Saumya
Co-founder & Chief Program Officer @Kheyti
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WORK HISTORY
Co-founder & Chief Program Officer @Kheyti
Hyderabad, IN
Kheyti designs and deploys affordable greenhouse systems for small and marginal farmers in India, helping them grow high-value crops year-round while protecting against climate volatility. Our end-to-end model combines hardware, agronomic support, input linkage and market intelligence.Since 2024, I have been leading Kheyti\'s government partnerships and policy strategy- Scaled government-funded greenhouse deployments across 6 Indian states, working with state horticulture departments, rural development departments, SERP, NABARD, and district administrations. Got dedicated budget allocation of $3M+ to go towards small farmer-focused greenhouses- Leading national policy advocacy to include low-cost, small-scale protected cultivation as a recognized category under the MIDH scheme (Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture)Prior to this, I did everything an early-stage founder does - building the company from a single greenhouse to thousands of farming families with a 150+ person organization operating across multiple states- Built and managed teams across agronomy, partnerships, product development and operations- Initiated Kheyti\'s multi-state expansion strategy, taking us from a single geography to 6+ states- Built Kheyti\'s sales and service delivery processes from scratch — the operational backbone that now serves thousands of farmers- Led farmer behavior change efforts designing the training, support, and trust-building needed to help first-time greenhouse farmers succeed- Sourced our first greenhouse manufacturer after spending 3 months in Israel understanding protected cultivation systemsRecognition- Semi-finalist, Lipman Family Prize (2026)- Winner of the £1M EarthShot Prize (2022) for Protect and Restore Nature Category- Forbes 30 Under 30 (2018)- Ashoka Emerging Innovator (2016)- Winner, MassChallenge Israel (2017), GSVC UC Berkeley (2017)- Winner of the Kellogg Social Entrepreneurship Award
EDUCATION
St. Stephen's College, Delhi
B.Sc., Physics
Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management
Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.), Marketing
SKILLS
ABOUT SAUMYA
I started Kheyti to solve a problem that affects 100 million small farming families in India: they have no affordable way to protect their crops from climate shocks.Over the past 10 years, we\'ve developed a low-cost greenhouse system that costs a fraction of conventional models and helps small farmers double their income while using 90% less water. We\'ve partnered with state governments across India — Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Rajasthan — to fund these greenhouses through public schemes, making them accessible to the farmers who need them most.Today, I focus on three areas: scaling our government partnerships to reach more states, advocating for national policy change so that small-scale protected cultivation gets the recognition and budget it deserves, and building the team and systems that can take Kheyti from thousands of farmers to a million.Before Kheyti, I worked in investment banking at Nomura, pivoted to the livelihoods space through B-ABLE (Basix) and then co-founded YellowLeaf Solutions, a social enterprise connecting undereducated youth to livelihoods abroad. I studied Physics at St. Stephen\'s College, Delhi and earned my MBA from Kellogg, where Kheyti started as a part-time project and grew into my life\'s work.If you\'re working on climate adaptation, agricultural policy, or livelihoods at scale in India, I\'d love to connect.
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