Mahesh Ramachandran (born 1969) is a British entrepreneur and venture capital investor of Indian origin. He is the founder and chief executive of Commonwealth Inclusive Growth Services Ltd (CIGS), a financial-inclusion company that provides assisted banking and payments services to rural customers in India,[1][2] and a general partner of Pontaq, a cross-border venture capital fund regulated in the United Kingdom and India.[3]
Mahesh Ramachandran trained as a software professional in Chennai before relocating to the United Kingdom in 1995, where he subsequently became a British citizen and completed an MBA at the University of Westminster (1999) and the Sloan Master's in Leadership and Strategy at London Business School (2005).[4] He returned to India to launch the Commonwealth Card, a pre-paid debit and merchant-payment card aimed at unbanked customers, which was launched in Chennai in October 2009 by former Indian President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.[5]
He has held public-sector advisory roles on the Leadership Council of FinBlue, the Fintech Centre of Excellence established by India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology at the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) campus in Chennai,[6] and on the steering committee of the Ministry of Education's Innovation Cell Angel Investor Network.[7] He served as managing director of Equippp Social Impact Technologies Ltd, a company listed on the National Stock Exchange of India and the Bombay Stock Exchange, from November 2021.[8]
Mahesh Ramachandran was born in 1969 in Thanjavur, in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He attended school in Thanjavur and moved to Chennai for higher studies. He began his career in software development in Chennai during the early years of what later became Cognizant Technology Solutions, then operating as Dun & Bradstreet Satyam Software.[9]
Mahesh Ramachandran moved to the United Kingdom in 1995. He completed an MBA at the University of Westminster in 1999[4] and a Sloan Master's in Leadership and Strategy (the Sloan Fellowship Programme) at London Business School in 2005, graduating with distinction in finance with a focus on financing entrepreneurial business, new venture development and private equity.[9] He was named a Distinguished Sloan Fellow by London Business School.[4] He is also an alumnus of the Stanford Seed Transformation Programme at Stanford Graduate School of Business.[3]
Before becoming an entrepreneur, Mahesh Ramachandran held positions at Cognizant Technology Solutions, Tata Consultancy Services and Ford Motor Company in the United Kingdom.[10] While in the United Kingdom he joined the founding team of a peer-to-peer foreign-exchange fintech company, which was later sold.[9]
At the encouragement of Mohan Kaul, then director-general of the Commonwealth Business Council, Mahesh Ramachandran returned to India and has been based in Chennai since.[9][16] He went on to develop a financial-inclusion product for rural customers.[9] The result was the Commonwealth Card, a pre-paid debit and merchant-payment card aimed at unbanked and under-banked customers, launched in Chennai on 13 October 2009 by former Indian President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam in partnership with REPCO Bank.[5]
The card was issued by Commonwealth Micro-Finance (India) Ltd, which was subsequently consolidated under Commonwealth Inclusive Growth Services Ltd (CIGS), incorporated in India in 2008.[1][5] Mahesh Ramachandran is the founder and chief executive of CIGS, which provides assisted banking, remittance and government-to-citizen benefit-disbursement services through a network of agents in rural India.[1] According to its founder, the company has expanded to operate in more than 30,000 locations across over 20 Indian states, with a network of agents serving several million rural customers.[2]
Mahesh Ramachandran is a general partner of Pontaq, a cross-border venture capital fund focused on the United Kingdom–India corridor. The fund's UK vehicle is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and its Indian vehicle by the Securities and Exchange Board of India.[3] Pontaq has invested in over 100 early-stage technology companies.[11]
Mahesh Ramachandran is an active angel investor and a member of several Indian angel networks including The Chennai Angels, Mumbai Angels, Native Angels and Keiretsu Forum.[3] He is also the founder of Tech Innovations, an investment platform that invests in fintech, edtech, healthtech and greentech companies,[3] and is the founder and chief mentor of Trusted Donations, a platform that connects corporate-social-responsibility donors to physically verified non-governmental organisations.[3]
Mahesh Ramachandran served as managing director of Equippp Social Impact Technologies Ltd, a company listed on the National Stock Exchange of India and the Bombay Stock Exchange, from 5 November 2021.[8] He is also a Chief Insurance Officer qualified under the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) framework.[3]
Mahesh Ramachandran is a member of the Leadership Council of FinBlue, the Fintech Centre of Excellence established by India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology at the Software Technology Parks of India campus in Chennai.[6] He serves on the steering committee of the Ministry of Education's Innovation Cell Angel Investor Network, an All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Ministry of Education initiative.[7]
He has served on the governing council of TiE Chennai, the Chennai chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs, and chaired its Fintech Special Interest Group.[3] He is the Chennai city chair of the Winmark Global Chief Executive Officer Network.[3] He served as chairman of the jury panel for the FICCI–The New Indian Express Start-up Stars Awards in 2021.[12]
Mahesh Ramachandran has been a visiting faculty member or professor of practice at several Indian academic institutions, including the Indian School of Business, Krea University, Bennett University, the National Police Academy and the National Academy of Direct Taxes, teaching subjects including digital transformation, fintech, entrepreneurship and the valuation of startups.[3]
He serves as president of the London Business School Alumni Club based in Chennai and as an alumni ambassador for the University of Westminster in Chennai.[4] He has previously served as treasurer of the Stanford Seed Transformation Network alumni body.[3]
In 2020, Mahesh Ramachandran was named a finalist for the University of Westminster's Entrepreneurial Award, recognising his work in fintech and financial inclusion.[4] London Business School has named him a Distinguished Sloan Fellow.[4]
Mahesh Ramachandran has appeared as an interview subject and invited speaker in independently produced video programmes covering entrepreneurship, venture capital and financial inclusion. Selected appearances include: