SKS Microfinance (Hyderabad) is India's largest microfinance institution lending to over 5 million women and is globally recognized as a leader in the industry.

SKS Microfinance (Hyderabad) Based on a group lending methodology, SKS provides loans to poor rural women in India enabling them to purchase productive assets and generate income. Our team led the company’s initial equity investment. Due to SKS’ phenomenal growth and operational excellence, the company now has raised over $130 million in equity attracting world class investors such as Sequoia Capital.

www.sksindia.com

Vikram Akula

Vikram began working in rural India two decades ago, as a community organizer of women’s self-help groups for the Deccan Development Society, a non-profit working in rural Andhra Pradesh, India. After extensive research based on field work and graduate study, Vikram founded SKS Microfinance as a non-profit in late 1997. He led the organization until 2004, when he joined McKinsey & Company in Chicago as a management consultant. In 2005, he returned to SKS when it converted to a for-profit company and led it from serving just thousands of poor women borrowers in one state in India to millions across the country today.

Vikram has received several awards for his work with SKS, including the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in India (Business Transformation in 2010; Start-up in 2006), the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leader award (2008), Social Entrepreneur of the Year in India (2006), and the Echoing Green Public Service Entrepreneur Fellowship (1998-2002). In 2006, Vikram was named by TIME Magazine as one of the world’s 100 most influential people.

He holds a B.A. in Philosophy and English from Tufts, an M.A. in International Relations from Yale, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago. He is the author of the forthcoming book A Fistful of Rice; My Unexpected Quest to End Poverty Through Profitability.