About

People

The people doing the work, and the ones who started it.

Team

Sathyanarayanan Sankaran
Sathyanarayanan Sankaran
Sathya leads Rainmatter Foundation as its CEO. Urban technologist, Co-Founder of Urban Morph, Bicycle Mayor of Bengaluru, author of Break the Block, host of the OoruLabs podcast – Sathya has worked at the intersections of technology, public policy and citizen action for nearly three decades. From building data-driven platforms for mobility and urban governance to championing community-led change, his work has consistently focused on translating complex systems into practical action. Having led Rainmatter Foundation’s urban work over the last two years, he now steps into the role with a deep understanding of the ecosystems, partnerships, and long-term transitions required to build climate resilience in India.
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M V Sandilya
M V Sandilya
Sandilya leads the strategy office and develops cross-thematic strategy, aligning initiatives across multiple focus areas. With over two decades of experience spanning the corporate sector, startups, non-profit organization, and ~4 years as a farmer, Sandilya brings a diverse and grounded perspective to his work. In the past he has worked in fundraising, large-scale program management, government engagement, technology partnerships and direct product sales.
Ashwin Shrikant Kulkarni
Ashwin Shrikant Kulkarni
Ashwin looks at quality of life in urban areas and thematic areas like Air, Water, Waste & Energy. With over a decade of experience in the tech industry as a Partner Manager, Ashwin brings a unique blend of corporate insight and social impact sensibility to the table. He is focussed on building ecosystems, identifying critical gaps, and fostering strategic collaborations to address pressing climate challenges. Ashwin is committed to driving partnerships that create meaningful social and environmental impact.
Divya Narayanan
Divya Narayanan
Divya looks at culture and communications transforming nature-positive behaviour. She is a movement builder and founder of Canopy Commons. Trained in public health and human rights, she spent over a decade at Jhatkaa.org, most recently as Executive Director, working with citizens, campaigners, and technologists to build people-powered campaigns on climate, gender, public health, and social justice across India. Her work sits at the intersection of democracy, climate justice, and citizen participation.
Akshatha Narayana
Akshatha Narayana
Akshatha looks at alternate materials, buildings and design influencing energy in the built form. She is an architect whose passion for art and built environment with locally rooted knowledge fuse seamlessly with her interest in consciously built spaces. Hailing from coastal region, she often finds herself painting in the laps of nature.
Siddharth Rao
Siddharth Rao
Siddharth is a field-based conservation biologist and development practitioner with a career spanning over two decades. His work focuses on restoration ecology, community-led conservation, environmental justice, carnivore ecology, markets for conservation, and conservation outreach and education. He lives on an off-grid field station in the Deccan savannah grasslands of South India.
Siddharth Lahri
Siddharth Lahri
Siddharth works on grant strategies and building ecosystems with a climate-conscious approach. Having grown up in one of India's most polluted districts, he's driven by a desire to make a difference and explore solutions. Always eager for a conversation, Siddharth enjoys connecting with others and sharing a laugh.
Vikas Hosoor
Vikas Hosoor
Vikas works on soil, farming and localisation efforts. He has been working on natural farming for 4 years, and has tried a couple of initiatives in the farm to fork space. He also has a keen interest in making simple and affordable agri implements to reduce the drudgery of women farmers. Eco-friendly construction and waste recycling are his other areas of interest.
Tanmay Mukherji
Tanmay Mukherji
Tanmay looks at Entrepreneurship and Localised Production. He comes with an experience of close to 25 years of running his own industry in the Automotive sector catering to major OEMs in India and abroad. He exited his business in 2021 to work in the Grassroots. Volunteered for about a year in Ladakh with Sonam Wangchuk converting ideas into businesses. Post that he worked in Rural India with mainly women nano entrepreneurs helping them make the business sustainable and earn better. He mentors startups, runs a small innovation lab, is a TEDx speaker and loves to engage with students.
Thejaswini BS
Thejaswini BS
Thejaswini looks at strengthening the programmatic work. She previously worked on business strategy, transformation and process design. An absolute enthu cutlet for nature, open water, and comforting desi food, you will find her talking about basics of life and patterns around us. Practising and policing on low-consumption with her water bottle sidekick's nod and as plastic_policee on Instagram.
Spoorthi V
Spoorthi V
Spoorthi handles the people function. Getting our paychecks on time so we can do our jobs well depends on the Don, as we call her. Apart from making sure we get to try out a new place every team dinner, she is a talented Yakshagana artiste. Catch her picture on the side of a moving BMTC bus sometime, at least you will pay attention to the humble public transport beast that way.
Nayantara Lakshman
Nayantara Lakshman
Nayantara is exploring new ways to conserve and restore natural ecosystems through systems thinking.
Bhuvanesh R
Bhuvanesh R
After many years of managing admin for both Zerodha and Rainmatter, we have Bhuvanesh all for ourselves. He takes care of everything we need to be able to work & travel.
Rajiv Prakash
Rajiv Prakash
Rajiv's interest areas are nurturing entrepreneurship from non-metro & rural India, developing rural livelihoods and sustainable consumption models, and local change-making platforms. Post his corporate career and over the past decade, Rajiv has focused on working closely with category-defining founders on their 0 to 1 startup journeys. As a member of a farming collective, he hopes to reconnect with his farming roots soon.
Sameer Shisodia
Sameer Shisodia
After 5.5 years of building Rainmatter Foundation’s core guiding principles and strategies, Sameer moved into an Ecosystem Fellow role. He will work with the wider ecosystem, our partners, and the internal team to reimagine the architecture for place-rooted systems change. His sole focus will be on helping build strategies that unlock ecosystem participation. He left his long career in the tech industry a decade ago and partly moved to Coorg to experiment with sustainable farming, farm collectives, and his personal passion, rejuvenating soil and forests. He runs Linger as a hobby, and shares his thoughts regularly on his blog.
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Founders

Nithin Kamath
Nithin Kamath
Nithin co-founded Rainmatter Foundation at Zerodha and constantly pushes the industry to think about climate and environment. He dreams of seeing a better distribution of wealth and a much greener planet. He loves cycling, trekking, and swimming in nature.
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Kailash Nadh
Kailash Nadh
Kailash co-founded Rainmatter Foundation at Zerodha with Nithin, driven by his angst and despair about human callousness, environmental destruction, and climate change as a result. At the foundation, he helps with whatever is necessary to push its goals and vision forward. His life's trajectory and the biggest decisions in it are driven by his climate angst.
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People

Team

Sathyanarayanan Sankaran

M V Sandilya

Ashwin Shrikant Kulkarni

Divya Narayanan

Akshatha Narayana

Siddharth Rao

Siddharth Lahri

Vikas Hosoor

Tanmay Mukherji

Thejaswini BS

Spoorthi V

Nayantara Lakshman

Bhuvanesh R

Rajiv Prakash

Sameer Shisodia

Founders

Nithin Kamath

Kailash Nadh

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