Milaap Champions: Rajiv Kuchhal

Rajiv has nearly 26 years of experience mainly in IT related areas. He spent many years at Infosys where he joined as Software Engineer in their telecom product division. He started and headed Telecom and Product Engineering Service practice at Infosys in 1992 which became one of the largest business units at Infosys. In 1998 he became the youngest Business Unit head and member of Infosys Management Council. He set up Infosys Chandigarh center in 2000. In 2001, he led Infosys foray into Business Process Outsourcing. Initially as Head of Operations and later on as Head of Business Transformation, he was a key member of Progeon (now renamed as Infosys BPO). In 2006, Rajiv joined OnMobile as their COO. He was instrumental in making OnMobile scale as an organization and consolidate the market position. Since July 2008, Rajiv is working as an investor-mentor with many startups, mainly in the area of Social Enterprise.

We spoke to him, and this is what he had to say:

How did you get to hear about Milaap?

I came to know about  Milaap through Sourabh Sharma, an ex-colleague of mine

Why do you lend on Milaap?

I really liked the concept of self-sustaining model of helping people at bottom of pyramid through access to capital at reasonable rates. I also liked the idea that the money being given is for specific purposes and not for consumption.

Is there any particular sector on Milaap you regularly lend to? If yes, why?

I support all the sectors Milaap is engaged in.

Who/what inspired you to do what you do now?

There are multiple reasons why I am doing what I am doing now, biggest of which is to encourage young entrepreneurs, especially those working in social enterprise space.

If you were to change it, what would you do instead? Why?

I would not change it at all!

Any question for us?

None at the moment.

Thank you so much for your thoughts Rajiv!