Gaurav Mehta

What happens when you give a woman in rural India a platform of equity, learning, and opportunity? She becomes a change leader. That insight became Dharmalife.

Since 2009, I've been building Dharmalife, a social impact organisation that advances women's economic power, agency, and leadership to drive inclusive growth and positive climate action across rural India. Our brand promise: With Women, We Rise. We work through a network of 25,000+ rural women entrepreneurs: Dharmalife Entrepreneurs (DLEs) operating across 45,000+ villages in 16 Indian states. Through our model, these women transform from receivers to givers: earning livelihoods, delivering socially impactful products and services, driving behaviour change campaigns, and becoming trusted leaders in their communities. Our work is advanced by a digital-first and insights-based approach, including Roshni AI, our multilingual AI learning companion and verification platform, connecting entrepreneurs, programmes, and impact systems across the network. Dharmalife operates through three pillars: Dharmalife (operations and programmes), Dharmalife Labs (innovation, research, technology), and Dharmalife Society (community ownership).

Impact to date: 17.5M+ people reached. 500K+ children impacted through education, health, and hygiene programmes. 271K+ clean energy solutions installed, saving 253K+ tons of CO₂. Four focus areas: Women's Economic Power, Climate Resilience, Learning for Life, and Health & Well-Being.

I'm also a doctoral candidate at the University of Cologne, supervised by Professor Werner Reinartz and Professor Rajesh Chandy (London Business School). My dissertation examines how markets are created in institutional voids, through randomised controlled trials with women entrepreneurs in rural India.

I remain an active investor through Gajam Group GmbH, a family office vehicle with a portfolio across technology, EdTech, clean energy, and digital platforms. Previously, I worked in private equity at General Atlantic and investment banking at Morgan Stanley in London.

I'm a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, an LBS MBA Graduate of the Decade, and a BMW Foundation Young Leader.

I write and speak about: market creation, women's economic empowerment, last-mile distribution, AI for development, impact investing, and social entrepreneurship. Open to conversations about: partnerships, funding, research collaboration, and speaking engagements.