequebook$, this time with Archana Srivatsan, Head of South & South-East Asia VC at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In this podcast, we spotlight fund managers and investors from our network, their theses, journey and stories as investors. We hope you’ll listen in and share.

Maya Chandrasekaran, Co-founder and Partner, Green Artha, Co-founder, Women In Investing speaks to Archana on a diverse set of topics around the impact investing ecosystem and more!

In this conversation, Archana shares her non-linear journey in business & social impact and her decade-long career at the Gates Foundation, now focused on investing in technology companies that are innovating to solve critical socio-economic challenges, eventually leading her to the boardrooms of multiple companies.

Archana shares her insights on opportunities in the Indian ecosystem, particularly the rural economy. Maya and Archana unpack the uniqueness of this market and how this space requires first-principles-driven, home-grown innovations.

From her vantage point as an impact investor, Archana talks about the careful balance between commercial viability and patience - it takes time, focus, and catalytic capital to build institutions that achieve long-term social impact. At the same time, being too patient can lead to unsustainable ventures.

In Archana’s words, “When I think about impact, outcomes matter, not just outputs. Outputs are an essential means to the end, but not the end.” Focus on ultimate outcomes beyond immediate outputs has indeed been the hallmark of Archana’s work.