"Ritu Verma is the co-founder and Managing Partner at Ankur Capital – an early stage venture capital firm that invests in disruptive digital and science led technologies. She is passionate about supporting breakthrough ideas that can solve challenging problems and create a better world. She has sat on the sides of many category creating companies as they establish roots and scale across the globe over the past 10 years. Ritu sits on the board/board observer positions at multiple of Ankur’s portfolio – Cropin, Niramai, StringBio, Vegrow, Krishify, Piatrika, OffGrid, IBISA, Superfone and BigHaat. Prior to starting Ankur Capital, Ritu ran Truven an advisory firm for venture funds looking at investments in India and SE Asia. One of the funds she worked with was BASF corporate venture fund, which focused on investments in renewable energy, agri-biotech and materials. She has also brought products from lab to market across the globe as parts of innovation teams in Unilever and Philips working across roles from product development to marketing strategy. She holds 7 patents and has authored and contributed to seven peer reviewed research publications in prestigious journals. Ritu is a director and a member of the steering committee at ThinkAg a non-profit platform for scaling ag-tech innovations in India. She is a member of the Global Development Committee for American Society of Mechanical Engineers that focuses on hardware innovations globally. She is also a member of the Core Advisory Committee for the Centre of Excellence in Agri Innovation at C-CAMP and IKP Advisory Group for our Agri and Sustainability. She has also been part of government led initiatives to drive agricultural growth and sustainability. She holds an MBA from INSEAD and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Pennsylvania and has bachelors from Middlebury College, Vermont."