Rishi Mehta

Rishi Mehta (He/Him)

Capital Initiatives Analyst

Rishi Mehta serves as the Capital Initiatives Analyst on the Capital, Innovation, & Global Initiatives team at ReFED, where he helps grow ReFED’s programs targeted at influencing and mobilizing investment into the food waste sector. In his role, he helps maintain the team’s data and insight offerings (e.g.: Food Waste Capital Tracker, Solution Provider Directory, Solution Fact Sheets, and Federal Grants Database), develop programming for the Food Waste Funder Circle, and prepare content for the Capital & Innovation Market Update. Prior to joining ReFED, Rishi had worked in the impact investing space for four years at the Palladium Group, JPMorgan, and Total Impact Capital.

Rishi started his career at JPMorgan, where he helped set up its Development Finance Institution, which applies "Development Impact Assessments" to investment banking transactions in emerging markets as a means of mobilizing capital to projects aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. At the Palladium Group, he supported transaction advisory and investment strategy design for clients in the climate, energy, and financial services sectors. It was there that he first gained exposure to the food waste sector as he worked on an evaluation of an agriculture investment fund based in sub-Saharan Africa. Following this, he wanted to dive deeper into the space, sparking a move to ReFED.

Rishi is based in New York City and received his Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs from the George Washington University.