Nisha Desai, CFA

Nisha Desai, CFA, is Founding General Partner of Andav Capital, a New York-based venture capital firm. Andav Capital for early stage tech-enabled companies led by underdog founders with intersectional insights. Under Ms.Desai’s leadership, Andav Capital has invested in primarily FinTech, marketplaces, and enterprise software. Ms. Desai is also Investor-in-Residence and an Advisor to the Good Machine Studio, a venture capital studio backed by Schmidt Futures. Prior to her role leading Andav Capital, Ms. Desai was a Director at Deutsche Bank, where she managed a firm-wide restructuring program, advised senior management and Board members on multi-billiondollar investments and complex cross-border deal structures, and represented the firm in industry and regulatory discussions. Previously, Ms. Desai served as a Vice President at J.P. Morgan, where she led a global remediation program pursuant to $225M Consent Orders, advised on restructuring the investment bank under Dodd-Frank, and was seconded to the CIO-losses “London Whale” Crisis Management Taskforce, where she also supported CEO Jamie Dimon during his Congressional testimony. Earlier in her career, she worked on financial litigation and whitecollar criminal actions at the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; in consultative sales and business development at Google Inc.; and as a pre-revenue Founding Team Member (“Employee #4”) at Sweetgreen, a startup turned public company (NYSE: SG). Previously, Ms. Desai served as U.S. Congressional staff for civil rights leader Congressman John Lewis and judicial staff for a Public Defender’s Office and Superior Court in Georgia. Ms. Desai holds an M.B.A. with Distinction in Finance, Operations, and Entrepreneurship from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. with Honors in International Politics from Georgetown University. She is a CFA Charterholder, was named one of eight “2021 FinTech Women Money Movers,” and serves as a nonresidential Fellow with the Atlantic Council, a global think tank, where she focuses on Sustainable Finance. She has served on the boards of various companies and nonprofits and as an advisor, judge, and mentor with Techstars, SAP.io, Microsoft, Google for Startups, Georgetown Angel Investor Network, CFA Society of NY, NY Fashion Tech Lab, and various startups and investment firms. Her interviews have appeared in Forbes, Reuters, Emerging Managers Monthly, Business Insider, and industry publications.