On Friday (January 23rd), crowdfunding platform Watsi announced that Premal Shah, part of the PayPal Mafia and President of Kiva, has joined its board of directors.
Watsi is a platform that connects patients in developing countries with donors who directly fund their treatment, is one of the fastest growing non-profit startups in history, having recently hit $3M raised and 3,000 patients supported on its platform.
The platform stated, “We’re excited to announce that Premal Shah, president of Kiva, has joined our board! We can’t imagine a better person to support Watsi than Premal. He epitomizes the intersection of technology and impact — having been with PayPal in its early days and later leading Kiva to becoming the world’s largest crowdfunding platform for social good. We’ve looked up to Premal and been the beneficiaries of his good advice for a long time, and we’re humbled to have him officially join our team.”
Joining Watsi’s board is the latest step in Shah’s atypical path as a member of the PayPal Mafia. After six early years at PayPal, while other members poured their power into for-profit startups, Shah joined Kiva and helped it become the world’s largest crowdfunding platform for social good.
Other members of the PayPal Mafia have sometimes drawn criticism, most recently from the New York Times for empowering “another generation of (mostly) young white men” in Silicon Valley. But Shah is setting a new precedent, first with Kiva and now with Watsi, by throwing his weight behind startups with missions that empower underserved global masses.
Watsi’s Chase Adam stated, “We’re thrilled to have Premal on our board. He and Kiva epitomize the intersection of technology and impact, and we’ve been inspired by them from the beginning. We’re humbled to have his support.”
Today, Shah will join fellow Watsi board members, Paul Graham (founder of Y Combinator) and Christy Chin (Managing Director of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation), at Watsi’s first board meeting of 2015.