NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Eva Yazhari, General Partner of Beyond Capital Ventures, is a visionary investor, author, and entrepreneur who leads with meaning, purpose, and consciousness in each of her endeavors. Her background in venture capital and asset management includes working on a founding team that raised and invested more than $5 billion into Wall Street’s top hedge funds. She combined this financial acumen with her passion for contributing beyond herself to launch Beyond Capital, an emerging markets impact venture capital firm, in 2009. Led by conscious leaders, Beyond Capital offers a diversified portfolio of Seed & Series A companies in “need-to-have” sectors, such as healthcare, financial inclusion, agriculture.

Born in New York City to working artist parents, with family ties in Kenya and Tanzania, Eva now splits her time between Dallas, Los Angeles, and London. Entrepreneurship is in her DNA, allowing Eva to successfully partner with early-stage social entrepreneurs to help guide their vision and reach their goals. Eva has built Beyond Capital to be a recognized global brand. Its portfolio improves the lives of a growing 16 million low-income individuals, including investments in Kasha, a technology-driven e-commerce women’s health company in East Africa; and Frontier Markets, a fast-growing distribution business providing goods and services for consumers living throughout rural India. Both companies are targeting addressable markets numbering billions of consumers and are uniquely poised for commercial financial returns as well as social returns. When it comes to impact measurement, Beyond Capital partners with pioneering firm Proof of Impact to independently verify and track the growth of outcome-linked metrics.

Eva serves on the corporate board of Frontier Markets and Viebeg Medical and an observer seat at Karma Healthcare and Redwing Labs. She also serves on the Athena Leadership Council at her alma mater Barnard College, as well as the Young Presidents’ Organization Personal Investing Network Executive Committee, where she co-leads the YPO Impact Investing Initiative.

In 2021, Eva released her first book, The Good Your Money Can Do, a powerful playbook for anyone who is looking to draw more meaning from their money. Eva has interviewed more than 68 purpose-driven leaders to shed light on their professional and personal stories for The Beyond Capital Podcast. She has also explored the various angles of conscious money and living on The Conscious Investor, a weekly online magazine. Her work has been recognized by Cheddar, Entrepreneur, Forbes, goop, Impact Alpha, SOCAP, Thrive Global, Toniic, and Ventureburn.