Ajaita Shah

Ajaita is the Founder of Frontier Markets, a social enterprise operating in India, and also the Founder of Frontier Innovations Foundation, a global foundation based in NY, supporting social enterprises in Africa and Asia. Ajaita drives vision, strategy, investments, and partnerships at Frontier Markets. She has been working with social enterprises and in rural India in microfinance, rural distribution, marketing, and access for 19+ years, and has committed to empowering rural women across the developing world through business models, financial inclusion, technology, data, clean energy, and inspiring women to push themselves beyond their societal boundaries. Ajaita is the recipient of prestigious awards including: Schwab Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2024, Fortune 40 Under 40, Economic Times 40 Under 40, Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur of the Year, Women Transforms India Award, Digital Women of the Year, CNBC’s Women Entrepreneur of the Year, Loreal Women of Worth and more. She is a Women’s Changemaker Fellow at Womanity Foundation, Dasra Leadership Fellow, Echoing Green Fellow, and Cordes Fellow. She has spoken in many forums including COP 23, UN High Level Political Forums, UN SDG Summit, and more on social enterprise perspective from the field, to digital inclusion, to climate change to gendersmart investing.