Premal Shah (born 1975) is an Indian-American entrepreneur who co-founded

Kiva A kiva (also ''estufa'') is a space used by Puebloans for rites and political meetings, many of them associated with the kachina belief system. Among the modern Hopi and most other Pueblo peoples, "kiva" means a large room that is circula ...

, a global

poverty alleviation Poverty reduction, poverty relief, or poverty alleviation is a set of measures, both economic and humanitarian, that are intended to permanently lift people out of poverty. Measures, like those promoted by Henry George in his economics classi ...

non-profit that has raised over $2 billion for low-income entrepreneurs in eighty countries.

Early life

Shah was born in

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ), also spelled Amdavad (), is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 ...

, India, and raised in

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, graduating from

Irondale High School Irondale High School is a public high school in New Brighton, Minnesota, United States. Part of the Mounds View Public Schools district, the school is in a suburban area ten miles north of downtown Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Irondale made head ...

. He attended

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, where he pursued his interest in

economic development In economics, economic development (or economic and social development) is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and object ...

, with a specific focus on

microfinance Microfinance consists of financial services targeting individuals and small businesses (SMEs) who lack access to conventional banking and related services. Microfinance includes microcredit, the provision of small loans to poor clients; saving ...

. At the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

he received a research grant to study the microfinance work of the Self-Employed Women's Association.

Career

Shah was an early employee of and principal

product manager A product manager (PM) is a professional role that is responsible for the development of products for an organization, known as the practice of product management. Product managers own the product strategy behind a product (physical or digital), ...

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support E-commerce payment system, online money transfers; it serves as an electronic alter ...

. Building on his college interest in microfinance, Shah took a sabbatical from PayPal in 2004 to prototype a concept of person-to-person microlending in India. Upon his return to

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

in 2005, Shah joined Matt Flannery and Jessica Jackley in launching Kiva and scaling it into a global organization. Kiva has since raised over two billion dollars in loans from over two million lenders in support of over five million entrepreneurs from 62 countries, with a 96% repayment rate. 81% of loans are disbursed to women, and 67% of loan recipients live in rural communities. In addition to serving as president of Kiva, Shah sits on the boards of other non-profit of organizations, including

Center for Humane Technology The Center for Humane Technology (CHT) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to radically reimagining the digital infrastructure. Its mission is to drive a comprehensive shift toward humane technology that supports the collective well-being, demo ...

Change.org Change.org is a website which allows users to create and sign petitions in an attempt to advance various social causes by raising awareness and influencing decision-makers. The site is a US-based for-profit company and claims to have 551 million ...

Foundation, Watsi, and

VolunteerMatch Impact Online, also known as VolunteerMatch, is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization which provides a national digital infrastructure to serve volunteers and nonprofit organization in America. VolunteerMatch was founded in 1998. The organization a ...

. He is considered to be a part of the

PayPal Mafia The PayPal Mafia is a group of former PayPal employees and founders who have since founded and/or developed additional technology companies based in Silicon Valley, such as LinkedIn, Palantir Technologies, SpaceX, Affirm, Slide, Kiva, YouTu ...

, a group of PayPal alumni who have gone on to found or co-found other successful companies, including

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented Social networking service, social network. It was launched on May 5, 2003 by Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly. Since December 2016, LinkedIn has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. ...

Tesla Motors Tesla, Inc. ( or ) is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, it designs, manufactures and sells battery electric vehicles (BEVs), stationary battery energy storage devices from hom ...

, and

Yelp Yelp Inc. is an American company that develops the Yelp.com website and the Yelp mobile app, which publishes crowd-sourced reviews about businesses. It also operates Yelp Guest Manager, a table reservation service. It is headquartered in S ...

. Premal is currently listed as a co-founder at renewables.org - an investment platform for renewable energy in emerging markets.

Awards and honors

* Fortune Magazine's 40 Under 40 List. * Obama White House Champion of Change * Visionary of the Year Nominee, ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

'' *

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...

- Young Global Leader selection *

Olympic Torch The Olympic flame is a Olympic symbols, symbol used in the Olympic movement. It is also a symbol of continuity between ancient and modern games. The Olympic flame is lit at Olympia, Greece, several months before the Olympic Games. This ceremony s ...

carrier for the 2008 Summer Games * Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship * Goldman Sachs 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs * In 2024 became an honoree of the

Great Immigrants Award The Great Immigrants Award is an annual initiative by the Carnegie Corporation of New York to honor naturalized citizens of the United States who have made significant contributions to American society, democracy, and culture. Established in 200 ...

; the award was given by the

Carnegie Corporation of New York The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Since its founding, the Carnegie Corporation has endowed or othe ...

Personal life

Premal lives in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, with his wife and two children. He speaks widely about the potential for markets, technology & altruism to address some of society's toughest challenges.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shah, Premal Living people American people of Indian descent American businesspeople Stanford University alumni Indian social entrepreneurs Businesspeople from Ahmedabad Year of birth missing (living people)