Shalaka Joshi

Gender Lead, South Asia, International Finance Corporation (IFC)

Shalaka Joshi is the Gender Lead, South Asia for the International Finance Corporation (IFC)- the private sector focused arm of the World Bank- where she works on gender in the private sector. Shalaka has over 18 years of global leadership experience in early-stage investing, social venture, financial inclusion, entrepreneurship, livelihoods and market-based solutions to poverty in emerging markets, especially in Asia.

Her social enterprise career began with UNICEF where she worked on micro-planning and building public- private-nonprofit alliances. She also worked with Ashoka, a global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs. Her private sector experience includes ICICI Bank - India’s largest private sector bank - where she led the process of integrating private sector partners into the Bank’s initiatives in health, education and micro finance.

Shalaka’s investment experience includes being part of the early team at the IFMR Trust and serving as a Managing Director of Unitus Impact (now Patamar Capital)- a fund which supports the growth of scalable livelihood ventures in Asia. Shalaka was also Managing Director, Asia-Pacific for Toniic- the world’s most active network of portfolio investors, supporting ventures and funds across 28 countries. She led Toniic’s expansion into the Asia-Pacific region, as its Chief Investment Officer globally, across asset classes and continued to serve as a Board Director.

A Chevening scholar and an Aspen Global Leadership fellow, Shalaka also serves on the global Board and Investment Committee of the Equality Fund (which leverages investment and philanthropy to support global gender equality), the IEF Entrepreneurship Foundation (which works with Indian State governments to mainstream entrepreneurship) and UnLtd, India ( an accelerator for social ventures). She is a part of the Investment council for the Government of India’s Women’s Entrepreneurship platform, the Advisory Council for the global Gender-smart Investing Summit and has recently been accredited as an international mediator from the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution, UK. She is based out of Mumbai, India and enjoys poetry, travel and dance.