The Team Behind Mercy Corps Ventures
We believe entrepreneurs developing bold solutions to the world’s toughest challenges can accelerate the path to end poverty and protect the planet. And we designed Mercy Corps Ventures to meet the unique needs of early-stage entrepreneurs operating in frontier markets. We leverage the global resources and reach of a leading development agency to provide these high-impact enterprises with investment capital, value-added support and catalytic partnerships so they can scale solutions for underserved populations.
We have experience in fintech, crypto, agtech, climate adaptation, last-mile distribution, clean energy, impact evaluation, innovative finance and emerging market investing. We’re former entrepreneurs, civil servants, investment bankers, management consultants, lawyers, and venture capitalists.
Meet The Team
Scott Onder, Senior Managing Director. Scott is based in Portland, OR. Scott invests in high-impact, high-growth startups that drive financial inclusion through blockchain, crypto and other digital financial solutions in frontier markets. He also focuses on technology innovations that help communities adapt in the face of climate change. Scott is on the boards of directors of multiple portfolio companies and of Mercy Corps AgriFin, an initiative supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the MasterCard Foundation, that bundles digital financial and information services over mobile to improve small farmer productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Scott is also on the Social Impact Advisory Board of the Libra Association. He graduated magna cum laude from Duke University.
Tim Rann, Managing Partner. Tim is based in DC. Tim is an entrepreneur and investor focused on emerging markets with experience leading businesses and investment funds that endeavor to address major social inequalities. He is a Partner at Mercy Corps Ventures, and manages the full investment cycle across our target geographies and sectors. He brings a particular background in Agriculture, including AgTech, AgFinTech, Traceability / Provenance, Geospatial Tech, and Precision Ag. Tim brings over a decade of experience in the field with 17+ emerging markets startup investments across the capital continuum and four exits to-date. Prior to joining Mercy Corps to launch the fund, Tim led ventures in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Afghanistan, including Joma Bakery Cafe, Hagar Social Enterprise Group and Artillery Group. He also advised impact investment funds and social businesses in Southern Africa, East Africa and Southeast Asia, including Insitor Fund, Inkomoko, Bertha Philanthropy Fund and Uberis Capital. Tim received his BBA from the University of Notre Dame and has studied at Nanzan University in Nagoya, Japan.
Amanda West, Principal — Impact & Insights. Amanda is based in Boulder, CO. She brings her experience in social entrepreneurship to leading MCV’s Impact & Insights unit that focuses on the fund’s and portfolio companies’ impact management and key learnings. She also led the daily management of the Innovation Investment Alliance, a funding and learning partnership between the Skoll Foundation and USAID, supported by Mercy Corps Ventures, that invested $60M in proven, transformative social enterprises to scale their impact — catalyzing an additional $160M in investment — and is publishing a series on how to scale social impact (Scaling Pathways) in collaboration with the CASE at Duke University. Prior to Mercy Corps, Amanda was Co-Founder of EcoZoom, a social enterprise and Certified B Corp in the clean energy sector (cookstoves and solar lights for developing countries). In less than five years EcoZoom’s founding team grew the company from $40,000 in initial funding to $10.5M in annual revenue (making the company #768 on the 2015 Inc. 5000 List) and opened offices in Mexico and Kenya. She holds a Master in Public Administration from the University of Oregon.
Hetal Patel, Head of Venture Growth. Hetal is based in London. He leverages his consulting and entrepreneurial experience to support the portfolio companies from due diligence to scale. He manages the venture engagements, particularly focusing on business model validation, company building, and investment readiness for growth capital. Hetal has specific experience in Edtech, Agriculture, and FinTech, and is specially interested in future facing models such as savingstech. Hetal has 10+ years experience investing in, advising, and growing enterprises in emerging markets. His initial foray into impact was as Director of a Skoll winning social enterprise, managing and delivering USD6.5MM in funds and delivering 30% YoY growth. He managed multiple country offices for a boutique consultancy in Asia, conducting strategy for leading development (IFC, WB, EU) and private sector clients, and leading expansion to Myanmar. Early in his career Hetal worked as an analyst in leading financial services firms. He studied Philosophy at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and at University of Edinburgh.
Dan Block, Principal — Investments. Dan is based in DC and has significant experience in capital markets transactions, emerging markets, and impact investing. Previously at Global Innovation Fund, he conducted investments in fintech, e-/m-commerce, energy, agribusiness, and related thematic areas in Africa and Asia. He also coordinated the development and launch strategy of new GIF funding vehicles to support more mature enterprises along the path to scale through use of evergreen and catalytic capital. Dan started his investment career at Goldman Sachs and then moved into emerging market investment and now has over a decade of investment experience across Latin America, Sub Saharan Africa, and Asia. Dan is a graduate of Brown University.
Sam Orji, Investment Analyst. Sam is based in Lagos and recently worked as a Venture Partner at a not-for-profit seed fund that trains and invests in African Entrepreneurs, with an aim to create Africa’s next global Tech companies and provide jobs on the continent. An ardent believer in change through impact in emerging markets, Sam’s background spans law, investment banking and venture capital. He has a postgraduate degree in Corporate Finance law. His industry experience includes working with fintech, mobility and healthcare startups across Africa.
Alpen Sheth, Ph.D., Senior Technologist. Alpen is based in Portland, Oregon and is a member of the WEF’s Digital Currency Governance Consortium, Global Futures Council on Cryptocurrency and the Policy Working Group at the Libra Association. Alpen holds a Visiting Faculty position at the School of Business and the College of Urban and Public Affairs at Portland State University and is an advisor to several insurtech and climate startups. He obtained his PhD at MIT in International Development with a focus on risk management and technology and has consulted at the World Bank Group, Harvard School of Public Health, Risk Management Solutions, and co-founded INURED.org a research institute based in Haiti.
Lillian Alexander, Program Officer. Lillian is based in Washington, DC. Previously at Innovations for Poverty Action, Lillian managed an agricultural RCT in Western Kenya designed to implement and evaluate a mobile phone-based extension service for 15,000 smallholder farmers. Her international development experience in the social enterprise and nonprofit sectors spans last-mile distribution, climate tech, agriculture, and nutrition. Lillian holds a BA from Harvard University and an MIDP from Georgetown University.
Chris Walker, Advisor. Chris serves as the Social Innovations Director at Mercy Corps. In this role, he works to scale up innovative, entrepreneurial solutions to development challenges and provides advice on various innovative finance initiatives at Mercy Corps. He also advises Mercy Corps Ventures. In addition, Chris is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, where he teaches a graduate course on impact investing and innovative finance. Previously, he was the head of the Innovative Finance Program at the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, where he developed initiatives that attracted investment capital to address malnutrition. These included partnerships with impact investors, incubation support for African food and agribusiness companies, and the creation of the Access to Nutrition Index (www.accesstonutrition.org). Chris was also a Fellow with Acumen Fund, a non-profit social venture capital fund, and worked for one of Acumen’s investments in Mumbai, India. Prior to that, he worked on international economic and development policy issues at the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the U.S. Treasury Department, and the U.S. State Department. Chris has a Master in Public Affairs from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Arts from Williams College.
