Investing with Purpose: Driving Impact Through Tech | Rama Chakaki (Part One)

Laila is delighted to welcome Rama Chakaki to the Knowledge Mindfulness Porch podcast. Rama is a Syrian American impact tech entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist who is making waves in Silicon Valley and beyond. As a partner in Transform VC, she is part of an effort to invest in deep tech startups that can positively impact the lives of a billion people while also generating billions in revenue. Outside her impressive investment portfolio, Rama runs an EdTech nonprofit supporting youth education, mentorship, and opportunity creation across the Middle East and globally. Through innovative programs focused on access, empowerment, and real-world skills, she is working to lift up future generations. With such diverse experience spanning both profit and purpose, Rama serves as a role model for women entrepreneurs and leaders around the world. Her drive to scale positive change demonstrates the immense good that can come from marrying business savvy with social impact. On this special episode, Laila will be speaking with Rama about her remarkable journey, the lessons she has learned, and her visions for driving change in the future—whether through backing world-changing startups or empowering students to change their own worlds. It promises to be an inspiring conversation with a leader on the cutting edge of impact.TIME STAMPS01:24 The Journey of Inspiration03:47 Making Impact and Making Money09:16 The Need for Transformation in Education13:15 The distraction of technology14:41 The Impact of Technology and Relationships in Business16:09 Challenging the Mindset of Prioritizing Money over ImpactAbout Rama Chakaki: Rama’s passion is at the intersection of impact and tech investing. She is a technology professional, with 30 years of experience in media, telecom, edtech, fintech and AI.Rama is a partner at Transform VC, a firm on a mission to unlock the potential of our community’s tech entrepreneurs to make a billion and impact a billion. Rama took on a COO role at aiXplain, an AI startup on a mission to deeply democratize AI. aiXplain is co-founded and funded by Transform VC.Rama co-founded VIP.fund, a non-profit incubating technology to empower 2500+ marginalized youth. Run by the beneficiaries and volunteer community who build technologies to crowdfund for higher education, enable a digital support community and employment opportunities in tech.Rama founded Baraka Ventures, the first impact tech incubator in the Arab world, seeded startups and worked on projects supporting the Qatar 2022 World Cup Bid as a Social Impact Strategy Advisor, the World Bank Group as a Communications Advisor to UAE Ministry of Labor and Kuwait Ministry of Finance, Etisalat UAE as an advisor for a youth market product strategy, and built BarakaBits, the first digital content platform focused on good news from the Middle East.As the COO of Eastnets, a global provider of compliance and payments solutions for the Financial Services industry Rama led two investment rounds and scaled the business from 22 to 200 employees. In her late 20’s, Rama along with 5 colleagues in WDC raised $60m in funding to build 11 data centers worldwide.Rama holds a bachelors and masters of science in computer engineering and engineering management from George Washington University and continued education in scaling impact from Stanford. Rama was featured in Forbes Arabia, Arab Women Rising, The Power of Presence, and other publications. Rama is a 2017 TedxBeaconStreet speaker.