Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars Awards 2017: Arvind Nagarajan

Humility combined with power and responsibility is a powerful combination and Arvind Nagarajan, director at Pearson Affordable Learning Fund, a corporate impact venturing fund within Pearson, the world’s largest education company, recognises the need for both.

Katelyn Donnelly, managing director at Pearson Affordable Learning Fund (PALF), which invests in entrepreneurs that are establishing innovative affordable learning services in emerging markets, said: “He is the investment director at PALF and leads on India and Latin America. He has had a big portfolio win this past year with Karadi Path, an English language learning company, being very successful.”

Karadi Path was PALF’s 10th investment in November 2015 when it raised $2.3m in its series A round. Last summer, Karadi Path was one of two Indian startups – the other being Guru-G – selected to be part of Project Literacy Lab, an accelerator for entrepreneurs dedicated to closing the global literacy gap by 2030 in which Pearson is offering mentoring.

Founded in 2011, Karadi Path now operates in more than 1,200 schools, both private and government-run, across eight states in India, reaching at least 200,000 students this school year. Karadi Path also trained over 6,000 teachers.

Nagarajan joined PALF in the summer of 2013 and said he “was attracted to the idea of combining the power and responsibility of being a capital allocator with deep sector expertise.

“I think working with entrepreneurs is an amazing responsibility and privilege, and doing so while building real domain expertise – in my case, in education – makes you a more valuable investor.

“My biggest challenges have been learning to be a better portfolio manager. It requires knowing when to listen, when to push, when to be there, when to provide space. Especially in areas where emerging market startups tend to struggle like human capital, it can be difficult to play a productive support role.

“I think CVCs could be more honest with themselves and entrepreneurs about their goals. CVCs are not a single species – some are more strategic in their outlook while others are more commercial, some align closely to their business units while others do not.

“But it is important for entrepreneurs to be on the same page from day one on what CVC is looking for in relationship – otherwise, future funding rounds, exit scenarios and other situations get a lot more complicated.”

But, while Nagarajan is a GCV Rising Star 2017 at work, in his spare time things are proving harder. “I love playing sports, including tennis, basketball and hockey. While each year sees my limited skills diminish further, I still really enjoy playing.”