Manoj Kumar

Manoj is the founder of Social Alpha, a multi-stage innovation curation and venture development platform that backs science and technology innovations addressing some of the world’s most pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges. After more than two decades as a corporate leader, entrepreneur, and early-stage investor across global markets, Manoj transitioned to philanthropy with a conviction that breakthrough innovations must be harnessed to solve complex development problems. This belief led to the creation of Social Alpha in 2016 as an operating philanthropy. Since then, Social Alpha has supported over 400 innovations and unlocked more than US$350 million in philanthropic and public capital. Its pioneering “full-stack architecture” integrates the R&D ecosystem with communities and markets, showing how impactful solutions can be developed, de-risked, deployed and scaled by aligning the incentives of society, the market, and the state. Beyond Social Alpha, Manoj serves on the boards of several companies, non-profits, and research institutions. He remains deeply passionate about bridging the gap between science and society, and continues to champion innovation and entrepreneurship as powerful tools to address market failures and create lasting impact.

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