Blue Haven Ventures Welcomes Hari Joy, Senior Associate
Blue Haven Initiative is excited to welcome our new Senior Associate, Hari Joy. Hari will work on Blue Haven’s ventures team, sourcing and diligencing new companies and working on portfolio management and post-investment support for the existing portfolio. Hari sat down with Blue Haven Venture’s Managing Director, Lauren Cochran, to discuss how he got here and what he’s most looking forward to in his new role.
Lauren: Hari, welcome to BHI! So you quit your gig at a huge, well-known private equity firm doing leveraged buyouts to join a tiny team investing in impact investing startups across the world. Tell us how you got here?
Hari: Thanks, Lauren. It’s funny — I remember reading the Blue Haven Medium posts as I explored the impact investing industry, and now here I am contributing to one!
To describe my journey, I would probably start at the beginning. I was born in India but moved to the U.S. with my parents at a young age. Growing up, most of my summer vacations were spent with extended family back in India. I come from a family of farmers and educators, and the summers spent in our rural village gave me a unique vantage point that shaped my initial interest in the broad area of social impact.
Fast-forward to college — I was drawn to impact investing as a way to combine social impact with my academic focus in finance and entrepreneurship. As part of the Wharton Social Impact Initiative, I spent one of my summers interning with Child & Youth Finance International (CYFI), an NGO in Amsterdam focused on children’s economic development and financial literacy. The work at CYFI solidified my interest in the field but also taught me that I had a lot to learn in terms of foundational skills. I knew I needed rigorous training, so I spent a couple of years in investment banking at J.P. Morgan (JPM). I worked on M&A transactions as well as debt and equity offerings, and I was fortunate to learn the ins and outs of corporate finance from leaders in the field. After JPM, I moved to private equity investing at Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R). At CD&R, I worked on buyout transactions and portfolio management across the firm’s technology, industrials, consumer, and healthcare verticals. In my role, I was able to collaborate with management teams and understand some of the nuances of post-investment operational support for portfolio companies. As time went on, I felt like I was in the right spot to think about making a switch to an earlier-stage, impact-focused fund — in-line with my original goals. When this position at Blue Haven opened up, it was the ideal opportunity at the ideal time with the ideal team. So, yes, I did make a big move from a mega-cap private equity firm to a small impact VC team, but the transition was actually many years in the making!
Lauren: We’re looking at both continuing to invest in our historic focus areas across Sub Saharan Africa as well as in some new areas globally, particularly in climate change technology. What are you most excited about digging into?
Hari: Can I say I’m excited for everything, or is that too short of an answer? Part of what makes this job so fun is that every day is unique — in the past few weeks, I’ve spoken to farmers in Uganda, judged a startup competition for companies in Africa and India, helped one of our portfolio companies with market expansion analysis, and hosted a career panel for MBA students. With such a diverse workload, it’s hard to pick just one area. That said, a few things I’m particularly enjoying digging into are:
1. Health-Tech: health-tech in Africa has emerged as an attractive area for investment in the past few years. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated some of the trends surrounding remote healthcare and telehealth, and there is a real market opportunity from both an impact and economic perspective. Our last two investments have been related to healthcare, reflecting our belief in the sector and alignment with growth tailwinds. I’m excited about going even deeper into the space and working with ventures and entrepreneurs who are bringing innovative, tech-enabled healthcare delivery solutions to the market.
2. Climate Change: Blue Haven has been at the forefront of renewable energy investing in Sub-Saharan Africa — our investments in PEG Africa, M-KOPA Solar, and CrossBoundary (which recently announced a big exit!) represent a commitment to providing sustainable energy infrastructure to under-served populations. To supplement our work in energy in Africa, I’m excited to lead our U.S. climate change efforts by sourcing, diligencing, and investing in funds and ventures that are making a difference in the space. Climate change is an existential threat to humanity, and I look forward to helping deploy our resources as efficiently as possible to tackle this multi-faceted issue.
3. Civics and Social Justice: one of the coolest things about Blue Haven is that our organization extends beyond venture capital investing — our Operations, Initiatives, and Civics teams work to guarantee a more equitable and just society by propelling efforts in the areas of strengthening democracy, racial justice initiatives, ecosystem building, and grant-making / philanthropy. These are issues that matter deeply and personally to me, and I’m thrilled to have the chance to partner with the team in these critical areas.
Lauren: You’ve been thinking about impact investing for a long time. How did you manage your job search, particularly in the throes of a global pandemic?
Hari: Though I would like to claim I was super methodical and that everything worked out exactly how I’d planned, life is never that simple. First thing I’d acknowledge is that I was in an extremely fortunate situation: I had a stable job, a strong network that supported me, and the resources and time to search for an ideal role. In the midst of a global pandemic, I know I’m lucky to have had that privileged position.
I spent some time soul-searching at the beginning of my process — I tried to focus on what stage of investing I’d enjoy the most, what types of markets I would be interested in exploring, and how I weighed the “impact” part of impact investing. The field of impact investing is so broad, and I think that initial step of being true to yourself about your goals and aspirations is critical when launching into a job search. From there, I did a lot of Googling, scoured impact investing job boards (the Global Impact Investing Network has a great one), spoke to people in my network who had broken into the industry, and set up LinkedIn alerts for job postings related to impact investing. The added overlay of a global pandemic meant that some recruiting had slowed down, and all of my interviews and meetings were virtual. It was a long process, although the extended duration of my search was partly due to my desire to find the perfect role. Ultimately, with a bit of luck and timing, I ended up finding the Blue Haven position, applied, interviewed, and here we are today!
Lauren: You’ve met and interacted with the Blue Haven team entirely virtually, and we aren’t sure when we will get to meet in person. How would you describe the experience thus far?
Hari: It has certainly been an adjustment! When I first started, it was a bit strange to have virtual lunches and acclimate to my responsibilities in a completely virtual environment. However, I think we’ve all handled it well, and it’s starting to feel normal to do everything over Zoom. Hopefully, we’ll be able to travel to Africa, meet with our portfolio companies, and resume on-the-ground diligence relatively soon!
Lauren: What do you hope to accomplish at BHI over the next year?
Hari: Aside from actually meeting the team in person, I’d highlight three overarching goals: one, to work with our current founders and entrepreneurs to continue sustainable, scalable growth across the portfolio; two, to establish and make initial investments out of our U.S. climate portfolio; and three, to lead a new investment from sourcing to closing to post-investment support.
