Kavita Nehemiah

Kavita grew up in Vellore, Tamil Nadu and attended Lawrence School Lovedale, Ooty, India. She holds an undergraduate degree in BA Economics (Hons.) from St. Stephens College, New Delhi, and an MBA from Cornell University.

Growing up in a small town in India, where her entrepreneur father set up his factory, Kavita has always been fascinated by how economic opportunities can transform entire areas. Since then she has aspired to discover and implement transformative solutions to poverty.

After earning her undergraduate degree, Kavita joined the then fledgling MFI Ujjivan Financial Services, where her experience spanned different functions, including credit and risk analysis, market research, and product development. At Ujjivan, she spearheaded and started their Individual Lending vertical.

Kavita at Artoo's Panel Discussion on Ground Realities of Lending to Small Enterprises

She then went on to take an MBA from Cornell University, after which she cofounded Artoo with Sameer Segal. She is COO at Artoo and collaborates closely with Sameer to ensure that the product seamlessly blends the best of technology with the best of domain knowledge.

She has also worked in a consulting capacity with Rent-to-Own Africa (a micro-asset leasing company based in Lusaka, Zambia), VisionSpring (previously Scojo Foundation, based in New York), and as a summer intern with Elevar Equity.

Kavita received the Peter and Alice Von Loesecke Scholarship, 2010, to pursue her MBA. The scholarship is awarded to those intending to build a socially responsible venture and generate employment opportunities in their home country after the completion of their studies.

She has spoken at several events on topics ranging from entrepreneurship, building your business, and fundraising. She represented Artoo at SoFI 2016, The MasterCard Foundation Symposium on Financial Inclusion at Kigali, Rwanda. Artoo was the runner-up at Annual MasterCard Foundation Clients at the Centre Prize.