Part of the founding team of Seedfund, Paula Mariwala is the Executive Director at Seedfund. She has over 20 years of experience with technology companies in USA and India. In her role as the Executive Director since inception of Seedfund in 2006, Paula has worked extensively with the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India to source, evaluate and mentor start-up companies for Seedfund. She works closely with Portfolio companies to take them to their next stage of growth and has led investments in education, healthcare and mobile technology. Coming from a strong business background and a technocrat by profession, Paula has worked with companies like Photon Kinetics, Tektronix and Optivideo in USA and is Promoter and Director of The Hinditron Group of companies, one of India’s oldest technology company, where she has been responsible for managing the Telecommunication business of the Group and for driving new business initiatives. She is also an active angel investor, and has mentored and invested in several innovative companies across sectors. Paula holds an MS in Applied Physics from Stanford University, USA. She has several publications and patents to her credit in the fields of Astrophysics and Optical Communication. A Charter member of TiE, she is very active in the entrepreneurial ecosystem and is involved in various capacities with academic institutions and incubators. She is associated with professional organizations like IEEE (Life Member), Computer Society of India, Stanford University Alumni Association. Paula has a strong commitment and interest in education and also devotes time working with several schools and NGOs.