
Mridvika Raisinghani is the founder and CEO of Sama, a startup offering an AI tool designed to analyze patterns and create interventions to retain female employees and help organizations become equitable workplaces.
In 2011, Raisinghani quit her job at Ernst & Young in New York and returned to India without a clear plan. After working with clients in the secondary mortgage industry, she made a significant career shift. She realized early on that her opportunities were due to the "ovarian lottery," being born into a supportive family that valued her education and ambitions. This realization fueled her desire to provide access to quality education. Her mother, who worked with the World Bank on the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in Rajasthan, influenced her deeply. During vacations, Raisinghani observed the grassroots efforts of organizations like UNICEF and the World Bank.
To understand the educational ecosystem better, Raisinghani joined Teach for India as its first fundraising hire. Over five and a half years, she gained substantial experience in philanthropic fundraising. With the rise of the startup ecosystem, she explored how startups could secure funding from venture capitalists, private equity, and angel investors. At edtech company MindSeek, she assisted with managing their Series A fundraising and capital deployment. Later, at HR tech company Shortlist, she led the advisory business line.
By May 2022, after 18 years in purpose-driven organizations, Raisinghani took a three-month sabbatical to determine her next direction. During this time, she joined the Antler programme, which supports aspiring entrepreneurs, and ran a podcast called Just an Ordinary Mom, featuring conversations with working mothers. After interviewing 25 women, she became aware of the declining participation of women in the workforce. A report by the Centre for Monitoring of Indian Economy revealed that from January to April 2023, female labor force participation was only about 9%, compared to 66.4% for men. This discrepancy prompted her to question where the remaining 91% of women were, as her own experience suggested that many educated urban women were working. She noted the lack of data to understand this issue fully.
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